At the inauguration ceremony of the recently concluded SEARCC 2011
conference in Mumbai, two ministers shared plans to increase
broadband penetration and Internet usage in India. Lower CPE
pricing, affordable software and hardware products, and cheap,
consistent broadband connectivity to interconnect villages are the
means to achieve this. But is all that a distant dream?
The conference had the theme “Collaborating for inclusive
growth” – using ICT. More specifically, the Government
of India wants to connect the farthest reaches of its populations,
and that includes citizen’s living in the remote hamlets in
India. Through SEARCC (South East Asia Regional Computer
Confederation), the government also wants to collaborate with other
nations in the region---12 SEARCC nations had a presence at the
conference.
The conference, which was organized and hosted by the Computer
Society of India (CSI) had delegates from SEARCC member nations
such as Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Myanmar, Taiwan, Australia, Nepal,
China and others. SEARCC was created by the UN in 1978 and
established in 1988.
Sachin Pilot, Hon. Minister of State in the Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology (P) acknowledged the work
of CSI and SEARCC. He informed that the Government is now in the
process of finalizing major policy initiatives such as the new
Telecom policy, the new IT policy and a new Manufacturing
policy.
“The communication aspect is no longer just about voice
– it’s about data and how to transmit that data. Giving
connectivity to all parts of India is a major challenge. We need to
have infrastructure where everyone has equal, undisturbed, cheap
and reliable access to information. As a nation…there is a
need to handhold some other countries in the region (in South
Asia),” said Pilot.
He also acknowledged the progress that the nation has made in
terms of growth in mobile subscribers and internet penetration. But
said we have many more miles to go.
“While India makes these giant strides, we have a
responsibility as an important partner in the region. People in the
region have tremendous expectations from the Indian industry and
leadership. As we move forward in the next two years, India will be
a strong partner in sharing that information to ensure that all our
people, not just within India but even in the smaller countries and
states in the neighborhood, will be able to attain and achieve some
access to what we have done in India,” said Pilot.
The Government now has centers of excellence where people from
other countries are trained; it sponsors “thousands of young
people” from across the South Asian region “to come to
Indian cities and get on-the-job training.”
“We need to address issues of cyber security, local
content development, having accessibility to cities and even the
smallest hamlets in India. We need to make the most inaccessible
parts of our geography as equal partners and move ahead in our
journey for growth with ICT as an enabler to leverage the potential
we have to the realities of life,” said Pilot.
The other minister who graced the occasion with his presence was
Milind Deora, Hon. Minister of State in the Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology (D).
“There are two fundamental objectives to keep in mind as we
deliberate on what needs to be done in the India and South East
Asian context. ICT is really about building the skill sets for
making our youth employable and to get jobs in the global arena.
Secondly, (we need) to improve the quality and efficacy of
governance and to bring down the cost of governance. It is about
utilitarian services that the government already provides (through
various citizen services). These can be delivered in a
cost-efficient, time-bound manner – removing all the
leakages,” said Deora.
The minister also spoke about three critical parts of the
ecosystem and alluded to some data points -- 100 million Internet
users in India, as against 900 million mobile subscribers. Only 60
percent of these Internet users have broadband access.
“To offset that the government is embarking on initiatives
like the National Optical Fiber network to connect villages,
cities, and unconnected areas. Secondly, the government is bringing
down the cost of Customer Premise Equipment (CPE). We have a
liberal import regime, yet we encourage domestic manufacturing as
it will bring down costs of CPE further. For instance, the recently
launched Akash tablet costs just Rs 3,000. Thirdly, is the creation
of software in the mobile or VAS space. And enabling the
collaboration of companies in the private sector to create this
software at a low cost. This is a critical component in the
ecosystem. (We need to look at) how we create open-ended,
accessible and indigenous software, and allow entrepreneurs to
focus on building that software ecosystem in the utilitarian
area,” said Deora.
About Author
Brian Pereira is a veteran IT journalist based in Mumbai, India. He is currently the Editor at InformationWeek India. Brian has written several articles on consumer and enterprise technology, since 1992. He has also spoken at Forums such as Nasscom, Cloud Computing World Forum and many others. During his career he worked for reputed organizations like Times of India, Indian Express Group, Jasubhai Digital Media and Infomedia18.
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