In a series of posts, we shall trace and examine the increasing role and impact of ICTs in the area of disaster management.

Nobel Laureate R.K. Pachauri, while addressing the 5^th convocation of the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT) in January 2009, highlighted the need for ICTs in dealing with natural disasters and other weather-related events that pose a threat to human life and property.

[…] Climate science has advanced at a phenomenal rate largely because powerful computers can now run very complex models that simulate climatic conditions on land as well as the oceans. Our assessment of future changes in the climate as a result both of natural as well as human factors is dependent largely on the power of models that are being used today and our ability to assess the impacts of climate change in different parts of the world. In response to future projections of these events, governments, civil society and even business organizations can take effective measures to adapt to changes that would occur.

Citing an example from 2003, Dr. Pachauri said:

“I would like to give the example of a major heat wave that took place in parts of Andhra Pradesh in 2003, as a result of which almost 4000 people lost their lives according to official records. […]

“When studying this major problem, it became apparent that ICT infrastructure could have saved perhaps all the lives that were lost if it had been put in place properly and utilized effectively. There was, for instance, no early warning provided to the victims of the heat wave. Nor was there any follow up in terms of providing medical advice to those who suffered from heat stress, such as the need for oral rehydration therapy and simple healthcare for those who were affected. Even television channels could have been used to spread proper awareness and information to protect the lives of those who were affected were not used.

“There are several examples of coastal disasters where people affected can be warned on a timely basis and evacuated before the disaster itself takes place. When a hurricane hits the coast of Florida, the infrastructure available is used to provide adequate warning and notice to those likely to be affected, and entire townships are evacuated. When a cyclone of even lower intensity hits the coasts of Bangladesh or Orissa, major damage takes place, because not only is there lack of shelters and infrastructure to house those who are affected, but there are inadequate systems for early warning and guidance.

“Today even mobile telephones could be used as an effective medium to provide early warning and thus save lives and property”.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking at the Telecom World 2009 in Geneva, also highlighted the role of ICTs in addressing key issues, including natural disaster reduction.

“Through good climate science and information sharing, ICTs can help reduce the risk and impact of natural disasters… when an earthquake hits, a coordinated ICT system can monitor developments, send out emergency messages and help people to cope.”

The UN Secretary-General’s statement echoes the paradigm shift in Disaster Management mentioned in the 2005 presentation by Sujit Mohanty, namely:

• From relief and recovery to Risk & Vulnerability management
• Introducing culture of preparedness at all levels
• Strengthen decentralized response capacity in the country
• Empowerment of vulnerable groups and ensuring livelihoods
• Learning from past disasters.

In the aftermaths of large-scale natural calamities such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the world was forced to wake up to the need for coordinated and collaborative harnessing of the power of ICT systems in managing natural disasters.

Paul Currion in humanitarian.info stated that:

“In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, there has been an astonishing amount of activity in web-based initiatives responding to the consequences of the disaster. Examining the characteristics of the response of the technology community to Hurricane Katrina tells us much about the way the web has shaped social responses to disaster, raises some interesting issues about the impact of ICT in disaster response, and points towards what might happen in future.[…]

“It was clear following the Indian Ocean tsunami that the information revolution was in the process of changing the way in which we respond to disasters. This was demonstrated by the rise of web-based fund-raising; Christian Aid raised over $700,000 online in nine days, amounting to nearly four times as much as it raised through donations over the phone. The spread of broadband, improvements in satellite telecommunications and the availability of imagery has made possible GIS and cartographic projects that would not have been possible five years ago. The rise of the open source movement has led to initiatives such as the Sahana project, an attempt to develop a suite of web-enabled applications for disaster response organisations.

Currion goes on to talk about the “first responders of the wired world”, netizens who spring to action to fill in information gaps that the governments of the respective countries and even the traditional media often struggle to fill. However, given the high influx of information post-Katrina, it was soon apparent that multiple data streams would be more effective if they were collated, consolidated and served from a more centralized platform. Thus we saw initiatives such as the Katrina PeopleFinder Project and the Katrina Help Wiki come into play.

