THE NEW DELHI

What are the effects of a decade of steady 6-8% economic growth? I think I have the answer..

A Tour from My Three-Wheeler

Everyday I ride to and from work in an Auto, otherwise known as a 'Three-wheeler'.

Thus far, it is the only time I really practice my Hindi. By the time they drop me off, drivers generally ask where I am from...my Hindi is that good.

On the roads of Delhi, 2, 3, or even 4 people on one scooter is a common sight.

Signs surrounding construction sites for the Delhi Metro are everywhere right now. Phase 2, which will connect North and South Delhi, is set to be completed by November for the Commonwealth Games.

GREATEST COMMON MULTIPLE

Indians are numbers people. Indians who immigrated to the US like my mom and dad are suspected, and often found to be, either doctors or engineers.

Development is a social science. Prior to my generation, most people began working within development were either political scientists or economists. Out of these two professions, the economists focused on the quantitative and the political scientists focused on the qualitative. My generation boasts a convergence of these two professions: we are political economists. What does this mean? Well, mostly that we don’t know either economics or political science…but hey, we know the ‘bigger picture’, right?

Since the start of my bachelor’s degree six years ago, I have been attending development-related conferences. Every time I witnessed a speaker quote figures, grounding their argument in statistics, I was impressed. The numbers spoke to me – like many, I found the numbers to be more real, more factual than some qualitative observations. Moreover, I didn’t find too many speakers who actually mentioned statistics, so when they did, my ears perked up.

Indians are numbers people. Although I joke that it is in our blood, I think it may be more accurate to say that the GoI invested in this knowledge accumulation through the setting up of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) higher educational system. Indian Americans like myself are simply a result of our parents’, who are products of the IIT generation, encouragement to pursue careers in the fields of math and science.

The conference I attended this past week was a clear reminder that Indians are numbers people. Nearly every audience member asking questions to the panel of speakers, and every speaker on the panel, centered their statements around numbers. It was an obvious change from the development conferences I had attended in the US and Europe. It made sense that quantitative goals were being mentioned as it was on the topic of the five-year plan which sets these goals, however I slowly began to think that maybe this focus on numbers in the field of development can be somewhat of a hindrance to progress.

Sometime between the second and third panels on the first day of the conference, I began to realize that figures were being quoted without mention of sources and without a holistic analysis of their implications or for that matter, their possibility of not having any implications. A few speakers shared my concerns and urged people to stop ‘hiding behind numbers’ and realize that the source of the figures may be fundamentally flawed.

To me, flawed numbers is one thing – it is the responsibility of the policymakers, researchers and intellectuals to work to minimize these problems. On the other hand, what really concerns me is the layman’s concentration on quantitative goals so much so that their only concern is demanding that the government reach them. The purpose of an active civil society in a democracy is not simply to demand what they are told is a good thing, but to critically analyze if policies are the best for civil society.

Ultimately what I found at this conference on the one hand was a very active civil society operating in a working democracy. On the other hand, I found a deep-rooted dependence on the government that resulted in a civil society with expectations of handouts.

The First Week

It is the end of my first week and I feel that my decision to work at OneWorld was the right one. The week began slowly but by the end I was attending a notable conference. I will be writing an article summarizing and commenting on the conference that I hope to be published on the United Nations Millennium Campaign website for Asia-Pacific.

The conference was entitled “The People’s Mid-Term Appraisal of the 11^th Five-Year Plan”. Shortly after independence from the British, India setup a Planning Commission whose mission it was to design five-year plans that not only set targets for developmental progress, but also committed to program implementation that would work towards achieving these goals. It is half way through the 11^th five-year plan and it is the first time that the people, grassroots organizations, citizens and other interested individuals, have demanded to conduct their own mid-term appraisal of the plan.

The conference was great exposure for me as it covered various topics, brought in numerous grassroots organizations, planning commission members including the head of the planning commission, Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and interested citizens from 28 states in India. The topics covered varied from governance to minorities to health and education.

The Beginning

After spending a week in Delhi interviewing with a number of research institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), I decided to work at OneWorld South Asia. OneWorld is an NGO that began in the UK and has offices in 13 countries across the globe. As an avid believer in technology for development, I felt that OneWorld, with its mission to promote development through the use of information communications technology (ICT), was a good choice for me. Since this job marks the beginning of my professional development career, and the field of development is quite broad, I feel that finding my niche within it is important for my future marketability. I believe that working at a purely ICT-focused NGO will allow me to develop skills in a specific area while also allowing me to gain knowledge about the various topics, for example governance and commerce, that ICT interacts with.

OneWorld’s work is centered on an online knowledge portal known as OneWorld.net. Essentially, it is a compilation of current and engaging information on development issues around the world. OneWorld South Asia holds the technical team that manages both the OneWorld.net and OneWorld South Asia sites. Both are designed using PLONE, a free and open source software. In addition to these sites, OneWorld South Asia manages the United Nations Millennium Campaign - Asia-Pacific portal.

Outside of knowledge management, OneWorld South Asia consists of a media team that designs and runs community radio programs. It is also comprised of an innovation team that has up to now implemented an e-agribusiness mobile phone program, a climate change web portal, and a rural computer based program supporting the Government of India (GoI) employment scheme called NREGA. My position as Research Associate will put me somewhere in the middle of all these activities.