The 3-R Framework— Receive, Read, Respond

The government should make at least one mobile number as the identity of the citizen where government related information can be delivered

In today’s worldH any country can bring in changes if the information distribution becomes their priority medium for improvement of the society. And going forwardH information would be the only catalyst for any and every country’s socio-economic change and growth and if it’s adopted and deployed by the federal institution with a predefined frameworkH it would definitely bridge the social gap (rural F urban) with a direct impact on the economic growth.

In a country like IndiaH where the federal system with states-governments are key stakeholders with democratic approachH it is more difficult for us to channeliYe our information delivery system—and this is where mobile phones can help.

The mobile device affordability is no more a big challengeH we have seen so many new manufactures jumping into the fray in last 2 years and with multi-brand price competitionH the cost of the handset has come down and made it affordable for even the common man. China’s entry into the Indian handset market has provided choices for multi-brand feature rich mobile phone availability with affordable price in anyIevery part of our country.

Indian TSPs have also got into a similar tariff war to increase and protect their subscriber base and make the services affordable for a common man. India is the only country where the tariff per call is lowest in the whole world.

The Indian telecom industry landscape has changed because of low handset cost with cost-effective tariff plans.

If the mobile devices are affordable and the tariff plan is the lowest in the world; the uses of the services are no more a challenge for the subscribersH then why do we still have the big divide in our socio-economic sector? Because we are not developing the right content and delivering it to the right audience.

The time has come for us to re-think about our communication delivery platformH we have to stage our content and make the delivery based on the 3Rs—receiveH readH and response—services. Pe also need to bring the stakeholders together along with the government to adopt 3R framework.

In many metro citiesH we are yet to provide the basic information to the citiYens on the utility servicesH we still see printed bills and long queues for deposit- ing the cash against those utility bills. The government may have a system where the information is available for citiYens but they are not aware of its availability.

Pe need to start the 3R framework from metros or from semi-urban citiesH make the information available on cloud and the cloud should be connected to a mobile service delivery gateway where the information can be pushed to the usersH the citiYens after receiving the information have the choice to response either through mobile or internet. Pe should first adopt the 3R framework in our metro cities. The framework would only be successful if we bring all the stakeholders on one platform.

The key stakes holders are telecom service providersH contentH hosting F platformH government regulatory authoritiesH service offering departments

The government spends crores of rupees on BPL and rural citiYen initiatives like NRNGAH healthH PDSH educationH agricultureH etcH to make their life better but is the target audience getting the information? Are they clear what are they entitled to? Are they aware to whom they should approach? There are partial ICT