In this context, it would not be unfair to say that the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami (SEA-EAT) blog, set up during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, was a trendsetter of sorts–the first project of its kind that demonstrated the power of engaging ordinary people effectively to channel information in order to bridge the gap between those who needed help and those who had help to offer. According to Dina Mehta, one of the key people behind the SEA-EAT blog,

“I think what we managed to do was demonstrate perhaps the largest ‘people's' coordinated effort on the web during disasters, that it was possible and that too without any formal organizational structure. There’s also something in the ability for these efforts to bring in ordinary citizens from all walks of life - people who aren’t necessarily dedicated or working in this space - most of us have different professions and regular jobs too - but just a human need to help.”

While the SEA-EAT blog focused on “keeping the information flowing”, the Sahana FOSS Disaster Management System in Sri Lanka functioned as a more structured, holistic system that helped manage the large scale of the disaster of 2004. The project was deployed by the Sri Lankan government's Center of National Operations (CNO) which included the Center of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA). Generalized later for global use, Sahana has now grown to become a globally recognized project with deployments in many other disasters such as the South Asian earthquake in Pakistan (2005), Southern Leyte Mudslide Disaster in Phillipines (2006), the Jogjarkata Earthquake in Indonesia (2006), the Peru Earthquake (2007), the Myanmar Cyclone (2008), etc.

In 2005, Michael Gurstein of the New Jersey Institute of Technology wrote his reflections on the web-based initiatives and what he perceived as the need gaps in these situations:

“Scanning the Net for information and for stories I was struck by a couple of things concerning the role (and lack of role) of the Net in these events. The Net appeared to be playing a very significant part in responding to the needs of those at a distance–the on-lookers for information, stories, ways of contributing and so on; families and friends of those possibly impacted with attempts at creating listings of the found and the lost and for those on the ground to manage the concerns and queries of those farther away; and one expects that behind the scenes much of the co-ordination and planning that is being done by aid organizations is being done in ways that are pushing the boundaries of Computer Mediated Communication and managing at a distance.

“But I guess I'm a bit surprised that the Net wasn't able (yet?) to bridge the information divides between those who had some idea about what might be coming (the scientists and those immediately impacted) and those who might have been able to make some use of that information in the places where the impact took appreciable time to be realized.

“The problem here was not, I think a “the Digital Divide” that is, it wasn’t because of a lack of “access” to information, although apparently that too was a problem overall; rather, it seemed to me to be another example of what I've referred to elsewhere as the gap between “access” and “effective use”…From what I can gather many if not most of the communities impacted had Internet “access” in one form or another. What they (and here I would include those with the knowledge who couldn't use it as well as those without knowledge) lacked rather, was the social infrastructure which could have turned Internet access into an “effectively usable” early warning system.

“Some had the information—the scientists who detected the earthquake and could understand how that could result in a Tsunami and those who felt the early impact either of the earthquake or the Tsunami—but couldn't use it. Others needed the information—the coastal villages around the Indian Ocean—but couldn't or weren’t able to “get it” at least in a timely and usable form. The “degrees of separation” imposed by nationality, language and perhaps most important, domains of knowledge and profession (and the related lack of social linkages, network based trust relationships, communication pathways and so on) impeded the communication between the two groups and one wonders whether this was simply a matter of it still being early days in our Internetted world or something more profound and permanent. (Michael Gurstein, The Journal of Community Informatics, (2005) Vol. 1, Issue 2, pp. 14-17)”

Observing the loss of lives in typhoon Ketsana that hit Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia in October 2009, Paul Conneally posted the following on his blog Head Down, Eyes Open:

“In many poverty stricken areas there is no access to TV or radio (or Internet for that matter) to help communicate warning messages. Aid agencies must work with communities to find out which methods of communication work for them at the time of an emergency and run simulation exercises to put this into practice. Often mobile phone text messages or even sending people out into the streets with megaphones, as was the case in these emergencies, prove to be most successful.

“[…]Early warning, early action in high disaster risk countries needs to be seen as a mindset, not a mechanism or technology, and works best when it spans timescales, anticipating disaster by days, hours, months, years and even decades. It must also be firmly linked to early action by decision-makers, and must cover ‘the last mile' -linking early warning mechanisms not just to the most ‘at risk' communities, but to the most vulnerable people within those communities.

