All,
This release speaks to the dereg of the Internet in India. A very large and fertile market for ISPs and ITSPs. Right now, it's hit and miss, cops and robbers, to get onto a VoIP channel. Let's hope it's a trend in the region and elsewhere.
Regards, Frank Coluccio
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hinduonline.com
Date: 02-11-1998 Pg: 01
By Our Special Correspondent
BANGALORE, Nov. 1.
The Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, today announced the decision to issue licences for private sector Internet Service Providers and also set up a Vidya Vahini Network which would synergise the intranets of some of the premier agencies in the field of education.
Mr. Vajpayee was inaugurating the Bangalore IT.Com '98, a five- day state-of-the-art international conference at the International Technology Park at Whitefield, near here. He also inaugurated the international software gateway at the ''software hamlet'' set up in Mysore City from the Conference venue here.
Mr. Vajpayee noted that he had last week told the annual session of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry that the new internet policy would be unveiled and licences issued to private Internet Service Providers (ISPs) within 15 days. He was happy that those licences would be issued before November 7. The ISPs would be paying a zero licence fee for the first five years and a fee of Rs. 1 thereafter. They would also be free to bring in foreign equity investment to the extent of 49 per cent. The aim of the new ISP policy was to achieve the fastest possible proliferation of quality Internet service all over India at an affordable price. The licence agreement, which had been drawn up, would be customer and investor friendly.
Mr. Vajpayee announced that the first phase of the Vidya Vahini Network would become operational on August 15, 1999. The IT Task Force had envisaged the creation of facilities for networked education covering all the universities, institutions of higher and professional education and R and D centres. The Vidya Vahini Network or VVNet would synergize all the planned internets of agencies such as the UGC, CSIR, Ministry of Human Resource Development and also the State-level networks.
The VVNet would be a unique combination of satelite and land- based communication that would place India in the forefront of networked education in the world. It would also connect ''seamlessly'' with the state of the art Inter University Network that would provide a 2.5 gigabit- bandwidth backbone connecting all the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad and the Pune University. It would be a project under the Indo-U.S. collaboration. An MoU had recently been signed between the Department of Telecommunications and American IUNet based in the Carnegie Mellon University.
The Prime Minister said the Government was planning schemes to promote IT education in schools, especially to benefit students from rural areas and underprivileged classes. The aim was to rapidly increase computer literacy at all levels of society. In that context, he congratulated the Karnataka Government for implementing a pilot project of the IT Task Force in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts, both of which had achieved total literacy.
New Telecom policy
The Government recognised the need for a nationwide high bandwidth telecom infrastructure. Work had begun on the formulation of a new National Telecom Policy which would address itself to the challenges and also the opportunities through the convergence of telecom, IT, media and consumer electronics.
Mr. Vajpayee's advice to the computer professionals and entrepreneurs was to ''think big, think global and aim at creating products that dominate the world markets and bring high value to you and to the country''. Tomorrow's economy was going to be knowledge driven, and Indian IT professionals, scientists and entrepreneurs should drive it.
The Prime Minister asked if India, which was the cradle of civilisation should lag behind in the march of IT. ''No. For us in India, information technology does not have only an economic significance. It is a civilisational necessity'' as it would reestablish India as a materially prosperous and culturally resurgent nation in the coming centuries. ''Hence, I would like all countrymen to know that IT is India's Tomorrow.'' |
