Information and Communication Technology : For Education, Healthcare and Rural Development

The revolution in information and communication technology (ICT) in last few decades has brought tremendous benefits in all spheres and to all sections of the society. ICT are being increasingly used by the governments to deliver its services at the locations convenient to the citizens. E-Governance projects have attempted to improve the reach, enhance the base, minimize the processing costs, increase transparency, and reduce the cycle time. Similarly, ICT - which include radio and television, as well as newer digital technologies such as computers and the Internet - have been touted as potentially powerful enabling tools for educational quality by, among others, helping make teaching and learning into an engaging, active process connected to real life. Benefits of ICT in the domain of healthcare also cannot be overemphasized. An application of ICT in healthcare covers the interaction between patients and health-service providers, institution-to-institution transmission of data, or peer-to-peer communication between patients and /or health professionals. There is always a growing demand for research in ICT in all these important areas of healthcare, education and rural development. This volume covers a few up-to-date research results in these areas.