President IETE

COLLOQUIUM

NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN

COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMAION TECHNOLOGY

With Special Emphasis on Andhra Pradesh

Organized under

IETE APEX FORUM

HYDERABAD

30th November 2001

This colloquium has been organized on thc occasion of conferment of Honorary Fellowship to Sh N Chandrababu Naidu, a great son of India and an architect of the National Information Infrastructure under whose leadership Andhra Pradesh has achieved impressive socioeconomic progress. It gives me great pleasure to be amidst the digital doyens of this great city, mulling over some momentous issues. How does India fare in the digital space? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Internet in the making of the knowledge society? Are we cognizant of its contradictions, shorn as it is of civilization and cultural cores and mores that have sustained the Indian society through the ages? What shape should the national infrastructure in communications and IT take? Can we adopt the Andhra Pradesh model or more precisely can we sell this model to other states? These are some of the questions that badger even excite and tickle us immensely.

Much is happening on the information deck, globally, nationally and regionally. At the global level, Internet, described as a network of networks, is a vibrant reality. A New World Order is emerging with information as its plank. That the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) is an appropriate instrument to take on the problems of the world, is an aphorism, howsoever, presumptuous it may sound. It is inevitable that the GII at the global level and its subsets, feeders and tributaries at the national, regional and local level reshape the future of mankind. Their impact is all embracing -at work and leisure, culture and social norms, national security and international relations, trade and commerce, thought and knowledge; in short every facet of human endeavour and behaviour. Their influence on transformation of society is apparent, extensively and expressively, in development of new skills, increased production, and generation of wealth. Contrarily, the prevailing contradiction has given further evidence of cynicism that all is not well with the society and a nagging anxiety that societal conflicts are getting out of control. Undoubtedly, information infrastructure has the potential to improve the lot of all people on this planet, but the moot question is whether it would free human societies from exploitation or shackle them in a new kind of bondage; whether the effect would be benign or deleterious.

Issues connected with information infrastructure have degenerated into farcical pitch; at the global level creation of new information order with a suspicion of information apartheid; and at the national level, an unseemly debate on commercial interests pitted against societal, egalitarian, even strategic ones. The GII had some laudable agenda to envision; instead it has got entangled into quagmire of deviant issues, pitching the developed against the developing countries.

The national stage-set and planning, too, betray a skewed approach, and bureaucratic as they are, it is logical to expect focus on controversies and non-issues. At the national and state levels, the agenda is to two ends: firstly how we build information infrastructure within India tailoring it to the emerging global super system and secondly how we interconnect and network amongst ourselves with a view to meeting the aspirations of the common man. The two are inter-linked and enmeshed; the national initiative depends on resources, and a major share of the resources can only be mobilized globally. Willy-nilly, we have to accept certain conditions that may not be to our liking. Yet we cannot shed the core interests or abandon our commitment to the masses. Herein lie the dilemma and the challenge.

The Government of India appointed the Task Force on Information Technology (IT) and Software Development (SD) and based on its recommendations issued an extraordinary gazette notification. Spelling out a laudable agenda, the Task Force released its policy directions and recommendations in three parts; vis, Part I, dealing with software; Part II, on hardware development, production and export; and Part III, on long term national IT policy which includes citizen-IT interface and content creation. The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh was the moving force behind this. In this gathering we also have another architect Dr T H Chowdary.

The country has an ambitious agenda for the NII, which visualizes a PC in every village with connectivity on national grid. However, the government has yet to address gut issues and come out with a viable and progressive schema. It is handicapped by absence of a synergistic approach to decision-making on information-related matters, fragmented as the practice is amongst various ministries and departments. Even the concept of information infrastructure is vague and confused with telecommunication infrastructure, which, at its comprehensive best, ought to be viewed and treated as a subset of the former. Then, there are external pressures on investment, privatization, tariffs, protectionism and information denial, generating apprehensions that we may get bogged down with non-issues and in the process lose on time and opportunity. How sound is the NII of a country is a good measure of its socioeconomic development. The challenge before the country is how resources can be mobilized for creation of NII; how contemporary and relevant technologies are acquired and prudently put to use; how benefits of the information bonanza reach the masses, particularly the disadvantaged and the under-privileged. The NII is a basic building block of the GII. While the GII could be described as 'super highway', the NII is a highway. It would be erroneous to suggest that both have an identical motivation. While push of the former is more commercial, the latter, in its orientation, cannot but be socioeconomic. That the two should be complementary is beyond question. Either is essential to sustained development. "It is not the lack of economic development that causes poor telecommunication, but primitive telecommunication that cause poor economic development" is an oft-quoted truism.