“Strengthening community capacity to prevent and/or cope with the impact of disasters and crises is a concrete way to save lives and better protect livelihoods, and prevent such shocks from crippling development within the poorest countries. Early warning and early action is also more cost effective than traditional disaster response and saves more lives per pound spent: public money buys four times as much humanitarian ‘impact' if spent on preparation and risk reduction, rather than on relief items.”

In India, the 2004 tsunami was a clarion call for the government, NGOs and the civil society to effect a paradigm shift and realise that preparedness was the key to minimising the impact of natural disasters.

To enable better planning and preparedness, the India Disaster Resource Network [idrn.gov.in] was set up as a National initiative under the Govt. of India-UNDP DRM programme in collaboration with National Informatics Center, Government of India. The task of this Network was to create an online database for capturing the countrywide inventory of equipment and skilled human resources available for emergency response. The role of this ambitious, yet comprehensive database would be to help minimize emergency response time through effective decision-making on mobilization of human & material resources. The project was to ensure systematic data collection & collation from government line departments, public sector units, the corporate sector, etc at the district level. Other initiatives launched were:

• The Disaster Inventory Database (implemented in Orissa) that would allow vulnerability analysis through longitudinal study of geo-referenced inventories of local level data of past disasters (small, medium and large-scale).
• Community Contingency plans based on GIS technology that enable the visual presentation of critical data by location that can be used for coordination and implementation of relief efforts
• Development of communications infrastructure to ensure 100% coverage of disaster prone areas through satellite and ISDN linkages
• Community based ICT systems and
• Disaster/ incident surveillance system that will allow for quick, smooth, seamless data capturing and disseminating facilities.

Here is an example of implementation of this strategy/philosophy of preparedness by an NGO in Tamil Nadu following the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004:

In the next post in the series, we shall explore disaster warning systems and the various ICT-based tools and applications that have been, are being, and can be put to use as an early warning system to help reduce and or mitigate the severe damage to life and property in the wake of natural disasters across the globe.

Over the past decade, we intensified our efforts to build a “society for all ages” and to promote international commitment to the United Nations Principles for Older Persons. The Principles are founded on the need to build an inclusive society that emphasizes participation, self-fulfilment, independence, care and dignity for all. To transform them into deeds, we have campaigned for policies that will enable older persons to live in an environment that enhances their capabilities, fosters their independence, and provides them with adequate support and care as they age.

The motto “towards a society for all ages” was adopted in 1999 and reaffirmed at the Second World Assembly on Ageing, held in Madrid in 2002. It emphasizes the need to treat older persons as both agents and beneficiaries of development. […]

The international community is also devoting increasing attention to the human rights of older persons. We must put an end to age discrimination, abuse, neglect and violence against older persons. I urge states to put the necessary legal protections in place, and I urge all partners to help countries develop the capacity and institutions to achieve this objective.

For us in India, this seems like a perfect time to stop and take stock of the role played by ICTs in the lives of our senior citizens.

According to the Norwegian Board of Technology [pdf],

Information and communication technology (ICT) characterises today’s society. Side by side with technological development we will within the next few years be faced with a greatly increasing number of elderly people. What are the concrete challenges connected with elderly people and information and communication technology? How can positive possibilities be exploited and negative effects avoided?

With a rise in life expectancy, India has today joined the ranks of countries where demographic ageing has become an important issue. At the time of the 2001 census, there were 77mn people in the 60+yrs category, which was about 7.5% of the total population. The 2008 estimate is around 86mn. India today has the 2nd largest population of senior citizens. According to the UN, by 2050 about 20% of India's population is likely to be over 60yrs.

With the rapid growth of the elderly segment, the key question facing policy-makers (and the society in general) is how to ensure an active, healthy, independent, life of dignity for the elderly and help improve their quality of life. Recognizing the need for a national policy in this area, the Indian Government launched the National Policy on Older Persons in 1999, which sought to address principal areas of concern such as financial security, healthcare, shelter, education, welfare, protection of life and property etc., and promote the concept of active ageing among the older population. The policy also acknowledges the role of NGOs and civil society in complementing the efforts of the government in this direction.

