Connect rural India: Pitroda

CMN Bureau

BANGALORE, INDIA: Connect rural India to the rest of India in terms of telephone connectivity, urged Sam Pitroda, technology maverick and chairman of National Knowledge Commission (NKC).

He was delivering the keynote address through a video conferencing from Chicago during the seminar, ‘Comtel 2008: Breaking barriers, bridging the divide’ organized by Confederation of Indian Industry in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Pitroda stated that telephone density is predominantly in the urban region, a phenomenon that should change.

“This is the first challenge to connect to the rural India. Otherwise the agenda will remain unfinished,” he said.

He said that the NKC report on e-governance has put its focus on interoperability. e-governance should bring about openness, democratization, transparency, access and ultimate social accountability in the same way as telephone did, felt Pitroda.

Pitroda added that telecom has an important role to play in key sectors like governance, agriculture and healthcare.

Prioritizing his visions on digitalizing the country, he said: “The first (priority) is connecting the rural India. Then comes the need to improve broadband connectivity, which should be followed by developing applications in local languages with an eye on key sectors like agriculture. And the last is e-governance.”

Presenting the theme of the seminar, Rajiv C Mody, chairman of Sasken Communications Technologies Ltd, observed that over 60 per cent of the world population has never heard a dial tone in their life.

“So bridging the divide is a essential and it is a big challenge also,” said Mody.

Digital leather wallet

Mody said that the digital leather wallet concept conceived by Pitroda would change the way mobile phones are used as a means of entertainment.

The concept envisages the replacement of the traditional wallet with the fully digital solution. The concept is that one can perform all his financial transactions using his mobile phone, which will act as his plastic card.

On the question of security threat in the novel concept, Mody called for the need to have a focused effort by regulators. Mody added that e-medicine has high potential in India.

Challenges

In a panel discussion, Kumar Sivarajan of Tejas Networks Indian Ltd. spoke about the challenges in front of the global telecom industry.

He stressed the need for using global telecom standards in breaking country, carrier and vendor equations.

Rajat Gupta, managing director, Beceem Communications Pvt Ltd, said that electronics and telemedicine should be the first two drivers in the telecom sectors.

“India’s telecom market is not driving technology, because policy decisions come very lately. Because policy decisions are announced not in sync with the technological advancement, telecom players are forced to cut themselves into whatever type they think they are fit into in accordance with the government’s policy,” he said.

According to him, just like mobile phones made PCOs obsolete, there should be similar model for rural connectivity. He also stressed the need for good e-waste management in India.

Subu Goparaju, vice president, Infosys, said that telecom is not just about infrastructure, but it is about connecting communities and people.

Soon there will be portals for micro-finance and education. Those who can lend small amounts of money can do so with the help of portals micro-finance portals.

Novel video transfer

Arun Netravali, managing partner, OmniCapital, LLC and president (Emeritus) Bell Laboratories, showed a novel concept of transferring video, through a videoconference from the US.

He presented a combination of Internet and cheap Ethernet switching for transmitting video files. According to him, the video market is growing for various purposes. He said that the network delivery of video has become cheaper than mail (for example: netfix) and DVD stores (Blockbuster).

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