The information revolution, along with its attendant explosive growth of knowledge, and the related phenomenon of the globalization of the world economy has brought about the Information Age. South Asia is no exception to this disparity between information rich and information poor. The need of the hour is, therefore, to join national development information portals with that of other regional initiatives in a collaborative effort to use information and communication technologies (ICT), specially the power of the Internet, for knowledge sharing and disseminating development information. The South Asian region comprises of eight countries that are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Through a partnership alliance with country development gateways and in collaboration with the Development Gateway Foundation (DGF) the South Asian Regional Development Gateway (SARDEG) is envisaged to be an online communication initiative (Internet portal) that provides and promotes exchange and dissemination of information on development matters in the region initially focused on Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.

The State Rural Technology Promotion Council (SRTPC), Assam (India) has taken the lead in initiating this regional gateway to overcome the development communication gap in the region and utilize the new forces of ICT to promote social and economic growth in the region. Major regional goals that have been articulated by Asian leaders include :

• Poverty Alleviation and SAARC Development Goals (SDGs)

•  Advancing Economic Cooperation

•  Social Challenges focusing on women and children

•  Environmental Challenges and Natural Disasters

• Combating Terrorism

• People-to-people contact and cultural cooperation

• Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

The global movement towards an information age and the worldwide technological innovations of recent years, along with other structural and economic developments, has led to rapidly falling costs for information and communication technologies. Together with changes facing global and national telecommunication regimes this presents a clear window of opportunity for appropriate “leapfrog” strategies to accelerate the development of the continent. The creation of SARDEG as a development information portal is both a necessity and an opportunity to accelerate development in all spheres of South Asian economic and social activities.

The immediate beneficiaries from the regional gateway will be various organizations and institutions in Bangladesh, India and Nepal who are planning and implementing different development initiatives. They will be more cooperative in knowledge and resource sharing in their approaches and will develop a capacity to tackle impediments to their development programs following the approaches of others who succeeded. SARDEG envisages taking advantage of the most important aspects of the Internet, and building the ability to capture and disseminate information services consistently across the region and provide a unique platform for broad collaborations among various stakeholders, as well as with other existing Country Gateways. SARDEG will bring together development stakeholders to collaborate online and engage in activities related to development like, e-government, e-health, e-commerce, e-learning etc.

The Mission of the SARDEG is to create a regional development information portal for the South Asia through partnership, networking, sharing and exchanging of knowledge and other resources. Therefore, the overall objective of this project will be the elaboration of an online development communication strategy and plan of action for the region, as well the implementation of an effective development stockholders’ network. The realization of the above will additionally address several other critical goals.

The strategic reference points for the global development initiatives are the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and nearly all-developmental priorities in the regional are aligned to these goals. The major goal is to halve the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day by 2015 and the principal strategy adopted increasingly by the development planners are the poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs). Against this backdrop the major goals of the regional development gateway will be:

1. Awareness Raising

2. Connecting Good Governance and Development Goals

3. Coordination in Policy and Project Implementation and Development

4. Capacity Building & Knowledge Sharing at Regional and National Levels

5. Development Information Services

SARDEG aims to become financially sustainable by the year 2009 through various income generation activities including ICT related training, and consultancies. SARDEG will provide a forum for community-based and local, regional or national organizations to share and exchange ideas, experiences and resources on issues of common interest. It will catalyse the development of new e-based economic development tools by providing web applications and services, notably for e-learning, e-governance, e-education, e-health, e-jobs, e-communities and e-advisory services.