In their paper ‘Technology Interventions for Elderly People‘ [pdf], authors VC Goyal and Usha Dixit mention that

The use of technology to support independent living and promote independence of older persons is mentioned in recent Government policy documents (e.g. National Policy on Older Persons). There are other Government (and some non-government) initiatives which, although not specifically targeted at technological interventions for older persons, could contribute towards supporting comfortable and dignified living for this section of the society. There exists a vast scope of technology interventions for welfare of elderly people in the country so that the technologies are accessible, affordable and adaptable to the specific needs. Technological interventions can greatly help in achieving the objectives of the NPOP by providing vital inputs and capabilities.

So where are we currently as far as ICT for senior citizens/ older persons is concerned?

One of the main concerns cited often as a point against ICT has been the perception of inertia and/or technophobia among the elderly. Andy Oram at O'Reilly Radar, while commenting on a point from Nandan Nilekani's book  - Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation, that “technophobia should not be assumed“, says that:

A lot of technologists glibly anticipate that computers and Internet access will be rejected by some group of people who are implicitly labeled ignorant or clueless: racial minorities, poor people, the elderly (”how can you get my grandmother to use this?”), etc. In every case, the key to adoption turns out to be access and sometimes the availability of useful applications. When presented with the opportunity, these populations always prove eager to take advantage…The problem is not the people, but other factors such as availability, cost, and usefulness.

Lesley D. Biswas at The WIP writes about how in a lot of cases, the ‘Silver Surfers' are embracing the Internet to cope with a lonely future. She says:

For seniors who have been culturally conditioned to believe that their children will be at their sides in their winter years, living alone has come as a rude awakening. Loneliness itself is largely disorienting, and the absence of family members at this critical time makes it all the more profound. Now that the ideal of the Indian family structure is becoming more and more passé, seniors are finding new ways to stay connected with their children.

But, unlike in developed nations, it’s a late start for many seniors in India. Since they did not grow up with iPods and cell phones in their back pockets, and neither were they exposed to computers at work, integrating seniors into the virtual world is initially a challenge. But more often than not, once they get over their inhibition, exploring the new world at their fingertips is becoming a fascinating experience that many seniors are slowly enjoying. With children settled abroad or in other cities, a large number of senior citizens are now seeking out tutors and training schools where they can learn to use a computer.

It is therefore, no surprise that one of the key areas where currently ICT has made inroads into the lives of senior citizens is

Helping them cope with loneliness/battling exclusion:- Land-lines/Mobile telephony, messaging, E-mails and chat are some of the ICT applications that senior citizens are warming up/ have warmed up to in order to remain connected. Of late, social networking among elderly has also become a possibility with the launch of Verdurez - A social networking site, designed for the elderly.

The site, described as the “Facebook for those 55yrs and above”, caters to the needs of senior citizens to battle loneliness, connect, network, get news and information pertaining to health etc., play games/ work on puzzles, and share life online with a group of like-minded people in their age bracket. The site has over 4000 registered users.

Seema at WATBlog.com is however, a bit cautious in her appreciation of the idea:

Social networking site for senior citizen sounds good concept, but i’m more concerned about the how many Indians of this age use computers and Internet and for how long they will use networking sites. Promoters should promote it well and associate some NGOs and oldage homes with them. We need our elder generation to enjoy the advantages of getting connected with like-minded people online through such social networking sites and don’t feel alone.

Her concern appears to be justified. For, according to Mrutyunjay Mishra of juxtconsult.com , senior citizens

…account for only 0.8% of the internet users in India, hence in our estimate around 0.32 million regular internet users are Senior Citizens (of 38miilion total regular internet users).

Nevertheless, despite the low reach through Internet, we have many other Web-based initiatives designed for the elderly, such as:

Providing them a feeling of safety: For example, a security portal Hamari Suraksha has been launched by the Mumbai police to register senior citizens and ensure their safety in the face of rising crimes against them.

Education and Healthcare: We are gradually becoming more familiar with initiatives(and the need for more integrated/better delivery of these kinds of initiatives) for the elderly in the areas of training &/or e-learning, e-health etc.

Senior citizens, especially those in the urban, up-market cluster, are themselves are getting gradually drawn into the E-culture. Thus we see that today many senior citizens are using the Internet to do their banking, paying utility bills, booking e-tickets etc., which gives them the flexibility of not having to leave the confines of their home yet do things on their own without having to to depend on others to do these tasks for them.

