 Taking cognizance of the need for a holistic and comprehensive policy framework spanning telecom and information technology and considering their increasing interdependence and symbiotic relationship, the Ministry of Communications & IT has proposed to develop a set of 3 policies, viz. National Telecom Policy, National Information Technology Policy, and National Electronics Policy-the last one focusing on creating a push for R&D and manufacturing.The Planning Commission has identified 12 strategic challenges for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) and it is now well recognized that ICT is an essential (albeit insufficient by itself) enabler for each of these. Making ICT usage pervasive, productive and protected is a simple way to envision the collective objective of the proposed triad of policy framework. The objective is to derive synergies through and across these 3 independent policies, working in tandem. It is worth recalling that in structural engineering, a triangle is treated as the strongest design element! Administrative, Legislative and Regulatory Framework The erstwhile Department of Post & Telegraph gave way to the formation of 2 separate departments, viz. Department of Post & Department of Telecommunications under the Ministry of Communications. Department of Electronics had been established the Ministry of Electronics, later renamed as the Ministry of Information Technology just before the new millennium began (this is why www.mit.gov.in continues to be the official website of DIT). However within a few years thereafter, both these ministries were merged to form the Ministry of Communications & IT with 3 departments, viz. Telecommunications, Information Technology & Posts. Business allocation rules have also been accordingly amended from time to time. As per the Constitution of India, telecommunications is a central subject but information technology seems to have become a concurrent subject by default, manifested by the very fact that besides the central government's IT department almost every state and UT government does have an IT department while the telecom department is only at the center. Mainstreaming of ICT in India Just about a quarter century back, the computerization of railway bookings began and today almost all the reservations are done electronically, whether on the counter or over the internet or mobile. It would not be out of place to mention that it is the IT sector that has put India as a force to reckon with, not only in the field of technology but more importantly in the overall global economy. The fact is that more Indians have mobile phones than have radio sets or even bicycles! Again, it is the ICT sector that spawned the new-age culture of entrepreneurship where India and Indians have done exceedingly well not just within India but also globally, including but not limited to the fabled Silicon Valley and its compatriots. Suddenly, the IT professional became the economic ambassador of the country replacing the snake-charmer.  However when one looks more closely, there are gaping holes in our ICT success story; IT has been largely about providing services to the customers in other countries while telecom has been mostly about growth of mobile services (in fact, fixedline connections have been declining month-after-month for the past few years). On the other hand, our PC penetration rate stands at just around 4% of the population and the broadband penetration at an even poorer 0.15% or so. On the other hand, hardly any Indian software product has become a global leader notwithstanding our deserving and credible supremacy in the global services. Study after study shows that there is significant positive impact of ICT on GDP growth and despite our success streaks in the domain of IT service exports and mobile telephony, we continue to be a laggard in the global ICT rankings as our indices are still in the lower percentiles only. Not only are there huge swathes of rural populace still untouched by the fruits of technology on account of reasons such as lack of access, skill and capacity, also the ICT adoption, investment and consumption within several other sectors and segments are way below the optimal level. It is obvious that while we have done quite a lot, we still need to do a lot more. 12th Five Year Plan With 'Faster, More Inclusive and Sustainable Growth' as its underlying objective, the country's 12th Five Year Plan would commence from April 2012 and the Planning Commission has identified 12 broad strategy challenges such as 'Enhancing Skills', 'Decentralize, Empower & Information', 'Drive Technology & Innovation', 'Improve Access to Quality Education' and 'Better Preventive & Curative Healthcare', 'Drive Efficiency' and 'Rural Transformation'. It is clear that ICT can be an enabler in achieving the respective objectives under each of these. It would not be out of place to mention that it was in the 6th Five Year Plan (1980-85) that for the first time, the Five Year Plan actually focused on expansion of even the telephony services. There have been many other frameworks under development albeit at different stages of evolution both by the government as well as the regulators such as cyber security, ICT & Electronics Accessibility, National Broadband Plan, National Frequency Allocation Plan (the latest revision came into force w e f October 1, 2011), M-governance, cloud computing, privacy bill, 4G, and next generation networks. source: http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/top_stories/111111704.asp |
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