New India is emerging with networks spanning all activities; informational, transactional and infrastructural; it would be wise to understand these terms and also the perils of their vulnerability, compromise or negation:

Informational mechanisms involve the production, manipulation, storage and dissemination of information. Its canvas has an extensive spread, covering distance education, collaborative research, virtual universities, engineering instruction in an interactive mode, digital libraries, mass media and infotainment.

Transactional activities involve administrative, commercial and financial services. The operation of civil administration and governance right from the panchayat level to the management of national affairs, and societal interactions, both private and public are an essential part. Its manifestations in the corporate and business world are through EDI, e-commerce and EFT. These are catching on, and are destined to gain significance in a liberal, reform-wedded, tolerant, modern society with global linkages and interdependence.

Infrastructural lnfrastructural networks cover power grid, Telecommunications, air traffic control, railways, roadways, industrial parks, ports etc., in whose case the control is gradually shifting from mechanical and electrical system to electronic and real-time systems.

Obviously thrust and emphasis have been primarily on transactional component, of which e business, e governance and e services are the true measure. E Business is a manifestation of globalization. Though one may not agree with Professor Oomen, but he nurses grim visions of globalization. Sketching a graphic account of widening gap between the rich and the poor, Oomen writes, "When industrialization began in Europe, the slogan was 'industrialize or perish'; today the refrain seems to be' globalize or perish' but from the perspective of the weak, it seems to be more appropriate to say globalize and perish. "

Undoubtedly, e-business is capable of generating a new level of economy, both global and national, raising productivity, increasing incomes, and creating more jobs. However emergence of a new business culture, where rules of the game are not the same as we had been accustomed to, were obvious even in the beginning of last year. What worried then and what continues to worry now is the drift of the business environment from an equitable, technology-driven entrepreneurship to a new variety of cyber capitalism. It was then abundantly apparent from the buzz expressions that one heard in the US to underscore the business strategies. It pioneered with B to C (business to consumer); graduated to B to B (business to business), it followed the progression (rather retrogression, if so fancied) p to p (path to profitability); and then the crowning one R to R (return to rationality). After an interlude, the venture capital had got down to settling the perch. During the e-boon days, it sought ideas -brave ideas indeed, from the technology wizards; Soon it reverted to Keynesian philosophy basing decisions on the rationale of infrastructure, not the information variety but "bricks and mortar.’ So the dotcom took a beating, today money is supposed to be in e-learning, although here too the euphoria is somewhat abated.

The passing interest and conflict between social good and get rich quick is fundamental and deep-seated. It is now extended and the arena widened, be it in business, be it in education. In the former it is between, the technology haves and the technology have-nots, the real estate and the virtual estate, the Domain and the Mall. In the latter case the clash of interest is between brick-learning and portal-learning, corporeal and virtual classroom, premium and popular, formal and non-formal; it is between Arjun, the elite and Ek Lavya, the proletariat.

Antitrust laws, entrenched interests, monopolies, buy-outs, alliances and mergers further conflicted by domain wars, commercial spying, usurping intellectual property, trademarks and patents (even meditation), reflect the prevailing ambience. To add to our woes, the e-economy is going through a bad time troubled and tormented as it is by recession and layoffs. It has adversely affected the brain commerce of which we were singing paeans not long ago. The Internet is unregulated, the dotcom highly competitive, and the world beset by the cyber divide, fast deepening into unbridgeable chasm. The challenge is intense; so are satisfaction level and the reward if one makes it. "The Internet has lent new sheen to business, education, social guidance, services and convergence of technologies. But there are detractions aplenty to match. Let us be pragmatic and take an unbiased view joining hands with both the developed and the developing economies. Let us not forget our deprived brethren who have great expectations from the glitter of IT, while accepting the new dispensation calling for recognition of the prevailing ambience of competitiveness and changed perspective on economic growth. This then is the message from Andhra Pradesh. This then is the mission that Chandra babu Naidu has undertaken and we in the IETE are resolved to emulate. Together we shall scale greater heights.

Let the bugle sound and call karmayogis to action.