India's top political leadership, dealing with telecom and IT broadband, re-instated that they believe that broadband is going to be the next revolution after mobile phones. And also that broadband penetration will be one of the building blocks for national development. Speaking at a seminar organized by Internet Service Providers of India (ISPAI) and Communication Multimedia and Infrastructure Association of India (CMAI), Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Indian Prime Minister on Public Information, Infrastructure and Innovations; Milind Deora and Sachin Pilot, both Minister of State for Communications and IT, agreed that broadband will play a key role in India's ambition to be economic and cultural powerhouse.
On the changing telecom scene in India, Pitroda said, “The first phase of the telecom revolution in India was about mobile telephony and it is about to end. And the second phase of the revolution will be about broadband and it is about to begin.” Known as the father of Indian telecom revolution, Pitroda said he expects broadband will push India's GDP by almost 1-2%”. The reassuring thing that Pitroda said was that it was the Government of India's duty to use broadband as a tool for reducing disparity among the 'have's and have not's' in the country. He said that broadband will create millions of jobs in India.
The government's thrust is actually backed with lots of action. For instance the National Knowledge Network that is being setup, will have 1,500 nodes connecting all the universities, colleges, and research labs with a 40GB network for multi-disciplinary collaborations. Out of this plan, 300 nodes are already up and running. Similarly, 2,50,000 panchayats across the country will be connected over a fiber optic network. Similarly a project headed by Dr Kasturirangan, former ISRO head and now a planning commission member, is now driving a project that will capture India on a GIS platform, and Nandan Nilkani's UID project that will tag each and every person living in India. These would be a big facilitator of broadband penetration and usage in India.
While Pitroda talked about what wonders broadband can bring about, R Chandrashekhar, telecom secretary and chairman of telecom commission in the Government of India, outlined that social sector services such as health and education can be completely transformed with broadband. He said that hopefully in a few years broadband connectivity will be a given, but the big challenge will be in terms of content availability and preparedness to leverage broadband.
Pravin Vishakantaiah, CMAI vice chairman, said that 3 things that are necessary for broadband to succeed in India and reach common man were e-governance initiatives, creation of a broadband entrepreneurship ecosystem, and research around telecom technologies.
While the country is caught in the flames of telecom scam, it was one of those rare occasions when the political masters in charge of ICT in India came together on a single platform to support broadband. Speaking on the occasion, Milind Deora, in his first address after taking over as the new minster of state for communications and IT said, “Considering that broadband penetration is so low in India, this is both a challenge as well as an opportunity.” He added, “We as a government are very serious about the broadband revolution in India and are putting all our resources behind it”. Sachin Pilot, the other minister of state for telecom and IT, said, “The game changer in Indian telecom so far has been low tariffs and low-cost handsets. The challenge before all of us is to create demand for more services, and mere connectivity will not suffice”.
The surprise at the conference was Milind Deora's statement that “telecom equipment manufacturing in India should also be a part of this telecom revolution so that we have a vibrant manufacturing industry that can compete globally”. He got loud cheers and clapping with this statement. Deora also informed that some announcements regarding domestic telecom manufacturing are likely to be made soon.
It was heartening to hear India's political leadership, which still plays a significant role in policy making that impacts telecom products, services and manufacturing, talk in one voice about the criticality of broadband for India's progress, and how they plan to make it happen. However, only time will tell whether broadband revolution is around the corner, or will continue to be a distant dream.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Ibrahim Ahmad
Quelle/Source: Voice & Data Online, 30.08.2011
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