^^ Technology is an enabling tool. It is also a great democratic leveller.
So just like in 70s people wanted roti-kapda-makaan., you need bijlee-sadak-pani today. Take the case of bijlee-sadak-pani:
With 24 hours bijlee, it just not makes the life of a common man better, it actually enables further trades. I have seen self-help groups starting to provide sewing machines to woman at home and they submit back their work for a profit. This actually improved the lives of women and children (highlight was they actually kicked out a drunkard of a husband!) (this was in hyderabad). In Chennai an enterprising gentleman put all the street kids to work to collect plastic and sort by color and type and he would use a machine to melt the plastic to make - plastic pots - 5 Rs each! And the best was the case of potable water coming through pipes - freed up the women folk to watch TV and this actually led to depressed population growth (at NIHFW they were working on metrics to measure the impact of TV on fertility!). Highlight was when one of a polio-affected girl actually got a seat in medicine (because of all of the above!) (sadly another "backward" community discouraged her)
Gujarat and MP are now states with 24 hr electricity. Any govt. which messes that up will get hell.
So what goes for bijlee yesterday., telco is going to be the case tomorrow. A doodhwala (since that is one of the major and easier use case to measure impact of technology on nutrition and family welfare) can supply surplus milk at a different market immediately (sometimes milk consumption goes through peaks and dips over standard pattern) - this impact is actually showing up as "obesity" in certain urban sections of Gujarat (!).
However free phones without electricity - useless
