Rural Informatics in India – An Approach Paper
1.0 Introduction
“Just as the whole universe is contained in the Self, so is India contained in the villages”… This has been said by none other than Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of our Nation and the visionary architect of India’s Rural Development Programmes. The villages epitomize the soul of India. With more than 70% of the Indian population living in rural areas, rural India reflects the very essence of Indian culture and tradition. No wonder then that a holistic development of India as a Nation rests on a sustained and holistic development of rural India. This write-up gives an overview of the Rural Development strategy adopted by Government of India and major e-governance initiatives that have been undertaken in the RD domain, in particular by NIC.
1.1 The Indian Political Administration
India with an area of 3.28 million sq. Km is the seventh largest country in the world. In population, which has already crossed the billion mark, it is next only to China. The democratic set up combined with its billion population gives the country the unique status of being the largest democracy in the world.
India is a Union of 28 States/Provinces and 7 Union Territories. Each state is further divided into districts. There are approximately 600 districts in the country. Each district is further divided into smaller administrative units called development Blocks or Talukas. There are about 6000 Blocks in the country. A block may have urban as well as rural areas. While the urban areas consist of towns, the rural areas consist of villages. There are more than 6,00,000 villages in India.
There are three levels of government : the Central Government, the state or provincial government and th ...