Pilot's dream is to see most India online

NEW DELHI, INDIA: As India is inching towards achieving ambitious Internet penetration goals, minister of state for communications and IT Sachin Pilot has said the country is still to achieve open and user-friendly Internet services.

Speaking at ‘Mobile Web Initiative’ event organized by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in New Delhi, Pilot said that technological accomplishments can help expand the reach of the Internet.

The challenge, he said, is to provide locally-relevant applications to individuals residing in far and remote regions, and in north-eastern states. The government is spending Rs. 20,000 crore on optic fibre network, which Pilot believes is well poised to connect panchayats (rural administrative units) in the country.

India is a price-sensitive market, although, he said huge opportunities await SMEs and large businesses. As five billion people are projected to have Internet access worldwide in years to come, Pilot believes that new users would come from the nations such as India, China and Africa.

Internet, he feels, is driven by infotainment. “Our dream is to see most India online,” added Pilot. He also assured the industry and stakeholders that the government is keen to extend support in all possible ways.

IT secretary J Sathyanarayana said that though mobile penetration is impressive, Internet has only 15 per cent user base. He said that the government is investing in CSCs, but without local content the investment would not sustain and may become obsolete.

Sathyanarayana believes that mobile with Indian language content has become highly imperative today. “Focus should be around standardization and local-content applications,"  he added.

PM’s advisor on national skills and industry veteran S Ramadorai believes that local language support on mobile devices is essential. “There is a need to create common framework for mobile standards,” he said.

With M-governance and many other services being designed around mobile platform, Ramadorai feels that local language delivery has become a crucial constituent.

Ajay Kumar, joint secretary at DIT, believes that hardware cost is coming down due to the advent of tablet and smartphone, therefore, he said that content should be available in all 22 Indian languages.

IAMAI expects 300 million Internet users by 2015, which it believes can be achieved by provisioning India content over the mobile devices.

“Responsibility lies with device manufacturers, infrastructure providers, service operators and content providers," the association said.