The combination of cheaper devices, easy connectivity and the high aspirations of the population could help India leapfrog development in several areas. Broadband internet can transform primary and secondary schooling by bringing the best teachers and techniques into every classroom. In Reimagining India: Unlocking the Potential of Asia’s Next Superpower, edited by McKinsey & Company, digital educators Salman Khan and Shantanu Sinha argue that “replicating for hundreds of millions of aspiring learners what a few thousand previously experienced in the lecture halls of Harvard, MIT or Stanford would require an absurdly large investment. But now, this information is available to anyone with a cheap laptop and a broadband connection.” Indeed, today, Indian students are the largest users of massive open online courses from MIT and Harvard.

Healthcare offers similar possibilities. Cheap devices (GE’s X-ray costs $50), sensors and broadband connectivity will open up access to healthcare, and at lower costs than the standard brick and mortar solutions (often at a fiftieth of the comparable U.S. cost). Swasthya Slate (a tablet device for patients to perform self-diagnostic tests including electrocardiograms, blood sugar, blood pressure, and heart rate readings) and “m-steth” (mobile stethoscope to transmit heart data) are smart, affordable substitutes for over half of all doctor visits. This is life-changing in a country like India, where the doctor to patient ratio is a meager 1:1,700 (compared with 1:400 in the United States).

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The same breakthrough is possible in access to all government services, retail services, banking and financial inclusion, agriculture, medical care, education at all levels and in many other fields that we haven’t even thought of yet, and may help India to drive faster inclusive development for its population. In true Indian tradition, the potential for technology to leapfrog is enormous – and so are the barriers. As experience shows, progress may be fitful, but when India can imagine, mobilize, and leapfrog, ten years can change almost anything.

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/29/how-india-can-leapfrog-to-the-future/