adapted. Lastly, any least developed countries would be candidates for quadrant 4, where they have no ICTD and thus has no state development. However because this thesis is regarding impact of ICTD on state development, quadrants 3 and 4 will be neglected.
This chapter will cover successful and failure case studies, and discuss possible factors that may have played role in terms of leading ICTD to an actual tangible outcome of state development by comparing the two.
4.1 India
With its enormous population and territorial size, India has been receiving keen attention from the world as one of BRICs country and with one of the highest potential to become a major power of the international society. The case of fishing industry in Kerala is probably the most well-known successful story of ICT implementation towards state development. It would be meaningful to reflect on this case to have a glance at how this positive impact was achieved.
According to Omar and Chharchhar, the fisheries sector takes a significant part in developing countries in terms of food securities as well as economic prosperity.
“The fisheries sector plays a vital role in developing countries. The fishermen
community all over the world is playing crucial roles in the development of economy.
This community brings dynamic source of animal protein as well as fish product in country which is also helping rural development by creating employment
opportunities. The contribution of this community grows in the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”22
22 Omar Siti Zobidah and Chhachhar Abdul Razaque, “A Review on the Roles of ICT Tools towards the Development of Fishermen”, Journal of Basic and Applied Scientific Research vol 2, TextRoad Publication (2012), pg. 9905
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In northern part of Kerala, a notable impact was made in the fish market with the introduction of mobile phones and the community’s application towards their fish business. The core idea is that the introduction of mobile phones improved flows of information, which decreases search costs of the market for the fishers and retails that leads to the contribution of the market efficiency. According to Abraham, India owns the second largest network in
developing countries after China and the subscription increased to 156 million from less than a million between 1999 and 2007.23
Despite the fact that fresh fish, as an extremely perishable commodity, require the shortest and the most efficient process, the reality differed. Abraham argues
“The owners of the boats hire fishermen to man their boats. In some cases, the fishermen or a fisherman’s co-operative could themselves be the owners. In most of the cases, the boat also has an investment from the commission agent, who thereby ensures control over the sale of the catch. On landing the catch, the commission agents auction the fish to both retail and wholesale merchants, who then sell the fish to consumers either directly, in the case of retail merchants, or through other retail merchants, in the case of wholesale merchants. After the sale is concluded, the agents then pay the owners after subtracting between 5-10% of the total value as their commission. After paying for the variable costs of the trip, the owners then split the remainder among the fishermen.”24
Unnecessary additional steps of the chain resulted in commission, which decreased the final marginal profit of fishermen. However, according to Abraham’s survey, 80% of the total respondents had positive perception of mobile phones. 48% of the respondents answered they would still use mobile phones even if the prices/tariffs went up,25 and 93% and 92% positive answer was received from merchants sector that the price fluctuation of intraday and across markets respectively has decreased.
23 Abraham Reuben, “Mobile Phones and Economic Development: Evidence from the Fishing Industry in India”, Information Technologies and International Development vol. 4, (2008) p.g 8
24 Abraham, p.g 9
25 According to Abraham’s survey, the number was 82 out of the 172 respondents
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The introduction of mobile phones affected practically the entire industry. It enabled different sectors of business to keep in touch with the other, allowing the sharing of precise information regarding the consumer demands and local prices. The wholesaler is able to monitor the demand at the retailer’s end, which allows him to purchase fish only when the retails have demands. As for bulk buyers, it became easier for them to bulk purchase the fish in lowest possible rates after confirming the local market information.
Abraham also argues that the impact of ICT was not only on economic aspects, it increased efficiency in terms or usage of time and resources. Many respondents from
fishermen and owners in his survey answered the search costs for fish has decreased with the introduction of mobile phones. 94% of owners and fishermen utilized mobile phones to alert other boats to the presence of shoals of large amount of fish, thus reducing the time spent out at the sear searching for fish. Also it reduced the number of fishermen spending time idling on shore. All the idle resources were utilized after news of large shoals was communicated.
This is significant factor because according to Jenson, fishers were only able to visit a market per day. The market was only open for few hours, and the distance between markets were too long that the transportation cost would have been beyond their affordability. Plus because fish cannot be stored overnight and resold on the land, any surplus would have been directly abandoned as waste.
Therefore in northern Kerala’s case, it can be argued that the ICT can be used to spur economic development and hence those two variables possess a positive relationship. It brought more even supply across markets, closed price gaps, decreased waste and
transportation cost, and increased productivity and efficiency by reshaping business strategy for every sector of business.
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