Review of rural development policies for ICT enabled planning of villages in West Bengal, India

摘要

Rural India is traditionally engulfed by underdevelopment, poverty, and unemployment. To stimulate the development of countryside by ensuring availability of basic needs, a number of policies and programmes have been implemented time to time by the planning framework of central and state governments. Based on in-depth literature review, website survey and longitudinal empirical observation, this paper aims to identify the drawbacks of already implemented government policies and programmes in Indian state West Bengal. Categorical and chronological investigation of the programmes unfolds the prime downsides of prevailing top-down approach of policy implementation like corruption and politicisation. Therefore, the emphasis is given on the participatory approaches as an alternative way to the current practices; involving the contributions of actual beneficiaries in the policy architecture and execution. To foster rural development through smart and sustainable practices by harnessing the benefits of information and communication technologies (ICTs) an alternative Diamond Model is coined.