Government Policies of Digital Divide †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: How Effective Government Policies Can Help Bridge The Digital Divide A Case Of India? Answer: Significance of the study It is significant for the students as it helps in enhancing their knowledge regarding the concept of digital divide and the efforts made by the government to bridge the digital divide in an effective manner in India. Along with this, it also provides information related to the challenges faced by the government to overcome the problem of bridging the digital divide in the country. Along with this, it is also useful for the future researchers as it helps in framing the background for their research (Mishra and Srivastava, 2016). Methodology For the purpose of collecting the relevant information related to the research topic, mixed method will be used i.e. combination of primary and secondary sources of data collection. In context to this, literature review method and interview method will be used. Interview method will be used to collect the information at first hand from the people indulged in the implementation of the initiatives related to assess the effectiveness of the government policies implemented to bridge digital divide in the country (Groat and Wang, 2013). Along with this, the sample size will be 65 respondents who are indulged in the initiatives taken by the government for reducing the digital divide. The use of literature review method helps in collecting information related to the research topic from the available literary sources such as books, scholarly articles, and online articles and authorized documents (McNabb, 2015). Along with this, multi-modal analysis method is used for gaining information rela ted to the research topic. This method facilitates in the interpretation of the language used in wide range of modes of communication and representation such as aural, gesture, gaze, visual and spatial modes of communication and relationship between them (Gifford, 2016). Research Method: Background The government has taken several initiatives for bridging the digital divide in India. The ministry of agriculture has launched Kissan call centers in the year 2004 for the purpose of providing solutions to the problems faced by farmers in an instant manner. This service is provided to farmers for 24*7. For the promotion of human rights and sustainable development a charitable organization has been opened by the government of named Life Line India in the year 2006. This organization provides a service of recording the question by the farmers through telephone for which they receive a recorded answer from the organization. This has been extended to approximately 700 villages and each day on an average 350 calls is received by the organization. In order to resolve the queries of the farmers a frequently asked questions database is created by the organization. This helps in resolving the problems in a quick manner (Venkatesh, Sykes, and Venkatraman, 2012). In addition to this, Bhoomi project is created by Karnataka government that covers approximately 66million of records of land ownership. The data bank created under this project is used in various public and private organizations. Besides this, the other initiatives taken by the government in order to bridge the digital divide in the country includes Gyandoot project, Toarahat project, CARD project, Sourkaryan and E-seva and Friends Project (Mishra and Srivastava, 2016). The Friends project is being launched by the government of Kerela. This project helps in elimination of the middleman to overcome the hardship of the citizens for making the payment of the taxes. It is a centralized collection center that accepts payments of all types of tax and utility in order to create value for the citizens of the state. This project has served approximately 13 million people in 12 districts of Kerela (Srivastava and Shainesh, 2015). Along with this, the government has also created community information centers for the purpose of rural development. The government make a use of e-mail and internet for communicating information with state and district officers. In addition to this, the government has also launched an e-chaupal project which is popular in the rural areas of India to provide information related to different crops and its prices in the market to farmers in their local languages (Hoque, Parker, Covaleski and Haynes, 2017). Significance This research study is important as it provides the information related to the reasons behind the occurrence of the digital divide in the country. It also helps in providing information related to the concept of digital divide and the challenges faced in bridging the digital divide in the country. Students and readers also gain information related to the initiatives and efforts made by the government to bridge the digital divide in the country. Along with this, it also provides information related to the improvement that has been occurred in the quality of the communication of the information to the target audience in order to solve their problems in different business sectors such as agriculture, land ownership and so on in order to improve the overall productivity and economic development of the country (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2012). In addition to this, it is helpful for different businesses as they gain knowledge regarding the policies established and implemented by the government to spread awareness about the knowledge regarding the sectors to which they are associated which helps in developing their skills and abilities. This in turn results in improving their productivity and performance. This helps in accelerating the economic development of the country. Along with this, it is also significant for the future researchers which help in the development of the background information to carry out the research in future (Srivastava and Shainesh, 2015). Aim The main aim of the research is to investigate the effectiveness of the implementation of the policies by the government to bridge the digital divide in the country. In order to attain this aim, there is a need to attain the following objectives. To understand the concept and current scenario of digital divide. To investigate the causes of the occurrence of digital divide in the country. Examining different efforts and initiatives taken by the government to bridge digital divide in India. To investigate the effectiveness of the policies adopted by the government of India to bridge digital divide. Research Question The question that will be investigated in this research study is How effective government policies can help bridge the digital divide in India? Methods There is a need to collect the information related to the current scenario of the digital divide in India along with the initiatives taken by the government to bridge it. The information is collected by the use of qualitative method such as interview method and literature review method. For this purpose the information will be collected from 65 respondents that are indulged in the initiatives taken by the government in order to attain information related to the effectiveness of the government initiatives towards the digital divide in India. The information is also collected from the secondary sources such as books, scholarly articles, online articles and official documents (Kara, 2015). The information related to the people being benefited from the initiatives is gathered as it helps in gaining information related to their contribution towards the economic development of the country. There is a use of multi-model method which takes into consideration different forms used to collect information such as textual, linguistic, aural and visual resources for the purpose of composition of the messages. In this method, the information from the respondents is collected by the use of different methods to which they are comfortable. This helps in maintaining the validity and reliability of the results of the research. The use of multi-model provides an opportunity to the respondents to provide information by the use of different aids in which they are comfortable. This approach helps in gaining valid and reliable information related to the research topic (Gifford, 2016). References Economist Intelligence Unit. (2012) Smart policies to close the digital divide. [Online]. Available at: https://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un-dpadm/unpan049753.pdf [Accessed on: 4 October 2017]. Gifford, R. (2016) Research Methods for Environmental Psychology. USA: John Wiley Sons. Groat, L.N. and Wang, D. (2013) Architectural Research Methods. USA: John Wiley Sons. Hoque, Z., Parker, L.D., Covaleski, M.A. and Haynes, K. (2017) The Routledge Companion to Qualitative Accounting Research Methods. UK: Taylor Francis. Kara, H. (2015) Creative Research Methods in the Social Sciences: A Practical Guide. USA: Policy Press. McNabb, D.E. (2015) Research Methods for Political Science: Quantitative and Qualitative Methods. UK: Routledge. Mishra, R. and Srivastava, S. (2016) M-education in India: an effort to improve educational outcomes with a special emphasis on Ananya Bihar. On The Horizon 24(2), pp. 153-165. Panda, M.I., Chhatar, M.D.C. and Mharana, D.B. (2013) A brief view to digital divide in Indian scenario. International Journal of Scientific and Research 3(12), pp. 1-7. Srivastava, S.C. and Shainesh, G. (2015) Bridging the Service Divide through Digitally Enabled Service Innovations: Evidence from Indian Healthcare Service Providers. MIS Quarterly 39(1). Venkatesh, V., Sykes, T.A. and Venkatraman, S. (2012) Understanding e-government portal use in rural India: role of demographic and personality characteristics. Info System Journal, pp. 1- 24.