Development of Information Technology in North-East India with Special Reference to Arunachal Pradesh (Regarding Post Office and Telecommunication)

Abstract

The Post and Telegraph Department was created by the British administration as an adjunct to effective administrative control over Indian people.  The department was run on the cost-benefit consideration.  However, it was also established ‘to serve the people’ (those who could afford to).  The department was rather slow in adopting new technological innovations.  But it did increase its network to the length and breadth of the country and with the dawn of independence, the department was geared to the cause of the national priorities and programmes. As a government department, it slowly turned out to be one of the biggest employers of unskilled and semi-skilled persons.  With the massive emphasis on rural development and overall demand for social transformation, the department did try to modernize itself technologically to meet the ever increasing demands on it.  As a whole this modernization phase in the department is largely based on technological transfer.  No serious efforts are being made to ask whether the technological transfer fits in the national policy of self-reliance. In fact, its adoption is based on the principle of trickling down benefits from the top and what is known as technological diffusion. So far North Eastern region in general and Arunachal Pradesh in particular is concerned, it is not only inaccessible from transport, communication and telecommunication point of view, but it is also economically at subsistence level.  By tradition, the vital resources - land, water, forest and even minerals are controlled by the community, in which technological investment is minimal. The paper explores historical development to present scenario.