MAIT (Manufacturers' Association For Information Technology), feels that increased broadband proliferation can create a real IT revolution in the country. However he is of the opinion that India needs to work harder to get the best out of broadband and related services. Radhika Nallayam of CIOL caught up with him to get his views about the booming broadband industry.

CIOL: How do you see the broadband scenario in India? Do you think we are lagging behind?

There is absolutely no denying that Broadband is a very critical efficiency resource for any organization. We can't think of not being connected anymore. I think the broadband penetration is still very poor in India. The television sector stands as a good example for the broadband sector.

In early 80's when we had the Asian games, the government allowed the cable industry, which was a non-regulatory industry, to grow. What that led to was an enormous amount of content. Today we have hundreds of channels available on our television. TV penetration, along with viewer ship increased dramatically and thus TV became a very important medium for mass communication.

Unfortunately when we look at creating an IT revolution in the country, we realize that we have probably missed out some of the elements. Broadband penetration in India is pretty low. Apart from that, for the entire cycle to happen, along with broadband, we need the right content, especially in local languages.

Contents will also imply applications and services ride on the broadband infrastructure. The lack of content in turn results in very slow proliferation of broadband infrastructure. As a result, we are not able to harness the economic growth in the country. So, I believe broadband has direct relation with the country's GDP growth. If there were a plethora of services available on broadband infrastructure, it would clearly lead to economic growth.