DIGITAL DIVIDE

WHAT IS DIGITAL DIVIDE..? The term digital divide is nothing but the imbalance between the people who uses the digital and information technology and to those who don’t. This gap refers not only to the technology but also to the imbalances in the recourses. This difference with in a country is called Digital Divide and if this difference is between the countries then it is called global digital divide. "Digital Divide" is closely related to the terms "proportional representation", "under representation" and "disparate impact".

DIGITAL DIVIDE IN CHINA China’s has a vast indifference in between its rural as well as urban areas. Comparing and contrasting the geographical conditions and population density in rural and urban areas in china, it has to spend a huge sum of money for its ITC Infrastructure . By the end of 1998, China’s rural areas had about 70 percent of the national population but only 20 percent of its total number of telephones. Compared to an urban telephone density of 27.7 percent, the rural telephone density of 2.85 percent is 10 times lower than urban telephone density in 1998.

GENDER BIASED DIGITAL DIVIDE In China, a gender-based digital divide appears to be much smaller than education- and income-based divides. According to the latest CNNIC report, 39 percent of Chinese Internet users, in July 2001, were women. Compared to the figure in July 2000, there was an 8 percent increase in women Internet users. This shows that women in china are increasing access to the internet.

Comparison of East/Middle/West in China internet development Number/ website 10,000 penetration people Rate People East 14.0% Middle 6.5% West 6.9% Nation 9.4%

China is facing the problem of digital divide due to imbalance of diffusion of ICTs infrastructure, high online charges, insufficiently trained staff, imperfect network legation, and information resource shortage in the chinese language. Insufficient infrastructure is a huge problem for achieving connectivity in rural areas, especially in the Western regions. There is currently a lack of incentive for telecommunication providers to invest in broadening their Western networks, mainly due to a lack of purchasing power and low population densities in these areas. The work of market forces push Internet Service Providers to “shy away from investing in these regions that show little promise of short-term profits.

Steps taken to minimize digital divide The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in China is running a 2.5 million dollar project for taking internet access to rural areas of China. Also, the ‘Go West’ project in the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001-2005) calls for the improvement of infrastructure in Western regions. Although it mainly aims at improving transportation infrastructure, approximately one million kilometers of new fibre-optic were laid alongside the installation of satellite telecommunications facilities between the years 2007-08

Team Members Murali krishna Thumallapalli Antony Synoden