WHERE IS INDIA LAGGING BEHIND IN ICT AND TELECOM TECHNOLOGIES?

We import 99.99 per cent of ICT and Telecom technologies today, incurring a cost of USD 120 billion. This bill is estimated to increase to USD 400 billion by 2020.

Will we have the money to foot that huge bill? If USD 120 billion, which is Rs 800,000 crore, circulates within the country, it will generate thousands of millions of crores.

We have to strive for self-sufficiency and build technologies. Transfer of technology, licensed production or joint ventures rarely give a country any true strength and often become an addictive habit. No donor country will transfer their best technology and therefore, whole scale imports are not sustainable in the long term. All the systems are supplied by foreigners, which makes India very vulnerable.

What should be done to achieve self-sufficiency in these technologies?

We need to change the system. The world is racing ahead. We are completely at the bottom in every single metric in science and technology while China is far ahead. If we have the money to import technologies worth USD 120 billion then I am sure we can spend a couple of billion dollars trying to build technologies in India.

But, we must collaborate with the rest of the world. China did it by sheer government willpower over the last 20 years. For instance, China has sent 200,000 junior professors, PhD students and post doctoral students to the US to work in top universities. They go back and create great value at home. Thanks to the bureaucratic mindset, one of our best institutes of higher education, IIT-Delhi, is ranked 250th in the world.

The Indian government has no way of funding them other than some interaction through some Commonwealth fund. The technology base in India compared to the world is less than 1 per cent today. Why can’t we invest a few billions dollars in education, R&D and in building technologies?

Won’t Indian talent come up with innovative, indigenous technologies?

Great talent is available in Africa and Malaysia too. Give me an example of one idea or anything hi-tech that we have made in this country in Telecom or ICT.

We need more PhDs, but there are no takers for it in India as there are limited jobs for researchers today. There is enormous talent in India.

While we are very well connected in arts and literature, we live in a completely isolated system when it comes to science and technology. The government comes into the picture and bureaucrats run the show. While there is no shortage of talent, we are in a bureaucratic prison, which we must come out of. 

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WHAT's HAPPENING IN TELECOM? SEE THE LATEST UPDATES BELOW

•          Telecoms Capex investment to touch $346 bn in 2015 with flat growth

Telecom service providers are expected to invest $346 billion towards capital spending (Capex) in 2015, indicating a flat growth. In 2014, Capex in fixed line telecom operations was 41 percent of $346 billion, while 59 percent was in wireless business of operators.

•         Telecoms to invest $1.7 trillion as Capex in networks during 2014-2020

Telecom service providers globally will invest $1.7 trillion in mobile network infrastructure during 2014-2020 and main focus will be 4G LTE networks, said GSMA.

4G accounts for 5 percent of mobile connections at present. 4G penetration as a percentage of connections is 69 percent in South Korea, 46 percent in Japan and 40 percent in the US, but 4G penetration in the developing world stands at 2 percent.

•          Mobile industry Capex to touch $1.1 trillion during 2013-17: GSMA

In the next 5 years, mobile industry will contribute $2.6 trillion to public funding. In 2017, companies across the ecosystem will employ nearly 10 million people globally, according to a study by the GSMA. With the number of mobile subscribers standing at 3.2 billion people, nearly half of the world’s population now uses mobile communications.

It is expected that a further 700 million subscribers will be added by 2017 and the 4 billion-subscriber milestone will be reached in 2018.

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TELECOM INNOVATION: DEVELOPING WEBSITE TO SHOW REAL-TIME MOBILE TOWER RADIATION

The Department of Telecom is working on a website that will show real-time data of radiation being emitted from each mobile tower in the country and its exposure to people, a senior official said here. 

"We are working on a web portal so that a person can see how much radiation he is exposed to," DoT Member (Technology) A K Bhargava said while speaking at an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) event. 

The Department has started working with industry body Cellular Operators Association of India to develop the portal. 

"It is in early stage and yet to see proof of concept for this project. Idea is that a person should be able see in real-time how much radiation a mobile tower in his proximity is emitting. 

UN body ITU also launched its first mobile application on cellular radiation to answer all queries and concerns of people.  They are launching a new product in this area, a mobile application providing an 'EMF Guide'.

"It offers an introduction to EMFs and their relationship with health, as well as various internationally agreed guidelines and standards designed to ensure safety in the use of mobile phones and other wireless technologies.

The government has an ambitious target to spread broadband and mobile telephony and for this it is important to address concerns among public about mobile radiation. 

India allows only 10 per cent of radiation level to be emitted from mobile towers as compared to international norms preferred in most of the countries. DoT has decided to conduct an awareness campaign to remove perception of health hazard from mobile tower radiation as there is no scientific evidence to prove any ill-effect on health at levels permitted globally. 

A World Health Organization study in 2011 had pointed out that there are possible health risks associated with electromagnetic fields which need to be properly considered and reported during the roll-out of mobile-wireless technologies if the electromagnetic radiations are beyond certain limits. 

Following protest from civil groups, India has reduced permissible level of radiation from mobile towers by 90 per cent as compared to radiation norms released by global body The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). 

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NEED FOR MATCHING INDIA’S CAPACITIES IN THE FIELD OF HUMAN RESOURCES AND IT SOFTWARE SKILLS WITH JAPAN’S STRENGTH IN TECHNOLOGY AND MANUFACTURING.

In the area of Telecom, IT and Electronics, the two countries have complementary strengths.  Whereas, Japan has the technology and is excellent in hardware side, India offers market and has great strengths in the area of software development. Together India and Japan can develop Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the world market. Japan is a major manufacturing powerhouse, manufacturing about $1 trillion of goods, which constitutes about 20% of its $5 trillion GDP. On the other hand, India is a land of opportunities with a potential of providing 600 million broadband connections in next 5-6 years, which will entail an investment of tens of billions dollar. Considering these factors, India becomes a natural partner for Japan to execute joint projects for manufacturing of electronic and telecom goods and equipment here in India.

Realizing their complementary strengths, two countries are exploring the possibility of having joint projects in the following areas and other matters of mutual cooperation in the field of ICT including -

•        Green ICT
•        ICT for disaster management
•        Cyber and network security
•     ICT applications for Social and Economic challenges leveraging National ID scheme being implemented in India.

The Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that there is a need for matching India’s capacities in the field of human resources and IT software skills with Japan’s strength in technology and manufacturing.  Inaugurating India -Japan Joint Working Group meeting for strengthening cooperation in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), he said, the two countries had shared civilization moorings and cultural heritage. They are expected to be natural partners for technical and industrial cooperation in the years to come. The minister detailing the scope for partnership said that the current government in India plans to connect all panchayats with broadband by 2016, as a part of its ‘Digital India’ programme and also wants to give a big push to electronic manufacturing. He invited Japanese companies to set up manufacturing facilities in India as a part of another prime programme of the present government called- ‘Make in India’.

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