A sustainable model for use of ICTs in rural Pakistan

The major part of Pakistan is comprised of rural areas, which are underdeveloped and lack facilities as compared to their urban counterparts. The main reasons for this underdevelopment are; low priority assigned by the government in developing the infrastructure, lack of interest of private sector to exploit the potential of rural areas and inability of private sector to invest in the development of rural sector. Only a marginal percentage of budget is being spent in the development of rural people specially on the education This has in turn become a main hurdle to gain, accept and to implement the new technologies in the agriculture sector as well as other rural sectors (as agriculture is not the only source of development in the rural areas of Pakistan). We must think about that 70 % community to produce good manpower by providing them the latest facilities and up-to-date information. To accomplish this purpose a sustainable Model for use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for the rural community is proposed. The main components of this model are: ICT-Rural Development Department (ICT-R2D), ICT-Training Centre (ICT-TC) and Rural Kiosk Machines (RKM). So that this major proportion of our population can play its important roll for the development of this country.