Interaction of dynamic ecosystems comprising of government, academia, research institutes and increasingly educated populations are turning developing countries into hot beds for innovations. Firms across the world want to set their foot in developing regions for profits and inclusion of masses through a plethora of innovative services and products that could be developed in today’s opportune times by the incorporation of ICTs.
Digital revolution
Riding on the wave of digital revolution and increasing accessibility, with six billion mobile subscriptions worldwide and about 2.3 billion Internet users and growing, firms worldwide are introducing innovative services, products and applications for the mass inclusion of the underserved in various economic sectors.
Success of the ICT innovations will require extensive collaboration between numerous stakeholders to ensure that consumers see a homogenous solution and are able to access services on various platforms and devices. Innovative products, services and business models are developed either indigenously in developing nations and developed nations or developed jointly by developers from both developing and developed nations and implemented in developing nations.
Pioneering services to underserved areas
Although there are successful innovations that provide pioneering services to underserved areas and are emulated in developing economies with slight content and technology alterations, there are innovations that meet failures due to sustainability and interoperability issues or policy bottlenecks related to country specific regulations. There are several reasons for the failure of an ICT facilitated innovation. For instance a number of innovative e-Health initiatives have faded without having any impact. The implementation of e-Health services at a national and global level is a big challenge. The consumers are either not very knowledgeable about the newly incepted remote diagnostic methods and don’t want to rely on remote consultation and other e-Health services or few consumers are interested in a digital filing cabinet for their records.
What they are interested in is what that data can do for them. Can it help them better manage their health and/or the health of a family member? Will it help them make appointments and track treatment? Will it save them money on their health insurance bill, their next doctor visit? Can it help them automatically get a prescription refill? These are the basics that the vast majority of consumers want to be addressed first. Regional adoption and scalability of the innovative services and products are issues innovators should think about for the success of deployed projects.
Innovation as route to sustainable economic growth
Innovation is indispensable, not only for developing new products, services etc. but also for ensuring survival of any business in the competitive world as it provides ample opportunities for growth and profitability. Driven by the ever-changing needs of a society, innovation is a continuous activity that involves both incremental as well as breakthrough improvements. It is the creative transformation of knowledge and ideas into new products, processes, or services meeting market needs, which culminates in successful innovations.While innovation brings new products, services etc., its compatibility and coexistence with other product/ technology is ensured only through standardization. Standardization enables innovations to reach global platform by providing a common, robust ground rules for all the participating entities. Standardization and innovation are complementary to each other and together, can provide ample growth opportunities and also ensure the economic development of a country.
ICT as the next major utility service
After electricity and water, ICT is perceived as the next major utility service. Technology innovations can become an engine for economic growth for developing economies. Innovation creates companies, mobilizes resources, reduces operating costs, provides equity in access to the underserved, helps create inexpensive products and services, creates jobs and fosters socio-economic development of an economy. However, innovation climates in developing countries are, by nature, problematic, characterized by poor business and governance conditions, low educational levels and mediocre infrastructure. This raises particular challenges for the promotion of innovation.
The incorporation of ICTs in various sectors is seen as the cornerstone of the new digital revolution for mass inclusion in the “e-era” and the “m-era”.
World development indicators
According to the World Development Indicators 2010-11, World Bank data, within the last decade mobile communication has become one of the largest and fastest growing industries worldwide. In 2010 there were an average of 78.2 mobile phone subscribers per 100 people in the world and about 5.3 billion mobile cellular subscriptions in the world.
Today, more than 90% of the world’s population lives within range of a cell phone tower and there are approximately six billion mobile subscribers globally. By 2020, experts contend that the mobile phone could replace the computer as the primary means of accessing the internet. In 2010 there was a world average of 31 per 100 people who were internet users and this number is increasing significantly. In 2012, almost 2.3 billion people use the internet worldwide. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index there was more than one billion mobile internet users worldwide by 2013. The mobile network is the world’s largest distribution and communication platform.
Evolving communication technologies
Globally, mobile data traffic increased 2.3-fold over 2011, growing at a rate of 133%. By 2016, there were 1.4 mobile devices per capita and over 10 billion mobile-connected devices, including machine-to-machine (M2M) modules. Monthly global mobile data traffic surpassed 10 exabytes in 2016 and mobile handsets exceeded 50 per cent of mobile data traffic in 2014. The rapidly evolving communication technologies could become a means to an end for bridging the digital divide by connecting the remote and providing the deprived with a plethora of services and solutions for various sectors. Huge underserved populations subsist globally that could provide immense financial and social rewards, to research firms and businesses as they provide innovative solutions leading to the betterment of mankind.
2.5 billion financially excluded people worldwide
There are about 2.5 billion financially excluded people in the world. Globally, more than 793 million people cannot read and write. About 61 million children do not have access to primary school education. There are around 975 million people (almost 15% of world’s population) living with disability. The mobile health financing options, online medical consultation and diagnostics, remote clinical care and imaging services and development of innovative assistive technologies will lead to improving the lives of millions of disabled and diseased people. The simplest low-end mobile phone can do so much to improve health care, provide banking services to the unbanked, market access to farmers, make education accessible through e-learning, m-learning and digitization, efficient governance, etc. in the developing world. The world is fast moving towards “global e-inclusion” and access for all. There are innovative early-stage and mature ICT projects that are already operational and identifies the upcoming trends in mobile and web technologies that will change the lives of people in the near future.
