2011: A data Odyssey
We hope this year millions of Indians will be able to bridge the digital divide.
Read any story in foreign publications about how mobile phones have transformed India and chances are that you will see a horribly clichd picture - a sadhu or a mahout or someone from a slum. While these are also faces of India, this imagery is getting a bit old. Five years from now, the picture of a slum could change to something else as the foreign publications will write about how India was transformed by data - things other than plain voice, such as text messages, video calls and so on.
A study by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations a few years ago had noted the positive impact of voice telephony on the gross domestic product of states - those with higher mobile penetration had higher rates of growth. More importantly, the study showed that access to information plays a vital role in improving rural incomes. This applies to urban audiences as well, poor and not so poor. Easier access to information will be as vital as gigantic social programmes in raising income levels.
For instance, farmers in many places are already able to track the price of their produce at the nearest mandi and also find out how much their produce is selling for in the big cities, and set their price accordingly. The other big thing will be education and health care where video calls will transform the reach of such services.
And there will be immense social change - the mobile has undoubtedly been the biggest change agent in a socially-conservative country such as India. Video calls will change that, for better or worse. On the face of it, access to better data is what 2011 promises for Indians. Will third-generation or 3G mobile services live up to the hype? Possibly not. Thanks to India's messy spectrum allocation, not enough spectrum has been auctioned to provide an excellent quality of service. Also, while finance ministry mandarins gloated over the money the auctions generated, chances are that operators will price data at higher rates than they would have done if the licence fee had been priced lower. Plan details already available indicate that no operator is keeping an "all-you-can-eat" data plan and while sipping on data is relatively inexpensive, it is still not what one would call "cheap".
And then, there are the security agencies. Admittedly, India has a unique situation in the world. For almost three decades the country has faced one insurrection after another. But it is bizarre to argue that ordinary citizens should not be able to use data simply because those against the country can use it. Again, mandarins in the home ministry look wistfully at China and wish they had the same level of control over the Internet that the Chinese authorities have.
According to a recent news report, the home ministry even wanted a ban on data services, including video calls, unless they were able to intercept them in real time.
Kushan Mitra
For instance, farmers in many places are already able to track the price of their produce at the nearest mandi and also find out how much their produce is selling for in the big cities, and set their price accordingly. The other big thing will be education and health care where video calls will transform the reach of such services.
And then, there are the security agencies. Admittedly, India has a unique situation in the world. For almost three decades the country has faced one insurrection after another. But it is bizarre to argue that ordinary citizens should not be able to use data simply because those against the country can use it. Again, mandarins in the home ministry look wistfully at China and wish they had the same level of control over the Internet that the Chinese authorities have.
According to a recent news report, the home ministry even wanted a ban on data services, including video calls, unless they were able to intercept them in real time.
