Technology: Democratising or dividing?

On the Contrary by IDR

Kiran Karnik, former president of NASSCOM, and Osama Manzar, co-founder of Digital Empowerment Foundation, discuss the promises and pitfalls of technology, the gaps in its application in India, and the role the government can play in making access to technology more equitable.

Highlights (for the app only):

• How digital technologies have enabled people, even in the remotest parts of India.
• Why we cannot look at technology in isolation and need to address the systemic flaws creating unequal access.
• Why the government’s primary objective when it comes to using technology must be to create more equity for its citizens.
• Why the purpose of technology must be very clear. Whose interest does it serve? Does it benefit the least empowered people in the world?

Read more:

1. The missing link in technology
2. India urgently needs an EdTech policy
3. How the social sector thinks about tech is wrong
4. Developing our digital commons
5. How to think about funding technology in the social sector
6. Four things to think about with tech for social good
7. Are we ready for EdTech?
8. When internet comes home: E-learning in Indian villages during COVID-19
9. Connecting the disconnected
10. Open-source tech for nonprofits
11. India’s gendered digital divide
12. Non-linkage with Aadhaar has impeded access of the poor to welfare entitlements
13. An offline alternative for Aadhaar-based biometric authentication
14. How COVID-19 deepens the digital education divide in India

This podcast is a Maed in India production, you can find out more about us https://www.maedinindia.in/

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