While in the case of the Internet, penetration, connectivity and accessibility are limiting factors, the mobile telephony market is much more broad-based. According to Rajesh Jain of Emergic,

India is now growing at about 10 million new mobile users every month, and that pace of growth will continue. We will probably be close to 450 million subscribers by end of 2009

Mobile based ICT initiatives thus hold the promise of greater reach in the current scenario. Helplines, SMS based services etc., (for ex: the The Chandigarh based NGO DadaDadi is using short messaging service (SMS), telephonic helpline and other technologies (web-based) in an effort to ensure the safety of elderly people living alone in the city) are increasingly being used to help the elderly stay connected with convenience. In The India Post, Jorawer Singh writes about the 24X7 helpline launched in Chandigarh on October 1:

On the International day for the Elderly or the Senior Citizens’ Day as we call it, the Older Adults of the tricity gets a much awaited 24 X 7 helpline. The helpline number is 9888 9888 47. The helpline, to be monitored by a local NGO DadaDadi.org, will provide information and assistance related to varied needs of the senior citizens, from sending electricians, plumbers to legal aid and support in fighting for their cause.

The possibilities are many and India is only just waking up to the potential of harnessing the power of the ICTs to empower it's senior citizens to lead a fuller, active and independent life with dignity. However, in doing so, we need to take care of various challenges such as accessibility, design elements, human factors etc.

For example, mobile phones often have complicated navigation steps and  and the interface is not suitable for use by the elderly. (Though, on the other hand, a mobile designed and marketed specifically for the older persons may not be exciting to the target consumer). Also, in our enthusiasm to provide gerontechnology solutions, we should not dehumanize the process to the extent that the older persons feel more isolated and disengaged.

Furthermore, we should keep in mind that the elderly are not a homogeneous group and therefore one solution will not work for all. Thus there are specific challenges to be overcome in trying to integrate various sub-categories of older persons (ex: the need for ‘last mile solutions - to reach the distant potential users of ICT'  to integrate the ‘below poverty line” and/or rural elderly.

Furthermore, as Rozina Parmar points out in her paper “ICT for elderly” [pdf]

Clearly we need a new model of innovation in ICT for ageing, one which is needs oriented and puts users at the center of the ICT systems. New aspects are needed across all aspects of older people's lives, whether in private sphere, public sphere or at work.

Ten years have passed since the National Policy of Older Persons was launched and according to a Seniors World Chronicle report, Mr. Mathew Cherian, Chief Executive, HelpAge India, has opined that the implementation has been very poor. On his part, Mr. Wasnik, Head of the National Council for Older Persons, has admitted that the task ahead is massive but that a lot can be achieved with the involvement of civil society.

Defeated in battle, the gods combined their divine energies and created Shakti (the primordial, cosmic, feminine energy), a goddess with varied manifestations, one of which was Durga. Armed with weapons given to her by the gods, Durga rode off into battle, mounted on a lion. A long and fierce battle ensued in which the demon Mahisasura was finally slain. The Goddess Durga is therefore celebrated as “Mahisasura-mardini” (the slayer of Mahisasura). She is the Mother Goddess, the supreme power that vanquishes all evil forces.

Goddess Durga slays Mahisasura. Photo by Aparna Ray

Initially, this Hindu festival in India was celebrated in the spring. However, today, the autumnal celebrations far outweigh the original puja of the Devi. The autumnal celebration, according to the epic “Ramayana“, started when Ram paid obeisance to the Goddess before he went into battle with the demon king Ravana to rescue his wife Sita, who had been abducted by Ravana. Since this was an untimely invocation of the Goddess, the Durga Puja conducted by Ram is also termed as “akalbodhan” (out of turn/ untimely worship).

Following the example of Ram, the Durga Puja currently is held for anywhere between 5 days (Durga Puja)-10 days (Navaratri - where 9 forms of Shakti are venerated) across different states in India.

While the basic tale behind the Durga Puja remains the same, the Bengalis have a slightly more personalized approach to the Pujas (or ‘Pujo' as it is pronounced in Bengali). It is believed that Durga is the daughter of Bengal and during these 5 days she visits her parental home along with her 4 children (Ganesh, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartikeya) and 2 close friends. Interestingly, her husband Shiva does not usually accompany her on this trip. He stays behind, letting his wife and children visit Earth and enjoy all the pampering from their Bengali relatives.

