In this paper, I would discuss the knowledge transfer mechanisms using ICT to improve the innovation, competitiveness, collaboration and effectiveness of strategic initiatives to forge ties between South Africa and India. In today’s global world, creating knowledge for turning them into new products and services is crucial to maintain and enhance the competitiveness. While enough research has been done on Knowledge transfer in the Manufacturing sector, knowledge transfer in services sector has not been well explored. Collaboration between researchers and industry amongst India and South Africa will be explored through case studies in Elearning, Telemedicine and Book Publishing. The paper would try to highlight how we can create ‘single continuum for knowledge’ by developing platforms where the South African community and Indian Businesses can work and innovate together to create information exchange in a systematic way to improve the business performance, especially in the service delivery.

1. Dolly Bhasin
D-251, Ashok Vihar, Phase I
Delhi, 110052
91-011- 47591321
sphces@sphconsultants.com
about 4400 words
Knowledge Transfer: Putting Knowledge in Practice to improve Business
Performance through Information and Communications Technologies (ICT)
in South Africa
Abstract:
In this paper, I would discuss the knowledge transfer mechanisms using ICT to improve the
innovation, competitiveness, collaboration and effectiveness of strategic initiatives to forge ties
between South Africa and India.
In today’s global world, creating knowledge for turning them into new products and services is crucial to
maintain and enhance the competitiveness. While enough research has been done on Knowledge
transfer in the Manufacturing sector, knowledge transfer in services sector has not been well explored.
Collaboration between researchers and industry amongst India and South Africa will be explored
through case studies in Elearning, Telemedicine and Book Publishing. The paper would try to highlight
how we can create ‘single continuum for knowledge’ by developing platforms where the South African
community and Indian Businesses can work and innovate together to create information exchange in a
systematic way to improve the business performance, especially in the service delivery.
Keywords:
Knowledge transfer, skills, competence, learning, ICT, Information, knowledge, value add, collaboration,
dissemination, competitiveness, strategy, business, Africa, India, services
Author:
Dolly Bhasin is the Managing Director of a knowledge enterprise, SPH Consultancy & eServices Pvt. Ltd.
She is a Gold medalist Electronics and Communications Engineer with specializations in Sales and
Marketing and Business Administration (Singapore). She also holds a Masters in Travel and Tourism from
Univ. of Nottingham. As an innovator, she has developed many award winning Knowledge platforms for
e-education and SMEs. A USABF awardee, her work is well acknowledged in the global SME network.

2. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 2
Introduction
In today’s global world, creating knowledge for turning them into new products and services is crucial to
maintain and enhance the competitiveness. While enough research has been done on knowledge
transfer approaches and impact in the Manufacturing sector, knowledge transfer in services sector has
not been well explored. In the developing and the underdeveloped countries, services constitute a
major constituent to the economy, in Ghana it accounted for 49.3 per cent of GDP in 20121 and in South
Africa it is as high as 69%2.
India's services sector contributes to about 60 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP),
35 per cent of employment, a quarter of the total trade, and over half of the foreign investment
inflows3.
In this paper I would delve upon how to use Knowledge intensive services to aid the knowledge transfer
and facilitate service delivery seamlessly across continents between India and Africa using ICT.
Collaboration between researchers and industry amongst India and South Africa will be explored
through case studies in Elearning, Telemedicine, Telecom and Book Publishing. The paper tries to
highlight how we can create ‘single continuum for knowledge’ by developing platforms where the South
African community and Indian Businesses can work and innovate together to create information
exchange in a systematic way to improve the business performance, especially in the service delivery.
1
Modern Ghana, www.modernghana.com
CIA, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2012.html
3
IBEF, http://www.ibef.org/industry/services.aspx
2

3. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 3
The Need
The need for examining the role of knowledge transfer using knowledge intensive services (aided by ICT)
for Healthcare and Education is quite evident from the following facts:
The State of Healthcare in Africa needs World Attention
Africa is home to major endemic diseases. Bacteria and parasites carried by insects, the movement of
people and other carriers thrive, favoured as they are by weak environmental policies and poor living
conditions. One of the major impediments facing African development efforts is the widespread
incidence of communicable diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. Unless these
epidemics are brought under control, real gains in human development will remain an impossible hope.
In the health sector, Africa compares very poorly with the rest of the world. In 1997, child and juvenile
death rates were 105 and 169 per 1000, as against 6 and 7 per 1000 respectively in developed countries.
Life expectancy is 48.9 years, as against 77.7 years in developed countries. Only 16 doctors are available
per 100 000 inhabitants, as against 253 in industrialized countries. Poverty, reflected in very low per
capita incomes, is one of the major factors limiting the populations’ capacity to address their health
problems.
Nutrition is an important ingredient of good health. The average daily intake of calories varies from 2384
in low-income countries to 2846 in middle-income countries, to 3390 in countries of the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Health, defined by the WHO “is a state of complete physical and mental well-being, contributes to
increase in productivity and, consequently, to economic growth”.
The most obvious effects of health improvement on the working population are the reduction in lost
working days due to sick leave, the increase in productivity and the chance to secure better-paid jobs.
Eventually, improvement in health and nutrition directly contributes to improved well-being as the
spread of diseases is controlled, infant mortality rates are reduced and life expectancy is higher. The link
with poverty reduction is clearly established.
Source: The New Partnership for Africaís Development (NEPAD) Report, 20014
4
NEPAD, “The New Partnership For Africaís Development (NEPAD) Report”, 2001,
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/nepad.html, accessed January 10, 2014.

4. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 4
Quality Education Key to Human and Economic Development
A 2007 World Bank policy research paper by Eric A. Hanushek and Ludger Wößmann explored the link
between educational quality and economic growth. According to their analysis, policies that aim to
improve education systems in developing nations have significant economic returns. The finding
indicates that long-term reforms to education will substantially increase GDP compared to countries
that make no changes. Additionally, the research establishes that quality of education has more
implications on economic growth than merely increasing the quantity of schooling. The report also
suggests several broad policy initiatives that help students acquire cognitive skills and increase teaching
quality.
Source: The Effect of Education on Brazil’s Economic Development5
The Knowledge Transfer Enablers
While, I examine these two challenges, I would also examine The Enablers of Telecom Technology and
the Pan Africa eNetwork which have played quite a significant role in the last few years in African
countries. Below is a snapshot of Telecom development in Africa and the kind of improvements which
are visible in Ghana. PAN Africa eNetwork, is a network established by India for Africa under the able
stewardship of the then Prez Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
Telecom Infrastructure in Africa
Infrastructure in Africa has increased over the past years, in spite of the challenges of low population
density, low incomes and large rural populations. The mobile penetration in African countries has
surpassed 600 million subscribers in 2011 and continues to grow at a very fast pace. Despite Africa
lagging in ICT usage with an estimated 250 million Internet users, between 2000 and 2011 the growth of
Internet usage exceeds a whopping 2,000 per cent.
5
Lindsay Sandoval, “The Effect of Education on Brazil’s Economic Development”, Global Majority E-Journal, Vol. 3,
No. 1, (June 2012), pp. 4-19

5. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 5
Africa is experiencing a unique phenomenon of rapid increase and usage of Internet on the mobile
phones.
(Source: Africa on the Move – Investment in ICT is Catalyzing Economic Growth6)
PAN AFRICAN e-NETWORK
Providing the adequate educational facilities and affordable healthcare to citizens are two prominent
concerns of many developing countries. Technological improvements, in terms of communication
infrastructure for delivering quality education & healthcare uniformly, across length and breadth of the
country, are a key factor in the progress of any country. Efforts in delivering education and healthcare
from resourceful urban areas/developed countries to inaccessible remote/rural areas have yielded
fruitful results in terms of access to the quality services in time and cost effective manner.
Inspired by recent advances in the provision of healthcare and medical education through the use of
information and communication technology, nothing India’s long history of assisting in capacity building
6
Dr. Pradeep K. Mukherji and Gurmeet Singh Chopra, "Africa on the Move – Investment in ICT is Catalyzing
Economic Growth" GlobalServices, May 16, 2013, http://www.globalservicesmedia.com/globalervices/analysis/188717/africa-move-investment-ict-catalyzing-economic-growth#sthash.JAvkVD7I.dpuf, accessed
January 8, 2014

6. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 6
programmes and recognizing that Africa-India cooperation can play a major role in harnessing the
benefits of globalization for mutual advantage, the former President of India Dr. APJ. Abdul Kalam
during the inaugural session of the Pan-African Parliament held at Johannesburg on 16th September
2004, proposed in his address to connect all the 53 nations of the African Union by a satellite and a fiber
optic network that would provide communication for Tele-education, Tele – medicine, Internet, Video
conferencing and VoIP services and also support e-Governance, e-Commerce, infotainment, resources
mapping, meteorological services etc.
As a follow up to the initiative taken by Dr.Kalam, the ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India
proceeded to setup an e-Network now called Pan African e-Network.
The Pan –African e-Network project is being funded by the Government of India with an approved
budgetary cost of INR 5429 Million i.e. over US$125 Million. The Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of
India has been designated as the Nodal Ministry. TCIL has been designated as the turnkey Implementing
Agency. In this capacity, TCIL’s role is to design the network, procure & install the equipment, provide
consultancy to the Ministry of External affairs, Government of India on all matters related to the project.
Source: www.telemedicineindia.com and www.panafricaenetwork.com
Knowledge Transfer
“Knowledge Transfer involves the processes for capturing, collecting and sharing explicit
and tacit knowledge, including skills and competence. It includes both commercial and noncommercial activities such as research collaborations, consultancy, licensing, mobility of
researchers, publication of knowledge, disseminating value added information, Learning
systems, etc.7”
Knowledge transfer is a means by which expertise, knowledge, skills and capabilities are transferred
from a knowledge-base - a University or college, a Research Centre or a research technology
7
http://ec.europa.eu/invest-in-research/pdf/download_en/knowledge_transfe_07.pdf

7. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 7
organization or a country to those in need of that knowledge, say a company, an individual, social
enterprise or not-for-profit organization or another country.
Knowledge transfer could involve the interface between universities and business, Government and or
business to business (diverse groups). It involves the commercialization of skills and expertise possessed
by higher education/knowledge of one group for the benefit of the other. The purpose of knowledge
transfer is to catalyze and facilitate innovation.
Generally, these knowledge centers are located at Universities or facilities set up near them which may
be managed by intermediaries or at a location near Industry associations. MIT Media lab, Stanford
Innovation lab and IIT technology transfer cells are the examples of the first kind. However, in the recent
past, more innovative models of knowledge transfer have evolved which are based on transfer of
knowledge intensive services. Mostly, these services are facilitated through the setting up of a
technology platform which acts as medium and intermediary to the knowledge transfer.
Knowledge intensive services can be defined as “economic activities conducted by private sector
organizations that combine technology, knowledge (such as R&D) and highly skilled employees to
provide a service to the market8.“
A Harvard Business Online paper argued that: "A common characteristic of knowledge-intensive
business service (KIBS) firms is that clients routinely play a critical role in co-producing the service
solution along with the service provider. This can have a profound effect on both the quality of the
service delivered as well as the client's ultimate satisfaction with the knowledge-based service solution.
8
IGRiNN , “Glossary” http://www.igrinn.eu/en/glossary/93-k/59-knowledge-intensive-services, accessed on January 10, 2014

8. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 8
By strategically managing client co-production, service providers can improve operational efficiency,
develop more optimal solutions and generate a sustainable competitive advantage9.
While OECD believes that: “Knowledge-Intensive Service Activities (KISAs) enables firms and public
sector organizations to better innovate. KISAs are both sources and carriers of knowledge that influence
and improve the performance of individual organizations, value chains and industry clusters across all
sectors of the economy,10” KISAs are equally applicable to knowledge exchange across continents and
members of clusters to provide unique network synergies. The PAN Africa eNetwork between India and
Africa is a great example. In the next few sections, I would try to elaborate on this through 3 case
studies.
CASE 1 & 2
Knowledge Exchange for Healthcare and Education between India and Africa
His Excellency the President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, during the inaugural session of the PanAfrican Parliament held at Johannesburg proposed in his talk a programme to connect all the 53 African
nations by a Satellite and Fiber Optic Network that would provide effective communication and
connectivity among the Nations.
The Pan African e-network project is by far the biggest project for telemedicine and distance education
in Africa resulting from the growing partnership between India and Africa.
Under the Pan African e-Network Project, India has set up a fibre-optic network to provide satellite
connectivity, tele-medicine and tele-education to countries of Africa. The project aims to create
significant linkages for tele-education and telemedicine, internet, video-conferencing and VoIP services,
9
L. Bettencourt, et al., “Client Client Co-Production in Knowledge-Intensive Business Services” HBR, Jul 1, 2002
10
OECD, “Innovation and Knowledge-Intensive Service Activities”, (OECD, March 2006)

9. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 9
making available the facilities and expertise of some of the best universities and super-specialty hospitals
in India to the people of Africa. The receiving centers are fully equipped by GOI and local staff there is
trained by Indian experts.
Status of the project:
The project has been commissioned in 47 countries out of the 48 that have signed the agreement with
TCIL for participating in the project. The Project is presently being implemented in South Sudan. Angola,
South Africa, Equatorial Guinea, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia have not signed the agreement for joining
the project. As per existing commitment, GOI will maintain the facilities created in each country for five
years after commissioning them.
CASE 1 – TELEMEDICINE COMPONENT
Under the Telemedicine component, patient end locations have already been set up in the 12 Indian
Super Specialty Hospitals, namely:
1 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi
2 Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Kochi
3 Apollo Hospitals, Chennai
4 CARE Hospital The Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad
5 Dr. Balabhai Nanavati Hospital, Mumbai
6 Escort Hearts Institute and Research Centre Limited, New Delhi
7 Fortis Hospital, Noida
8 HealthCare Global, Bangalore
9 Mool Chand Khairati Ram Hospital, New Delhi
10 Narayana Hrudayalaya Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore
11 Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Science, Lucknow
12 Sri. Ramachandra Medical College & Research Institute, Chennai

10. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 10
Knowledge Transfer:
These 12 Indian Super Specialty Hospitals have been connected to 48 Patient-End Locations/Hospitals in
African countries, one in each African country.
Tele-Medicine centres have been set up in four Regional Super Specialty Hospitals in Nigeria, Republic of
Congo, Mauritius and Egypt and 5th is in the process of being set up in Senegal.
460 Tele-Medicine consultations have taken place under the Project. Regular Continuing Medical
Education (CME) sessions had started from April 22, 2009 from Super Specialty Hospitals. 2439 CME
Sessions in English and 167 CME Sessions in French have been held from Indian Super Specialty Hospitals
till Sept., 2012. (Source: http://mea.gov.in/Portal/ForeignRelation/Pan_African_e_docx_for_xp.pdf)
Telemedicine though still in its infancy stages in Africa is potentially a very useful conduit of health-care
given the fact that the continent is resource limited and still enduring the effects of scarce human
resource especially, in health. With the telemedicine support, healthcare can now be delivered from
specialists in India to remote and rural areas of Africa, at a fraction of the cost.
Knowledge Intensive Services
While the PAN Africa eNetwork, provides a great platform to provide the delivery of the healthcare
service from India to Africa. It is vital to understand that such projects cannot be sustainable until a
mechanism for long term viability is worked out, one of the approach is to offer knowledge intensive
services on such platform through private/public partnerships. One of the players and active champion
of telemedicine and key initial healthcare service provider has been Dr. Prathap Reddy and his Apollo
Hospitals. To create a sustainable mechanism for long term knowledge intensive service delivery he
visualized Apollo Telemedicine Network Foundation (ATNF) and Apollo Tele Health Services (ATHS).

11. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 11
Both have been working with PAN Africa eNetwork as well as their own network to provide eServices of
Telemedicine and CME delivery on a regular basis to Africa from India.
With the initial investments and early mover advantage, Apollo Hospitals are now able to offer
affordable healthcare services through telemedicine in Africa as well as offer Medical Tourism to
patients who could afford treatment in their Indian Hospitals. Apollo Hospitals has successfully treated
over 60000 foreign patients from across the world in last five years and the numbers are looking up
every year. Though the exact number of patients is now known, they do receive a large number from
African countries.
With deep rooted synergies and business case of offering sustainable healthcare services (for both profit
and not for profit endeavors), Apollo group has created a landmark in Indo Africa knowledge exchange
in the area of integrated healthcare services and capacity building of local (African) service providers.

12. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 12
TELEMEDICINE DEMYSTIFIED
“Telemedicine is a delivery and provision of healthcare and consultative services to individual patients
and the transmission of information related to care, over distance, using telecommunications
technologies. Telemedicine incorporates direct clinical, preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic
services and treatment; consultative and follow-up services; remote monitoring of patients;
rehabilitative services; and patient education".
Telemedicine brings healthcare within reach of the population residing in areas with limited or no
healthcare. Telemedicine allows patients to seek medical care in case of an emergency or otherwise.
With this technology, medical reports - videos or radiology images can be transmitted to facilitate an
accurate diagnosis. Telemedicine is also useful in getting doctors in touch with their peers to discuss
complicated issues or to get specialized help remotely.
Telemedicine applied to medical practice results in:
•
Minimal patients’ travel for quality treatment
•
Cost effective method of health care delivery
•
More efficient and effective use of medical and technological resources
•
Enhanced diagnostic and therapeutic quality of care
•
New possibilities for continuing education or training for isolated or rural health practitioners
Education/Continuous Medical Education (CME)
Tools like video conferencing systems can be used for conducting community development programs
and also for imparting knowledge to the medical/ paramedical staff involved in the delivery of
healthcare services. This can take shape in the form of grand-ward/rounds, preoperative rounds,
clinico-pathological correlations etc.
Healthcare Knowledge Base
Networks can be leveraged to capture and store valuable healthcare info for decision support system.
Source: http://www.telemedicineindia.com/

13. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 13
CASE II TELE-EDUCATION COMPONENT
Under the Pan Africa eNetwork , Tele-Education teaching centres have already been set-up in the five
Indian Universities, namely;

Amity University, NOIDA;

IGNOU New Delhi;

BITS, Pilani;

University of Delhi;

University of Madras.
Source: http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde48/articles/article_14.htm
Programs like MBA, Master in Finance Control, PG Diploma in IT, M.Sc. in IT and Bachelor in Finance &
Investment Analysis and many others are being offered through Regular Tele-Education live sessions
conducted from India for African countries.

14. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 14
Tele-education service are provided by the Indian Universities to the participating countries in the
educational programs(Post-graduate, Under-graduate, Certificate and Diploma Courses) selected by
African Union. Over a period of 5 years, 10,000 students of Africa are expected to be imparted education
in the agreed courses.
47 Learning Centers (LCs) have already been set up in African countries. Tele-Education learning centers
have been set-up in the 5 Regional University Centers in Africa, namely:

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana;

Makerere University, Uganda;

Yaounde University, Cameroon;

Alexandria Faculty of Commerce, Egypt and

Chancellor College, Zomba, Malawi.
Knowledge transfer:
9916 students from African countries have already registered with Indian universities for a variety of PG,
UG and certificate courses. 3503 tele-education sessions have been held till end September 2012.
(Source: http://mea.gov.in/Portal/ForeignRelation/Pan_African_e_docx_for_xp.pdf and
www.panafricaenetwork.com)
Knowledge Intensive Services:
Makerere University as ICT Centre of Excellence
Under the Regional Leading University for the Pan-African E-Network Project, Makerere University was
selected by the African Union to be the ICT Centre of excellence for Eastern Africa region and is
mandated to oversee ICT African Union Initiatives in 13 countries on Tele-Education project.
Five Universities in Africa one in each of the five regions of Africa i.e. Eastern, Southern, Central,
Western and Northern were selected. In addition, Uganda in general and Makerere University, Faculty
of Computing and IT was selected as the HUB among the five lead universities.

15. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 15
The 53 African countries are to connected as one network through satellite, fiber optics and wireless
links providing electronic and knowledge connectivity to the African nations based on the connectivity
mission. As a HUB Uganda is in charge of equipment for use by the 53 countries for the PAN-African ENetwork. It will also use this sophisticated equipment to broadcast local content all over Uganda and
thus provide education for all at all levels of formal education in addition to informal education. Overall
the project is worth 200 million dollars funded by the Indian Government and African Union. Under this
project, Makerere University has received equipment worth 20 Million Dollars.
Source: http://cit.mak.ac.ug/projects/257--pan-african-e-network-tele-education-project.html
By ensuring that a local university acts as a hub for the PAN Africa eNetwork, not only the acceptability
and usability of the network was ensured, but also a proper knowledge transfer was made from India to
the African counterpart. The local university now delivers and manages the sophisticated servers and
equipment and delivers the requisite services to the entire 53 countries of Africa, as a knowledge
services backend.
Still in its infancy but mighty in its reach, the Pan Africa e-Network Project has promises to keep and a
long way to go. To really achieve the goals of South-South collaboration, it is required to research
further into the impact of the new paradigm of learning across Africa.
From geographically dispersed individual-centric learning, it is now time to move towards collective
learning across Africa, and the African countries start taking ownership of project after internalizing the
knowledge gained.
As Dr. Kalam puts it “The challenge of the next phase of the project is to build bridges between all African
tele-centres to forge a synergy of learning experience, as knowledge shared is knowledge
multiplied “ 11.
11
Abdul Kalam, "Two Billion Dreams: Celebrating India Africa Friendship". PAN-African e-Network, IANS India Pvt. Ltd.,
http://2billiondreams.in/index.php?param=about_the_book, accessed January 10, 2014

16. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 16
CASE 3
Book Exports to Africa by Repro India
Repro India Limited
Repro was established in 1984 as a provider of integrated print solutions to publishers and corporations
the world over. Today, Repro offers significant backward and forward integration which involves
managing customer’s content, printing and delivering in different formats. In the financial year 2010-11
REPRO clocked over INR 2.5 billion in revenue, with over 50% coming from overseas markets.
Repro is a provider of content, print and fulfillment solutions to publishers, corporates, education
institutions and governments. Repro bring efficiencies to our customer’s value chain by providing them a
one stop solution to their needs, right from managing and repurposing content, to printing and binding to
delivery anywhere across the globe.
Today, Repro serves customers across four continents. They produce multiple product formats such as
books, e-books and other interactive content. Repro’s core activities are supported by a state of the art
infrastructure which includes the most contemporary Information Technology and two modern book
printing plants on India’s west coast. They have strategic partnerships with global logistics providers.
Repro is certified for ISO 9001-2008, ISO 14000 – 2004, FSC, PEFC and SEDEX for quality, environment
& social compliance practices. Repro has been awarded the CAPEXIL Export Award for being India’s
leading books exporter consequently for 5 years now.
Source: Repro India Website http://www.reproindialtd.com/
Repro focusses on two markets- India, which has 1.2 billion people and where education is growing fast
and other is Africa, with a population of 1.1 billion people. Almost 60% of the population in both these
countries is in the education segment from the age of 3-22. Assuming 60% of this 1.2 billion people, you
have close to 4 billion books requirements in each country in that specific segment. Even at a dollar a
book, they address the $4 billion market for the primary and school education in both countries.
Africa constitutes of 60% of all exports of Repro India. It supplies pupil books to 14 African countries,
with export countries very well spread around the entire African continent-

17. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 17
 West Africa - Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon;
 East Africa - Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Africa
 South African Development Region (SADC) - Mozambique, Botswana, Swaziland and so on.
Knowledge Intensive Services
Repro India has acquired the printing setup of Macmillan Publishers for 4 countries in Africa and aim to
acquire many more of their printing setups or have strategic partners to have deeper penetration into the
African market. Repro also aims to work with strategic partners who work in local African markets to
further consolidate its position in Africa.
From providing just export of books and printing services, Repro is now establishing local setups in Africa
to offer value added services in the educational segments, including elearning and interactive educational
content. It has recently launched two interactive products for education:
Rapples is Repro’s tablet based learning solution. This solution provides every student with a pre-loaded
educational tablet, with text books as per the choice of the school.
Rapples has been designed to bring into its fold the four key stakeholders in education – the teacher, the
student, the school management and the publisher.
Repro CloudStore, Repro’s digital storefront, has a collection of thousands of books across genres –
educational and otherwise. It gives students direct access to books, while facilitating the reach of
publisher’s content to multiple access points across the globe. A strategic tie-up with a global e-book
store has given users of CloudStore a vast sea of books to choose from.

18. Bhasin / Knowledge Transfer / 18
Conclusion
Through the three case studies, we can see how Knowledge transfer has been undertaken to successful
implementation of Knowledge intensive services in Healthcare, Education and Book Business.
But to build more effective knowledge transfer between India and Africa, we need to create more
platforms to enable information exchange at strategic levels. Some suggestions are –
1. An Elearning platform on the cloud, which uses the MOOC approach targeted at the Higher
education and professional learning. The courses can have Rich media (Video and Audio)
and ebooks based learning material. Mobile technology for end user interaction. Students
could collaborate and learn across India and Africa.
2. An interactive platform to engage with Indian Diaspora in Africa for knowledge exchange in
Literature, Culture and Education. This platform could stimulate trade publishers to export
books direct to Indian Diaspora in Africa and vice versa.
3. Online STEM Publications and Research Journals for Indian-African Researchers
4. Joint Projects on developing Ebooks for Children and Education
5. Policy level interaction between India and African countries to have a standardized
educational content and syllabus drawn, so that Indian Publishers can develop targeted
content for Educational system.
6. Facilitation of Medical Tourism to India from African countries through the Telemedicine
network for pre-screening the patients by the participating hospitals in India in the PAN
African eNetwork.
I hope that we can see a ‘single continuum for knowledge’ by developing such platforms, where South
African community and Indian Businesses work and innovate together to create information exchange in
a systematic way to improve the business performance in the service delivery across continents but
bonded through knowledge networks.
“If we can dream it, we can build it!”
Knowledge Transfer through knowledge intensive services is truly putting Knowledge in action to
improve the business performance of not just the African but also the Indian businesses.