Role of ICT

ICT applications are improving the delivery of public goods and services to common people by boosting the process and management of government. Possible areas to target include the provision of technology at low or no cost to vulnerable groups through community technology centers or out of working hours access thus, including all members of the community in the information society.

ICT has not only got deep linkages in governance but also are part of governance and has effects on governance patters and practices at both central, state and local level. By recognizing these facts, UNDP focuses on technologies to end poverty at WSIS Cyber Summit 2003, and emphasizes on ways that new technologies can help lift more than one billion people out of extreme poverty (UNDP, 2003). Apart from the four Asian IT giants (Korea, China, Taiwan, and Japan), most of the Asian countries have fallen under the “low access” category of the Digital Access Index.