The Hindu Business Line : `Public-pvt partnerships to bridge digital divide faster'

WITH a healthy 40 per cent growth rate and projections of 200 million users by 2007, the multi-billion Indian telecom market is set to boom at an exponential rate.

According to the India Economic Report published by DSP Merrill Lynch India Research, financial services, insurance, fast moving consumer goods, auto, telecom and health services are the segments identified that will benefit from increased consumption spend in the coming years.

While tele-density in the urban areas has reached 15.16, in the rural areas it continues to be low at just around 1.49, with overall tele-density at 5 per 100.

Indian Merchant Chamber (IMC) is seeking to address this critical issue of bridging the technology divide between the rural and urban masses, and has organised an International Conference on Communications Convergence on the theme, `Bridging the Digital Divide'. In an interview with Business Line, Mr Shailesh Haribhakthi, President, IMC, and Mr Nanik Rupani, Vice-President, IMC, elaborate on the conference and the impact that the digital revolution will have on India.

The conference coincides with the 97th year of IMC's operations? What role will the IMC play in addressing these issues?

The conference will focus on bridging the digital divide. If you see the current scenario, the urban populace has benefited immensely from technology advance, be it in the telecom or computing segments, we are trying to take this further. With the international conference, we will have international players giving their perspective on how technology can help the economy. In fact, the plenary session will be addressed by Mr Pradip Baijal, who would speak on the `Digital Divide: How to Bridge It'. Despite significant growth in the Indian telecom industry, tele-density is low with a visible technology divide between the rural and urban strata. The rural population is relatively untouched by the technology advances and benefits. What is your perspective on this and what steps can be taken to bridge the divide?

First and foremost it is important to realise that the barriers have been removed and infrastructure laid out to bring the masses into the digital loop. The Indian telecom market presents a multi-billion opportunity to vendors and carriers and if the tempo of the telecom revolution remains upbeat then India easily offers a $24-billion market, which is really huge. While the telecom subscriber base is 40 million now, it will touch 200 million in three years. Having said that, it should be noted that this growth is expected in the fixed telephony segment also and not only the cellular market.

Yes, telecommunications has covered the urban sector extensively, with metros and semi-urban areas seeing as much as 40 per cent coverage and we expect the same in the rural areas. For rural telephony penetration, the Government carriers will have a significant role to play. India has 600,000 villages and at least 4,76,000 have one phone, which makes it 78 per cent of this population that has been covered by the telecom sector. All this has largely been possible due to the PCO revolution spearheaded by Mr Sam Pitroda. Today, there are 1 million people employed in PCOs and the Government players get revenues of nearly Rs 4,000 crore from the PCO business alone.

Will such a movement see a public-private partnership and would it help us to catch up with countries like China?

India is poised to take a big leap in telecom market as is evident from the current trends. Studies show that the greatest increase in the Indian consumption spending has been in the telecommunications sphere. With big investments lined up by private players, as also the investment that has already been put in to set up the infrastructure, we should see accelerated growth. So the public-private partnership as such will enable us to bridge the digital divide faster. Three years hence, we will have a 200-million subscriber base compared to the 400 million users in China. But after that we foresee India coming closer to China in terms of technology adaptation, infrastructure and both countries should be on an equal footing.

And in India where do you see us heading?

On the telecom front, we will have 4-5 major players slugging it out on cost and technology with perhaps a uniform bill concept coming into play. Also it should be remembered that communications is not restricted to telecom alone. We would like to initiate something similar with the Internet replacing the telephone. This experiment has already started off in Andhra where rural women have been empowered to use the Internet to access public health services. We would like to bring something akin to the PCO wherein the Internet replaces the phone. And we see that happening now with a drop in PC rates and PC penetration estimated to grow at 30-40 per cent. So perhaps we shall see the Internet revolution across the country soon enough.

More Stories on : Convergence | Interview

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page