Can Google solve India's bandwidth problems?

BANGALORE, INDIA: India isn't ready for revolutionary digital innovations, which already seem feasible in the US. Can Google make it possible? Certainly there is an effort in that direction, if you ask Lalitesh Katragadda, County Head, Product (Google India).

Talking about Google testing a business model to prove that it is viable for businesses to make money by selling high-speed bandwidth, he said, "We are working on similar access programmes in India, but we aren't doing anything ambitious. We are workign with government in terms of technical and policy interchanges."

The World Bank has forecast that a 10 pc rise in broadband connectivity would boost GDP. A recent study by McKinsey Consultants has found that internet contributed nearly $30 billion to India's GDP in 2011 and could potentially contribute up to $100 bn by 2015.

The key factor responsible is India's rapidly growing number of Internet users, expected to increase anywhere between 330 million and 370 million by 2015. However, the growth of number of users hasn't been proportional to the quality of internet access.

Poor bandwidth has been a biggest challenge for businesses to make an impact on digital economy. But there is hope as India has unique advantage of not having legacy infrastructure.

"We have an advantage of leapfrogging the traditional infrastructure and bypassing hurdles to directly go to private players. It is an opportunity where we can give high-speed bandwidth in the hands of people. Access is very important but we are not going about the same way as in the US as the US has very different problems," Lalitesh said at the inauguration of the Innovation Karnataka, a joint initiative of the Karnataka State Innovation Council and Google to recognize the innovative spirit of the creative minds of Karnataka.

Citing the success stories of RedBus, an e-ticket facility; Sakala, an egovernance initiative; and Kanaja, a Kannada encyclopedia, Lalitesh said: "We don't have to import innovation." Emphasising on the use of Internet for inclusive growth, he said: Right now internet reaches only 10 pc of Indians. But in a decade it will reach a billion people in India itself."

As Lalitesh pointed out, in India, access to high-speed internet is still low. According to a response in India's Lok Sabha, in 2011, broadband formed only 72 pc of Karnataka households Internet connections. The remaining are merely narrow band Internet connections, with speeds of lesser than 256 kbps in contrast to the much faster speeds offered by broadband.

Among many solutions, what is most essential is to highlight the existing barriers to it and bring them to the policy agenda. Hope many would agree on that.