This project supports a joint research by Dr. Gerard Rushton, Department of Geography, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa and Dr. Vinod Tewari, Indian School of Management Bangalore (IIMB), India to develop and test a decision-support system for improving the locational efficiency of service systems appropriate to rural areas in India. Specifically the team will: Identify the decision-making process and analyze the needs of the decision-makers with reference to selected service systems in a sample study area; develop an analysis procedure with optimizing models for resources allocation; develop interactive software for the analysis in the form of a micro-computer based system; evaluate alternative models in an interactive mode; and bring together scholars, planners and decision-makers to refine the decision-support system and to assist in its dissemination. The project should lead to enhancing the quality of health services, banking services, education and other sectors that consume large public resources. In addition the study should increase the knowledge of the performance of rural service delivery systems in developing countries and help define the generic features of service delivery systems and develop rules for expert systems that will be more appropriate than any existing at present. Scope: The University of Iowa has a Center for International Cooperative Studies and Department of Geography each of which has excellent resources including staff with relevant international experience as well as scholars who are conducting research in this field. The IIMB has a mandate and the needed facilities to play a major role in the design of new systems for Indian conditions and to train managers in recent development in computer assisted decision-making and information systems. These two institutes working jointly should help make this project successful and produce meaningful results of scientific benefit and of pertinent applications.