Durga puja idol at a South Kolkata pandal. Photo by Aparna Ray

Kolkata Musing tells us why he feels that the city's Durga Puja has earned the right to be labelled ‘unique'.

What is unique to Kolkata’s Durga Puja is the quest for creativity, the insatiable urge to create something new. And it is for this reason that I will always feel that Kolkata’s Durga Puja can perhaps never be paralleled.

The creativity is amply evident, year after year in the Puja motifs - ‘themes' reflected in the pandal design and decoration of the Durga protima (Durga idol). There are also numerous awards given away each year to innovative, creative, environment-friendly (a relatively new entrant in the evaluation parameters) pujas that also take crowd safety into account.

Saurabh Dhanuka writes on his blog:

[…]the Durga Puja is an essence of all the passions of a Bengali, his culture, love, emotions, warmth of being together, the ultimate joy of celebration. They feel great pleasure in competing with each other on pandal making.

Here are a few themes from this year's Pujo.

The Nepal theme - Appreciated by the Nepal Tourism Board and the consulate-general of Nepal, this puja in South Kolkata reflected Nepali art and architecture in all its glory, from the pandal, a replica of the Yakshewar Mahadev Temple in Bhaktapur, to the Durga idol  inspired by the four-headed Nepalese deity Taleju Bhavani.

Durga idol inspired by the Nepalese deity Taleju Bhawani. Originally uploaded by Anil m, used under Creative Commons Licence

Egyptian theme at a South Kolkata pandal. Photo by Aparna Ray

Pandal decoration - Egyptian theme. Photo by Aparna Ray

Environment/climate change as puja theme - It was heartening to see that this year many puja organizers focused on environmental and climate change issues in their puja themes.  Innovative and creative art forms explored these issues, aiming to make the visitors more aware about the environment. An example:

A board outside a puja pandal explains issues such as global warming and the need for recycling resources

And inside, hand-painted paper packets replace traditional decoration materials, to drive home their point.

Painting on paper packets. Photo by Aparna Ray

And there were many, many more, strewn across the city and also across the state.

Apart from the pandals and idols, there were the decorative lights that gave the city its glitter by night. Thousands of people poured out of their homes to celebrate the days and nights with food, drinks and  ‘pandal-hopping' (visiting one puja after another).

Decorative lights at a puja pandal gate. Photo by Aparna Ray

And of course, many of the lights also carried a message, be it social or environmental in nature.

Save Life on Earth - plant a tree. Photo by Aparna Ray

The 5 days of festivities ended with Dashami, the day of immersion. This is the day when the Goddess returns to her marital home in the Himalayas. But not before the married women give her and her family a warm send-off with gifts, sweets and lots of vermilion for a long and happy conjugal life.

Bidding her farewell until next year. Photo by Aparna Ray

This is followed by 'sindoor khela' (the vermilion ceremony) a ritual by married women where they smear sindoor (traditionally, sindoor/ vermilion on the forehead/ parting of the hair is the mark of a married Hindu woman) on each other and share sweets, fun and laughter.

Sindoor Khela. Photo by Avik@firstdays. Reproduced here with permission

Photo credit: The photo above is by Avik@firstdays.

Finally, all the idols are taken to the lakes/ rivers for immersion. The pandal is dismantled and life goes on as usual, with the Bengalis beginning their wait for the year to come. After immersion, it is time again to meet and greet friends, family, relatives and all other near and dear ones as it is Vijaya Dashami, the celebration that coincides with Dussehra, the victory of Ram over Ravana.

Not only is it celebrated across the country, Durga puja is celebrated by Bengalis world-wide. Here are some photos by our South-Asia editor Rezwan of puja celebrations in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Also, Dithi posts some  snapshots of puja celebrations in Geneva. In Zurich, Durga puja festivities brought the Bengali community together, like it has been doing for the past six years. Am sure many of you readers will know of a Durga puja that is celebrated in your part of the world. For wherever there are Bengalis, the Durga puja cannot be far behind.

You can enjoy more Durga puja 2009 photos here. For those of you readers who would like to know more about Durga Puja, this site could made for an interesting read.

