Thursday, May 27, 2004
The new IT and Telecom policy in India
Dayanidhi Maran, the new IT and Telecom minister has just announced a 10 point agenda to boost both sectors. The excellent agenda includes convergence, e-governance, increased broadband penetration, bypassing 3G and moving straight to 4G technologies, a national internet exchange, migration to IPv6, vernacular computing, security and digital signatures and to provide thrust into the outsourcing sector, especially in outsourcing R&D. In addition, there is specific mention of a new mandate for Media Labs Asia, which includes....
1.Providing seamless communication connectivity to rural areas and promoting value-added services and micro enterprises to double the village GDP in a couple of years.
2.Extend quality healthcare services to remote areas using the technologies of telemedicine and Internet access.
3.Use information and communication technology tools to improve literacy through distance education.
4.Promote development and availability of low-cost PCs and communication access devices to increase internet penetration 10-fold in a few years.
Of course, this is just an agenda and could end up translating into nothing at all. However, I am glad Maran is at least paying attention to long overdue issues like a national internet exchange (which will ensure cheaper and more efficient routing of traffic) and the migration to IPv6. Maran is probably the youngest minister in the cabinet and I have some hopes of him, given his background -- Loyola Economics, Harvard Business and looking after one of the arms of Sun TV (south India's most successful TV channel). If this agenda he has come up with is any indication, there's reason to be optimistic looking forward.
And if any of you have doubts about Maran, think of who the alternative was -- Ram Vilas Paswan, who thought providing free phones to 250,000 employees was the way to promote teledensity in the country. You'll feel better already :)
1.Providing seamless communication connectivity to rural areas and promoting value-added services and micro enterprises to double the village GDP in a couple of years.
2.Extend quality healthcare services to remote areas using the technologies of telemedicine and Internet access.
3.Use information and communication technology tools to improve literacy through distance education.
4.Promote development and availability of low-cost PCs and communication access devices to increase internet penetration 10-fold in a few years.
Of course, this is just an agenda and could end up translating into nothing at all. However, I am glad Maran is at least paying attention to long overdue issues like a national internet exchange (which will ensure cheaper and more efficient routing of traffic) and the migration to IPv6. Maran is probably the youngest minister in the cabinet and I have some hopes of him, given his background -- Loyola Economics, Harvard Business and looking after one of the arms of Sun TV (south India's most successful TV channel). If this agenda he has come up with is any indication, there's reason to be optimistic looking forward.
And if any of you have doubts about Maran, think of who the alternative was -- Ram Vilas Paswan, who thought providing free phones to 250,000 employees was the way to promote teledensity in the country. You'll feel better already :)
