Monday, March 12, 2001		Article

Internet education and home-based business
By P.N. Tiku

INDIA is undergoing an information technology (IT) revolution that is evident from the fast growing spread of computer education and a higher IT application, software services and the Net. Currently IT application in India is much lower as compared to China and other far-eastern countries.

In order to remain ahead, it is important to focus on training new persons and increasing IT-training centres. This is notwithstanding the fact that teledensity in India is 2.6 per 100 compared with a world average of around 15. No less worrying, India’s $ 8.62 billion IT industry has run into infrastructure bottlenecks such as lack of bandwidth, low-speed leased lines and slow servicing. It is hard to envision countries making any significant use of the Internet’s potential if their teledensity is very low.

The power of the Internet appears to be bringing world economies closer together over time so that firms in the USA and other countries could communicate with the firms in India. The main hurdle in spreading the IT use to the villages, and making persons more computer literate, will mean higher investment. At the same time, as a result of lower incomes, most persons cannot afford to buy computers. There is, thus, huge investment required in expanding telephony, availability of power and Internet penetration. According to a World Bank report, it is the high cost of connectivity that is holding back IT development. The national IT task force’s ‘vision report’ also points out that the telephone density would have to increase from 1.5 per 100 inhabitants in 1998 to 7 in 2005 and 15 by 2010. Countries like the USA, Sweden, Australia and Singapore report around 40 per cent homes with Internet connections.

According to Nasscom, the Internet subscriber base is likely to touch 25 lakh and the user-base to grow to 75 lakh by March 2001. In addition to this, 49 per cent of users accessing the Net belong to 18 to 24 years age group, while 28 per cent belong to 25-39 years age group. Internet surfers above the age of 40 years account for 11 per cent of usage and those below 18 years contribute 12 per cent to overall Internet access.

Most Internet and PC users are not able to make full use of the capabilities of the machine due to lack of training or guidance. In many cases, the Net and PC users do not have time to join formal training programmes at institutes which have mushroomed all over the country. However, some of the training programmes have been either expensive or too theoretical. In addition to that, some of the programmes have job possibilities but in most cases it happens to be either a stoppage or an underpaid assignment.

There are estimates that about 2.5 million Net subscribers (or 8 million users) will be available by March 2001. It is expected to increase to 10 million subscribers (32 million users) by March 2003. As on 31 August 2000, there was a PC base of 5 million. Besides, the professional/corporate segment that accounts for around 43 per cent of Internet usage dominates the profile of the Internet-users in India. Close behind is the student community represented by school and college goers who represent 38 per cent of Internet surfers. Over half (59.2 per cent) use the Internet as an information source, 11.3 per cent use it as an educational tool and just fewer than 8.2 per cent use it for entertainment. Usage of the Internet for e-commerce, whether B2C or B2B is still to take off.

Based on the Nasscom survey, penetration of Internet and e-commerce transactions in India will increase by leaps and bounds. In the case of B2B transactions, Indian industry will reach online penetration of 5 per cent by 2003. Besides, rising use of computers, Web presence has become a desire as well as a necessity.

The new technologies provided by a new dotcom company total teamwork. com has developed an affordable e-education and e-learning programmes. The product includes learning e-education and an opportunity to create own independent home-based business. Sitting at home one can utilise the powers of the net to create a long-term residual income. The total teamwork. com product includes e-education — Internet, Web designing, Entrance Tests, Online Tests and Preparation for entrances to IIT, medical institutes, IIM, GMAT, TOEFL, GRE personal e-mail address, primary domain name and 50 MB of web space, personal accident insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh and more. As it seems, using the Internet as a distribution network, and people network as a marketing team, (TTW) is expected to be able to save on the marketing costs in the traditional sense and distribute it amongst their network marketeers. This in effect will become a home-based business opportunity translating into a 5 or even six-figure regular income for the enterprising people. Now that IT is attracting Indian women in large numbers there is a lot of scope for the TTW products being adopted by women to become Internet savvy and also do business through network marketing.

Estimates by the National Association of Computer Trainers (NACT) peg the overall training and learning market to be a whopping Rs 3,000 crore. Corporate training and examination coaching are two leading segments that are expected to account for 50 per cent of the e-learning market. As per the IDC figures, the corporate training market would be $ 11.4 billion by 2003. The entrance examination training market is around $ 2 billion in US and estimated at around Rs 1,000 crore in India.

— NPA