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Even today in some far-flung rural areas, there is an acute shortage of drinking water and the resident villagers are required to cover long distance on foot to fetch their daily household requirement of drinking water. (Refer Appendix I)

Why e-Commerce

Government, Corporate and NGOs are the main players in the arena of rural development, all of whom are trying in their own ways to provide rural growth through IT initiatives. IT can bridge the communication as well as the knowledge gap that no other existing technology without involvement of IT can do. IT literacy and working knowledge of computers today has a higher priority for rural India since it opens avenues of self sustenance. Though e-Commerce cannot wipe out all the problems in villages but it can for sure help alleviate problems like illiteracy, unemployment, lack of government schemes & healthcare facilities, lack of credit and timely information for agricultural purposes, etc.

For instance technology can help in the access to micro-credit: moneylenders' usurious 200%+ interest rates drive many into default, migration, law-breaking, and in extreme cases, even suicide. And in the process of Recognition of Property: Often the poor can borrow at much better terms if they have legally valid documents for pledging their property as collateral - land records, carts, animals, etc., and here technology can help speed up the legal process of recognizing and allotting documents detailing property ownership of the poor.

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* Contributed by: -
Shruti Rustagi,
Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.