Today, my electrician Barun has a dual-SIM mobile phone - he tells me that one number is for his boss and the electrical shop which sub-contracts him and the second is for his ‘personal clients' that his company does not know about. This second business is growing, he informs me with pride, and soon he will no longer have to work for the electrical shop. His family, of course, can contact him on either number.

Mobile technology and low-cost mobile telephony options have empowered service providers like Barun to offer better services and enhance the reach of their businesses. The story is similar everywhere, across the developing world. A reader's comment on Brough Turner's post Mobile phone adoption goes crazy in Pakistan reflected this reality way back in 2005:

Another contributory factor…was the introduction of Calling Party Pays regime in late 2000 early 2001. Prior to the introduction of CPP, both the calling party and the called party were charged for airtime. Since CPP, only the calling party is charged. Consequently small traders and service providers such as plumbers / TV repairmen / electricians (whose services are in high demand) bought a mobile connection and were reachable throughout the day whether they were on call or in their shop.

However, the impact of the mobile phone is no longer restricted to connectivity alone. It has grown into a tool that enables, farmers,  small traders and service providers to take information-based decisions, thereby leading to their economic empowerment.

Thus, from the fishermen in Kerala tracking market prices and negotiating best deals for selling their catch the next day, to farmers in Andhra Pradesh using the mobile phones as business helplines to gain useful business development related information, small traders everywhere have woken up to the immense potential of mobile technology in helping them better their lives. And in this they are not alone. As Martine Koopman points out on her blog ICT4D in Zambia and Ghana, the story is similar in places like Ghana, for example. On a field trip to visit some farming communities living about 6km from Salaga, she observes:

Now they have seen the advantages of phones all of them would like to have one. They not only use it for accessing market information, but all their crops (yams, maize, ground nuts, vegetables, etc) are in the system. If market traders visit the village they have a better negotiating position. They also have contact with market traders in Accra and Kumasi by phone.

Apart from imparting business/market information, the impact of the cell phones can be felt when increasing cell phone usage helps to improve distribution efficiency and reduction in search-of-information costs as well as tackling price dispersions across local markets, as was seen in this study conducted in Niger.

In all of this, the end-consumer is also a beneficiary.  We get the benefit of convenience–from the basic facility of having an on-call service provider to ordering the fresh catch of the day from the fish-monger on his mobile, right up to using the virtual marketplace on our cell phones to buy fresh produce directly from the local farmer–in addition to enjoying competitively priced goods and products and services in the long run.

“Nimai”, thundered my mother, “get yourself a mobile phone. Otherwise, next time I am calling Barun.”

Screenshot Of The Great Driving Challenge Campaign Website

On the 22nd of June, 2009, an automobile company in India, Hindustan Motors Limited,  which has a joint venture with Mitsubishi, announced a promotional/ marketing event named Mitsubishi Cedia Sports ‘The Great Driving Challenge‘. The innovative concept soon generated a buzz amongst driving aficionados, bitten by the travel bug.

Now, what's new about a driving challenge, you may ask. Don't we have enough car rallies and races already? But, as the the organizers of the event pointed out, this was neither a race nor a rally. It was a competitive event which married web-based (online) as well as on-the-road (reality) components to arrive at the final winners of the contest, and thereby positioned itself as an ‘online reality event'. The excitement around the event was built almost entirely through the use of social media, though there were events on ground too, such as the opportunity to test drive the Cedia Sports car.

Briefly the process was as follows:  on 22nd June, the contest was announced; it offered the final winning couple a prize money of 10 lakh INR (approx. USD 20,585).  After registering for the contest, the contestants had to solicit votes and testimonials from people they knew by inviting them to visit their profile on the competition website. Contestants were expected to share their past travel experiences through blog posts, photos, videos etc., to make their profiles attractive to visitors, who could also become active followers of the contestants, comment on their posts and also vote for them. The contest was also popularised on the various social networking sites.

On 18th July, 100 couples were shortlisted from the entire lot of more than 10,000 applicants, based on the number of votes they received and the quality of their profiles and posts. Some of the featured couples can be seen here.

In the next phase, a further shortlisting was done based on auditions, as well as jury evaluation of  blogs (content & style of presentation), photos, videos, past travel experiences, driving skills, photography skills, aptitude and suitability for the driving event etc. On 5th of August, three finalist couples a) Joseph & Namrata, b)Radhika & Bharat and c)Unny & Bindhu were selected for the actual driving challenge.

