Contents - Connect-World

Social Development
span, caused by modern medicine,
will bring about a new social demography.
Greater competition will alter the
work-life balance. The world will
shift to a brutal work culture punctuated
by intensive competition, right
sizing and increasingly demanding
professional skill sets. The need to
earn in the prime of a shorter working
life will be immense. This will
conflict with the need to lead a higher
quality of living over a longer life
span and will create enormous physical
and mental pressures. Such
pressures will pave the way for individuals
to seek new sources of emotional
bondage outside the family.
The ubiquity of communications will
forge new communities. The
Internet and satellite television will
vastly expand the global reach of
communities bonded by common
goals and interests. Lastly, the concept
of a nation state will become
obscure, caused by the strengthening
of multilateral trading blocks, greater
migration of professionals across
borders and increasing acceptance of
dual citizenship.
Greater global scrutiny will question
sovereignty, as a right to do whatever
a government likes within its borders.
New global information infrastructures
will emerge in such areas
as meteorology, energy, security,
trade and industry.
Wireless technologies will force their
way into more and more sectors.
Today, wireless is used mainly to
move information. In the future,
wireless will be used to promote collaboration
over a wide range. E-
learning among community groups
in an income and location independent
framework, will become increasingly
important, and will let teachers
and parents collaborate in monitoring
the progress of students.
Wireless will link doctors with
patients in remote regions, and the
remote monitoring of the elderly in
homes, and critical care patients in
hospitals, will reduce the burden
upon both the family and public
facilities. Wireless will deliver government
services to people in remote
areas.
The remote, automatic monitoring of
streets will foster better internal
security and reduce crime. Wireless
communications will link the transportation
systems in the supply chain
and bring reduced costs and more
timely deliveries. Information -
enabled farming and fishing communities,
collaborative robotics in manufacturing,
disaster response and
warfare will all be facilitated by wireless.
Virtual product design and testing,
rapid prototyping for mass customisation
or for specific user group
needs, the transmission of field data
to control systems and control
rooms, remote maintenance of field
equipment, collaborative tele-working
in a location independent framework
and promoting gaming within
communities are all on the list of
activities that wireless will enhance;
the list is virtually endless.
Greater connectivity among citizens,
communities, and companies will be
the sum and effect of all these developments.
The drive to connect will
grow by leaps and bounds. Networks
reform the morphology of societies.
It will go far beyond caste, community,
race and religious connections.
Networks will redefine the landscape
of businesses.
We believe in fostering the development
of a networked world in India
through its next-generation information
and communications network
spanning the length and breadth of
India. This will be based both on
Internet and on wireless technologies.
ICT—Information and Communication
Technology—has made a deep impact
across the length and breadth of
India.
India boasts some of the worlds lowest
entry costs and the worlds lowest
usage charges for any telecommunications
service; ICT is re-defining an
entire industry. Wireless operators
have acquired millions of new customers
this last year. More importantly,
a surge in data applications is
being brought about.
Data services are now generating
countless millions of hits per day,
even surpassing the data usage of
many developed countries. All this
demonstrates the readiness of the
Indian people to use advanced technology,
given the right impetus of
costs, access, and services.
Today, applications development
laboratories are developing several
networking applications on both
wireline and wireless platforms.
Electronic school applications, to
bring parents and teachers together
virtually through the Internet or
using mobile technology, are one
example. A social networking application
to bring common user groups
together on a wireless platform is
another.
Fleet management on a wireless platform
for the transportation community
is one more case in point. For
the ICT sector, the mobile revolution
is only a beginning. The next step,
going beyond the mobile revolution,
is to bring about a broadband revolution.
A networked world is no longer a figment
of imagination. It is steeped in
reality. Concepts such as friendship
flow charts and community cascades
will be in vogue. As networks get bigger,
their value to users will increase
exponentially.
Companies will derive value by
devoting resources to hook into
external networks, understand the
broader changes among constituent
communities, and respond appropriately.
Citizens will derive value in being
part of communities with shared
interests and goals, gaining through
new perspectives, unified articulation
of issues, lower purchase costs,
job referrals and so on. Countries
will derive value by sharing information
infrastructures and harmonising
trading within trading blocks. A networked
world will substantially
improve the efficiency and output of
productive enterprises and social
entities.
India has a unique opportunity to
jump ahead in a networked world.
Fortunately, India is not weighed
down by a legacy of narrow band
access systems. We have already created
an ubiquitous, high capacity,
low cost, information and communication
infrastructure and there are
plans to provide an overarching
broadband access to every home and
every office across India. This will
enable a paradigm shift in communicating,
teaching, learning, treating,
governing, working and shopping.
India has the opportunity to leapfrog
decades of economic lag and social
deprivation. A network revolution
can copiously enhance productivity
and open new avenues for social and
economic growth. It is a vital force in
shaping the future of Indian homes,
offices, governance and public services.
It can powerfully propel India
to global leadership in todays world
of information and knowledge.
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