Building a New India

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
suchas 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.