Each of these 3 couples were  then offered an all expense paid drive in a Mitsubishi Cedia Sports car which they had to drive across the country, covering minimum 3000km over a period of 10 days. Simultaneously they had to share their driving experiences online through blogging, photos, videos, sms feeds etc. Followers could also track their journey on the map. Check the campaign blog for some great posts with pictures and videos.

The final winning couple was selected based on distance covered, quality and number of posts, pictures, videos, scores given by jury as well as profile visitors. You can visit the winning team - Radhika and Bharat, here for some great posts and lovely photographs.

An excerpt from Radhika and Bharat's blog:

I know the whole event is called The Great Driving Challenge but it really wasn’t a challenge. We drove through Madhya Pradesh where the soya farmers were waiting for rain. We drove through Khajuraho and Varanasi where the only thing that kept us alive was the climate control air conditioner in the car. Varanasi gave us a real taste of how maneuverable the car was with its chaotic traffic and narrow roads.

Here are screen shots from Joseph-Namrata & Unny-Bindhu's Blogs:

Kanupriya at Marketing Chit-chat noted that the campaign was cost effective and highlights some key aspects:

• Content / Word of mouth: What a better way to generate online buzz than blogs and tweets these days. To add to that the whole contest is based on the quality of content.
• Effective targeting: This was a launch of a “sports” car and I think Mitsubishi did a great thing by taking a social media route as that’s where today’s young urban Indian is available.
• Online and offline synergy: This initiative definitely proved that digital campaigns are not mere extensions of traditional ones. In fact in case of The Great Driving Challenge, the initial buzz was on online medium with actual execution being on ground – a perfect marriage between new age and traditional marketing so to say.

Prominent Indian blogger Charukesi who runs a travel blog Itchy Feet was a also a participant in this contest. According to her a key hook in an event of this nature is:

…the excitement of the road trip itself - being able to go on a route of your choice and the continuous blogging - keeping your followers engaged

Marketers are waiting to see how much of the buzz created in the social media actually translates into sales, which, according to numbers quoted by team-BHP seems to be very little as of now. Their feedback:

The Great Driving Challenge was a terrifically marketed event, yet it did NOTHING to the (sales of) Cedia.

Social media enthusiasts however feel that it is too early to do the numbers as these are new tools and will take some time to sink in and make their impact felt. The windfall here perhaps is that such events will popularize blogging among a larger community and more and more people will be motivated to share their stories and engage in conversations.

What do you feel?

In India, the path of the eclipse will cover the cities of Surat, Indore, Bhopal, Varanasi and Patna.

Image courtesy NASA

There is a huge amount of excitement in the country regarding this eclipse. Though Earthquakeforcasting says that eclipses in India are generally of interest to 4 segments of people - namely astronomers, astrologers, religious people and astro-tourists, it appears that most Indians will readily fit into atleast one of the above categories.

For Hindus, an eclipse is not only an astronomical event. It is deeply intertwined with religion and cultural beliefs; there are many myths associated with the eclipse. Astronomy India Blog tries to debunk a few of them here.

The travel and hospitality industry is all set to cash in on this excitement surrounding the eclipse.  Places within the eclipse corridor have all geared up to accomodate hordes of people arriving to catch a glimpse of the event. Goodread writes that even a small village like Taregana in Bihar is abuzz with preparations since it got listed by NASA as one of the best perches from where to get a good view of the total eclipse.

And talking of eclipse chasing, tour operators are also getting innumerable requests for chartering flights to observe this event from above the clouds. In fact,  as DesPardes India points out, a special eclipse flight is indeed being organised to offer this priviledge for a price of INR 75,000 (approx. USD 1560) - cost of a window seat on this 3hour long flight from Delhi.

Religious minded Hindus will gather at places of pilgrimage such as Varanasi, Kurukshetra (Haryana) etc., to take a dip in the river. The district administration of Haryana are expecting more than 10 lakh pilgrims and are also offering insurance cover  to pilgrims to guard against any possible mishaps.

If you are one of the lucky people going to view this rare celestial event, these moments of magic on July 22nd, please remember to take adequate eye safety measures.

Happy viewing!

Eclipse map courtesy F. Espenak & J. Anderson, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center