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(From left) Mr A.K. Purwar, Chairman, State Bank of India; Mr Jayantrao Patil, Minister for Finance & Planning, Government of Maharashtra; Mr Nanik Rupani, President, Indian Merchants' Chamber; and Mr Hital Meswani, Executive Director, Reliance Industries Ltd, at the third international conference on Communications Convergence in Mumbai on Monday. — Paul Noronha

Mumbai , Feb. 7

CONVERGENCE in communication is an engine of change that naturally fits into the ongoing agenda of globalisation.

Mr Hamadoun Toure, Director of Telecommunication Development Bureau, International Telecommunication Union, Geneva, said, "The new opportunities that had been created by convergence, such as broadband and wireless, would help all decision makers to serve rural and remote areas."

Mr Toure was delivering the keynote address at the third international conference on `Communications Convergence - the Change Agent' organised by the Indian Merchants' Chamber in Mumbai today.

Mr Jayantrao Patil, Minister for Finance and Planning, Government of Maharashtra, said the Government had set a target to establish 175 million connections by 2010 (fixed line plus mobile). "Investment in the telecom infrastructure has a cascading effect on productivity in all other sectors," he said.

Sounding a note of caution, former deputy chairman of Tata Consultancy Services, Mr F.C. Kohli, said that for IT to really take off in India, the cost of hardware must be reduced, and software should be translated into Indian languages.

Mr Shyamal Ghosh, Administrator, Universal Service Obligation fund, said that telecom in rural India was about converting an obligation into an opportunity. "Ultimately, the market will drive everybody to rural India," he said. Earlier, welcoming the delegates, Mr Nanik Rupani, President of Indian Merchants' Chamber, said, the recent decision to raise foreign investment ceiling in the telecom sector would help to attract FDI in a big way.

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