Why Maharashtra Villages Need More Than Just A Digital Connect

The Maharashtra Chief Minister's two-day visit to the US was quite fruitful. Not only did Devendra Fadnavis manage to partner global technology giant Hewlett Packard (HP) for MahaNet, a programme under which 28,000 gram panchayats across the state will be digitally transformed, but also signed a pact with another IT major, Oracle, for developing Kalyan-Dombivali as a smart city. No wonder, Fadnavis has his digital aspirations soaring. Addressing a gathering at the Oracle Open World in San Francisco, Fadnavis declared that every village in his state will be digitally transformed by 2018.  “The 21st century is about the digital revolution, and we are looking forward to cloud computing technology for sharing and bringing changes in core sectors such as health care, education, and agriculture, for the welfare of the people. Through cloud computing and big data analytics, we can deploy our resources to create wealth,” the media quoted the Maharashtra CM as saying. Finding takers for a proposal that talks about building a “smart” Maharashtra is not a difficult task for a state that houses India's financial capital Mumbai, and contributes significantly to the nation's gross domestic product. That, however, does not mean digitalising all villages in such a short time is an easy task. There are 35 districts in the state and each one them has a minimum of over 700 villages. Even if we have global IT giants assisting us, a lot needs to be done before they are able to make any changes at the ground level. If our villages are not ready to be digitalised as yet, it would be a situation similar to inviting guests for a feast at home without arranging for supplies. To start with, rural Maharashtra was ranked 15th in terms of sanitation in an NSSO (National Sample Survey Office) survey of 26 states conducted in May-June 2015. This means the state has a lot of cleaning up to do before things start clicking in the right direction. The merits of the digitalisation plan cannot be questioned. Digitalising rural Maharashta does seem like a brilliant plan as far as establishing a common connect is concerned. Being well-connected is the key to solving many new-age problems. Data-backed initiatives will help the government keep a better track of things. However, apart from connection issues, there are many other things that ail the western state. Despite an industrial turnaround, things are not hunky-dory in Maharashtra. For a state where farmer suicide rates go up and agricultural produce go down year-after-year, establishing a digital connectivity is a bar that the state government has set too high for itself.