d)      Security Related Issues: It was argued that security of information was not getting adequate attention. Hacking & Cyber Security were required to be given much more emphasis. Information about information was also important both from security point of view & dissemination of information point of view. Progressive use of wireless media through satellite links, WLL etc would add to the problems of security of information.

e)      Content Authentication & Policing: There was lively debate about the wide spread use of World Wide Web and T.V Channels. It was generally agreed that adequate care has not been taken in recent past of the content and very often the resources spent on these facilities were wasted. Some argued that in a market driven economy, there should be no control over the utilization of media/facilities. There need to be some restriction on websites or starting of TV Channels because the contents being communicated were of poor quality. Generally participants felt that there was a crying need for centers of excellence for generating good quality contents. Poor contents lead to negative result inspite of high expenses of media time use. Others argued that in a developing economy the utilization of resources needs to be chanelized/ monitored. Examples of losses suffered by private taxi operators/airlines, Dot.com Companies were given. It was also suggested that there was need to have all the data authenticated. Contents could lead to defamation, pornography, purposely planted false hood commercial/military psychological warfare etc. There was therefore need for content authorization. Lastly, participants discussed the need to police different media. A few participants opposed the controls on media as dictatorial but generally the participants favoured the need for some policing of all the media.

f)      Education especially through electronic media: There was total agreement over the scope of media for education. It was agreed that substantially greater success could be achieved for educating the masses in a large and developing country like India. Many facilities like T.V Channels were set up for mass education, national integration, rural upliftment etc., but actual utilization left much to be desired. Recently, projects like school net (IT based education) Indian Society for Technical Education (IST), distance education and coming up of some universities from abroad to impart education were pointed out to be good examples. There was unanimous view that the media could be exploited much more for imparting education, information dissemination to villagers/farmers etc. There was a need to generate suitable contents and determined efforts, backed by adequate resources to make use of the opportunities afforded by the current generation media. Professionals, specially trained for imparting education through electronic media, are needed.

g) DTH and Cable: There was a well-informed debate about DTH & Cable. Some participants stated that many Asian countries were not even authorized the down loading of foreign TV Channels till a few years ago. Even subsequently entertainment from satellite based T.V Channels were restricted to hotels, clubs and other institutions frequented by foreigners. Cable TV was considered to be adequate for the Asian countries, including Indian subscribers under this environment. There were complaints of Cable TV operators perpetuating monopoly and offering poor quality fare at many places. There was some opposition to diversion of resources to expensive DTH when Cable TV was adequate. Here again there were suggestions that in a market driven economy, supply and demand should be allowed to control the introduction of DTH. There could be the elite class who would be willing to pay for DTH. It was generally agreed that DTH and cable TV would have to be allowed to co-exist. It was however felt that DTH/Cable were presently not suitable transmission channels for other communication systems.

h)       Bandwidth and frequency spectrum Utilization: The growing requirement of bandwidth came in for acrimonious debate. There were suggestions for redefining the role/utilization of citizens frequency bands; L-band, VHF-band, frequency requirement of HAMS etc. Many complained that some agencies get frequencies allotted but rarely use them. All this results in shortage for actual users. There were also complaints about interference and need for adequate policing of frequency spectrum. Penalties were suggested to be imposed for locking the frequencies or spilling the frequencies beyond the authorized bandwidth/geographic area of allocation. It was generally suggested that frequency spectrum management needs adequate attention.

i)       Miscellaneous: