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unviable. On trans-border watercourses transparent and cooperative policy is
imperative, as at times rhetoric overtakes substance. In case of former, Indian record
is good, seeing the number of water sharing treaties it has signed with its neighbours.
China is reluctant to share information even with its close allies, for example Myanmar
was surprised by the Chinese activities on the Salween River. China and India have
succeeded in signing of agreements on sharing hydrological information on Sutlej
(2005/2007) and Brahmaputra (2002). A meeting of expert group was held from 19-21
September 2007, where the two sides appraised each other of their position. It is not
enough, as it does not delineate sharing of waters, rather information on river flow in
flood season. But the fact that the issue is discussed at the bilateral meetings between
the two countries is a good beginning.
In conclusion, Sino-Indian relations as they are today, are as it is are marked by
sentimentalism, fear, diffidence, appeasement, and brinksmanship, with water becoming
one more contentious issue, the bilateral relations are likely to take a turn for the
worse. India is confronted with a Chinese intransigence to discuss issues, which is
central to their regional hydro-diplomacy. India has raised water issue consistently
with China, it is important that they are made a part of larger water sharing agreement,
which obviates much of the suspicion. The Chinese projects are still in incipient
stage, on which China can be asked to come out in the open. Once China unleashes
it engineering forces on the cross-boundary rivers, lower riparian countries like India
and Bangladesh can then only be left with the option of saving from their negative
repercussions of ‘bending of rivers’ whether for run of the river or storage dams. An
open and transparent agreement with clear delineation of rights and obligations will
save the three countries from mutual recrimination as the countries move towards a
time of global water crisis. India needs to push for the same.
(The writer is a Former Defence Correspondent for a National Security and Defence
Magazine. You can contact him on sanjaytwo@gmail.com.)
Telecom Sector – Growing from Strength to Strength
The Indian telecom sector has witnessed tremendous
growth over the past decade. Today, Indian telecom
network is the second largest in the world after China. A
liberal policy regime and involvement of private sector
has played important role in transforming this sector.
The total number of telephones has increased from
206.83 million on 31st March, 2007 to 917.35 million on
30 th November 2011 resulting in an increase in teledensity
from 18.31% to 76.18% during this period. This has been
possible due to phenomenal growth of wireless
connections, which has reached 884.38 million
connections at the end of November 2011 constituting
96.41% of the total telephones up from 80.29% at the
end of March, 2007.
The liberalization efforts of the government are evident
in the growing share of private sector in total telephone
connections which has increased to 86% in November
2011 as against a meager 5% in 1999. Liberalisation has
resulted in strong competition leading to substantial
reduction in tariffs.
Although there has been rapid increase in the number
of telephones, there has been relatively less penetrations
in rural areas with 310.92 million telephones by the end
of November, 2011 and teledensity of 37.02 % against
166.45% Urban teledensity. Besides huge gap between
urban and rural teledensity, Broadband has lagged
behind the growth of telephones in India.
Recognizing the potential of broadband services in
growth of GDP and creation of an enabling environment
for promoting knowledge based society, the government
had announced broadband policy 2004. Several
measures have since been taken to promote broadband
in the country. As a result, there are 12.98 million
broadband subscribers as on 31 st October, 2011 and 19.69
million internet subscribers at the end of March, 2011.
DRAFT NATIONAL TELECOM POLICY – 2011
The Draft National Telecom Policy 2011 proposes to
provide stable, rationale and objective policy regime over
next decade or so:
0 To make available secure, reliable and affordable
voice telephony and high speed broadband
services to every citizen in India with special
focus on rural and remote areas.
0 To improve the broadband experience by
enhancing the speed of delivery.
0 To make India a global hub of manufacturing
for all electronic products including telecom
equipment with substantial value addition
within the country and safeguard security
concerns of the nation.
0 For simplification and rationalisation of
licensing regime, transparent system for
allocation of spectrum and enable efficient
usage of spectrum.
0 For discovery of price of spectrum through
market related processes.
0 To achieve One Nation- Full Mobile Number
Portability.
0 To enable free roaming throughout the country.
0 To harness full potential of mobile phones for
enabling provision of citizen centric services
related to education, health, employment,
agriculture, entertainment, banking & insurance
services, skill upgradation, vocational training
etc.
0 To encourage indigenous manufacture of cost
effective mobile devices.
0 The faster roll out of high speed and reliable
broadband in rural and urban areas will enable
decentralised governance, participative
democracy and delivery of basic services such
as health and education to every citizen of the
country. The thrust on manufacturing will
promote entrepreneurship, create more job
opportunities, reduce imports and improve
security. Efficient usage of scarce resources
like spectrum will result in better quality of
service to the customers at affordable cost.
0 The new policy regime will be beneficial to end
consumers/citizens, Telecom Service Providers,
Value Added Service Providers, Government
and Manufacturers.
0 Policy is likely to be approved by the June,
2012.
NATIONAL OPTICAL FIBER NETWORK
Government has approved a project for National Optical
Fiber Network in October, 2011 for providing Broadband
connectivity to all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats at a cost of
Rs. 20,000 crore. The plan is to extend the existing optical
fiber network up to Panchayats. The Network will be
available to telecom service providers for providing
various services to the citizens in non-discriminatory
manner. The Network will provide a highway for
transmission of voice, data and video in rural areas. It
will enable the broadband connectivity upto 2 Mbps,
capable of providing various services like e-education,
e-health, e-entertainment, e-commerce e- governance etc.
to people and businesses. The people in rural areas,
students, entrepreneurs, various Government
Departments providing services under e-governance
projects will be benefitted. It will also provide
connectivity to various public institutions like Gram
Panchayats, Primary Health Centres (PHCs), schools etc.
in rural areas. It will also result in investment from the
private sector both for providing different services and
for manufacturing of broadband related telecom
equipment. The project will be funded by Universal
Service Obligation Fund (USOF). The project will be
executed by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which will
be a company incorporated under Indian Companies Act
1956 and initially will be fully owned by Central
Government, with equity participation from Government
and interested Central Public Sector Units (CPSUs)
(BSNL, Railtel, Powergrid, GAILTEL, etc.) and action is
being taken to establish and operationalize a Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV).
PROGRAMMES UNDER USOF
The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) was
established with the fundamental objective of providing
access to ‘Basic’ telegraph services to people in the
rural and remote areas at affordable and reasonable
prices. Subsequently the scope was widened to provide
subsidy support for enabling access to all types of
telegraph services including mobile services, broadband
connectivity and creation of infrastructure like OFC in
rural and remote areas. Various schemes for taking
communication facilities to the rural and remote areas
with the support of USO fund under implementation are
0 5,79,814 villages i.e. about 97.68% of the Census
2001 inhabited revenue villages have been covered with
Village Public Telephone (VPT) facility as on November
30, 2011. VPT facility is likely to be provided in remaining
inhabited revenue villages by May, 2012.
0 Setting up and managing 7353 number of
infrastructure towers in 500 districts spread over 27 states
for provision of mobile services in specified rural and
remote areas. 7295 towers i.e. 99.21% towers have been
set up till November, 2011.
0 In order to provide broadband connectivity to
the rural areas, USOF signed an agreement with BSNL
on January 20, 2009 to provide 8,88,832 wire-line
Broadband connections to individual users and
Government Institutions and setting up of 28,672 Kiosks
over a period of 5-years. As on 30 th November, 2011,
3,35,290 broadband connections and 6426 kiosk have
been provided under this scheme in rural and remote
areas.
0 Another Scheme has been launched under
USOF to provide sufficient back-haul capacity to
integrate the voice and data traffic from the access
network in the rural areas to their core network by
strengthening the OFC network. This scheme considers
OFC Network augmentation between the blocks’ HQ and
Districts’ HQ to begin with. USOF, through this Scheme,
shall provide subsidy support for augmentation,
creation and management of intra-district SDHQ-DHQ
OFC Network on the condition that it will be shared with
other Telecom Operators at the rates prescribed in the
Agreement. Assam has been taken up first for
implementation.
0 Recognizing the vital role that Information
Communication Technology (ICT) can play in the
empowerment of rural women, a scheme called ‘Sanchar
Shakti’ has been launched in March, 2011 for pilot
projects aimed at facilitating access of Self Help Groups
(SHGs) to ICT enabled services. Financial support from
USO Fund is to be provided towards VAS subscription
for SHGs in accordance with the provisions of
underlying subsidy Agreements. At present MoUs have
been signed for Proof of Concept (PoC) for 9 mobile
VAS projects in the states of Tamilnadu, Kerala,
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andhra
Pradesh, Rajasthan and the Union Territory of
Puducherry.
The Indian Telecom sector has proved to be an
international success story. The sector has witnessed a
commendable growth over the past two years. With an
overall subscriber base of 917.35 million and a teledensity
of 76.18%, the sector continues to grow from strength
to strength. With the urban teledensity reaching 166.54%,
the market has been showing signs of maturity. Rural
India is the key target market likely to drive the next
round of growth, particularly for voice based services.
3G and BWA are expected to reinvigorate the maturing
urban markets and help in bringing balanced growth of
economy. The aggressive growth observed by mobile
services is yet to be replicated in case of broadband
service, where the subscriber base currently stands at
13 million approximately . The successfully concluded
auction of the BWA/3G spectrum and National Optical
Fibre Network will enhance the wireless broadband
penetration across the country and help connect the
remotest locations across India. The government has a
vision to provide secure, reliable and affordable
telephone connection and broadband facilities on
demand across the country with special focus on rural
and remote areas as envisaged in National Telecom
Policy 2011.
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