International Journal in Management and Social Science Volume 07 Issue 11, November 2019 ISSN: 2321-1784 Impact Factor: 6.319 Journal Homepage: http://ijmr.net.in, Email: irjmss@gmail.com Double-Blind Peer Reviewed Refereed Open Access International Journal 48 International Journal in Management and Social Science http://ijmr.net.in, Email: irjmss@gmail.com ICT IN CAPACITY BUILDING : A STUDY OF TEA GARDEN COMMUNITY OF ASSAM IN INDIA Dr .Partha Sarkar* *Associate Professor, Dept of Mass Communication, Assam University. Silchar, India. Abstract ICTs are playing a very important role, now-a-days, in development of rural areas. The application of ICT is improving the quality of life of the backward communities in India, more particularly by building their capacity. The tea industry in Barak Valley in Southern Assam of India provides employment to about 30% of the working population. In this regard a study was conducted in the three tea gardens of Barak Valley to identify the needs and role of ICTs in capacity building of the Tea Garden Community. In the study, the data was collected through the participants‘ observation as well as interview schedule. The respondents were union leaders, executives and workers selected purposefully on first-met-first response basis. On the basis of findings, the paper analyses the relationship between ICT and development in the tea garden community. ICT offers communication facilities that support various activities in their livelihood. The main discussion of this paper is primarily to assist the tea garden community of the Barak Valley of Assam as well as to improve their productivity and the standard of living through the implementation of ICT. Keywords: ICT, capacity building, development, tea garden. 1. Introduction Information and communications technology (ICT) refers to all the technology used to handle telecommunications, broadcast media, intelligent building management systems, audiovisual processing and transmission systems, and network-based control and monitoring functions. Although ICT is often considered an extended synonym for information technology (IT), its scope is broader. ICT has more recently been used to describe the convergence of several technologies and the use of common transmission lines carrying very diverse data and communication types and formats. 1.1 Information and Communication Technology The term Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is also used to refer to the convergence of audiovisual and telephone networks with computer networks through a single cabling or link system. There are large economic incentives (huge cost savings due to the elimination of the telephone network) to merge the telephone network with the computer network system using a single unified system of cabling, signal distribution, and management.