Speed

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border="0" hspace="2" vspace="2" width="118" height="147"> size="2">Like nature, time has always challenged man to conquer

itself. Only a brave few have responded to the challenge. And

those who have succeeded, even partially, have become heroes of

their times.

In the digital age, this constant race against

time, popularly called speed, has been an essential factor of

success. One man, who realized it much before anyone else could

and acted on it to lead his organization to great heights, is

Andy Grove. The month, we carry a story on his organization,

Intel.

We, as a nation, have somehow failed to realize

this simple truth, even today. We still do not care too much for

time. Occasionally, we wake up and play with numbers to prove to

this world that we have progressed. Forget convincing others, we

ourselves hardly get convinced.

Indian telecom has seen such games so many

times. We have moved at a snail’s pace, simply because we do

not have the will to move fast. Ask our mandarins, they will tell

you India’s is the sixth largest network in the world. That

India is one of the first countries to open up basic services.

That we journalists do not know anything other than criticizing

DoT.

They should know who they are trying to fool.

More than four years back, we said we would have competition in

basic services. Today, half of India still does not know when

will that happen. The game of shifting the blame was OK till

recently, as we used to cite our huge population as the prime

reason for all our problems. Our neighbour, China, has snatched

away that option from us, by moving at a much faster speed.

But one good thing about our people is that

they never lose hope. And this hope, along with their refusal to

lose faith in themselves and their people despite everything, has

enabled some Indians to succeed. And it cannot be mere

coincidence, they have all acted with tremendous speed. Whether

it is a Dhirubhai Ambani or a Parvinder Singh.

These people are the leaders of our time, not

the people who thrust elections after elections on us.