'Without Global Standards in Power and Telecom, We Shall Not Be Able to Sustain IT Growth' - Pramod Mahajan, minister for IT, GoI

Pramod

Mahajan, Minister for Information Technology, GoI.

India's future lies in IT. And if anyone has doubts, Pramod Mahajan, India's Minister for IT should put that to rest. No doubt that Mahajan is a hardcore career politician with an unmatched ability for realpolitiking. But unlike most of his brethren–both past and present–who even after taking charge of ministries are engrossed in their first love realpolitik–he is passionate about IT.  



Here, he talks of IT, convergence, India's communication infrastructure, and much more. 

Is India an IT

superpower?

India

surely has the potential. Delegations from Ireland, Singapore

and US are visiting India. That itself is a sign of the strength

that we have. But we are not there yet. There are many a slip

between the cup and the lip. There is a vsat gap. That is also

true with IT. But our effort is to remove that gap. But we

should be cautious about it.

We must also realize that

China, our main competitor, is moving fast. The only advantage

we have is that English is almost our second national language.

Though today English is the IT language, this advantage may not

last long. Then there are smaller states like Ireland and

Israel.

We have made an entry into

the competitive world of IT. But to stay there and win is not an

easy job. I want to maintain the present confidence level. But

at the same time I want to take precautions. India needs to be

promoted as an IT investment destination. We should not think

that India is already established as an IT superpower.

How do you

plan to go about with your plans?

We

have to sell India as a destination. But we must keep in mind a

proper regional balance. I don't want to limit IT to a few

cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune. Actually the

entire country is the destination. So our job is to promote

brand equity of India. Our problem is that our priority seems to

be only the software exports instead of also looking at the

domestic front.

You have also

been talking of the "Digital Divide"…

I

have maintained that IT is like a double-edged sword. If not

used properly, it can create a Digital Divide. But if used

properly for the good of the underprivileged, it can create a

Digital Unite–not only economically but also at the social,

linguistic, regional, and geographic levels. IT can be a great

leveler.

So what are

you doing to use IT as a leveler?

My

job as government personnel is to promote IT. The Government

need not get involved in everything. So as one of the steps, I

have decided to set up STPIs in all the 25 states. I am trying

to promote IT among the different segments of the economy like

the hotel industry and the healthcare industry. We may request

the NGOs to get involved in organizing IT yatras,

IT festivals called e-yatras or e-festivals. Or we can

create parks where anybody can come and see computers and get to

familiarize themselves. My job is essentially to champion the

cause and make people aware of IT.

Don't you

think that you could start off with some of your ministerial

colleagues?

One

of my initiatives has been to call all the chief ministers on a

common platform to chalk out IT plans to formulate a common

National IT Plan in the process. I have also requested the Chief

Justice of the Supreme Court to set up technology courts though

technically, as the IT Minister, it is not my sphere of

influence. But I have to spread the light of IT. What

Chandrababu Naidu has done in Andhra Pradesh is nothing but

throwing ideas. As the minister for IT, I don't have piles of

files to clear, but the job certainly involves spreading ideas

about IT and its usage.

OK. Let us

presume you will build the momentum. But with such poor

communication infrastructure, will we have a sustained IT

growth?

True.

Telecommunications and power are two essential components of IT.

Unless we make ourselves self-sufficient, modern and of

international standards on both the fronts we shall not be able

to sustain.



Human resource in the form of English-speaking skilled manpower
is our strength. But that's not enough.

In the power sector, our

total requirement as of today is 1,50,000 MW. There have been

several initiatives and we have almost a success story in power

sector. At the policy level there is nothing new to be done

there. We are on the right track. Speed may be a problem but

that is always a variable one can argue about.

Since NTP '94, miracles

have happened in telecommunications. We have so many new

services, including Internet services. We have split DoT into

policy making and service providing bodies. Then we had the NTP

'99. The migration package is already complete. It is not that

we have not done anything.

But IT is much

too fast…

It

is very difficult for a basic infrastructure to catch up with

speed of IT. Let me draw a parallel. No matter how fast an

aircraft you make, it cannot fly at the speed of thought. IT is

like the mind. IT is about ideas. In IT there are only two

aspects: ideas and infrastructure. Ideas move at the speed of

per second. But to build a physical infrastructure you need a

longer time. Even within IT, a Software Technology Park of India

(STPI) will need three months to be built.

We can

certainly compare with the development of this infrastructure in

other countries. You talked of China. They are so fast.

The

ground realities as you know are different. India is a

democratic country. Things tend to take a little more time. But

a democratic country has its own advantages also. And you are

aware of them.

You have been

talking a lot about convergence. How do you see convergence? Do

you think that market and technology convergence should lead to

convergence in policy making and regulation?

I

think now convergence is very simple. IT is now communications.

We have technology that enables extremely fast communication.

That's why I call IT as the fourth generation of

communication. First we had gestures. Then came spoken words

followed by written language. And now we have the digital

language.

So the entire boom about

IT, to put in layman's words, is a new form of human

communication. So when I change the very mode of communication

between humans, the rules of the whole game change. What I

communicate between you and me is voice. If we want to see each

other we communicate video. And when you want some information I

communicate it through data. So voice, video, and data are the

three things that can be communicated. We have reached a stage

where one wire, or may be wireless, can carry all the three

things. That is convergence and that will happen in about three

to five years. And when it comes, the rules of the game will

change again.

I recently stated in a

lecture in a hotel that the TV screen would be the centre of all

activity: voice, data, and video. I suggested them to install

TVs in bathrooms also where a lot of interaction would take

place and a lot of important decisions would be taken.

Some countries

like Canada and UK have made policy statements on convergence.

In fact Canada has a separate ministry handling convergence. And

two years back, even you had spoken of a single ministry.

My

ministry is concerned with decisions regarding IT only.

Decisions regarding voice and data transmission lie with the

ministry of telecommunications. And broadcasting ministry takes

care of video transmission. An ideal IT ministry in the

convergence era has to be electronics, communications, and

broadcasting. But there are obvious reasons why it is not so.

Besides political compulsions, one ministry cannot handle all

these portfolios. So what we have done is that the Prime

Minister has provided for a Cabinet Committee on IT. It is a

tool we plan to use and the ministry is in the process of

putting things in place. First we tried to sort out

inter-ministerial issues at the individual level, group level,

and secretarial level. But the results were slow. Let us now

formulate the agenda, discuss it with the people involved, and

things may move fast.

That's at

the policy level. What about the regulatory aspect?

Let

me first clear what IT is all about. I have read the statement

of Arun (Jaitely) about the need to have a Convergence Bill.

Considering the pace of law making in the country, I do not want

to stop the present IT Bill for the sake of the future

Convergence Bill. I want to clear the IT Bill first since

technology is moving fast and everybody will have to move along

with it. All these regulations might have to be changed because

technology would have moved so much ahead. Sometimes I feel that

this IT revolution will be complete in five to seven years and

it will stay for 50 years till you find some other new

revolution.

So the laws will have to

follow technology since technology is dynamic and till IT

stabilizes we will have to change legislation. In fact, the

Singapore Prime Minister commented that I was holding two

mutually non-compatible portfolios. IT that moves so fast and

parliamentary affairs that moves so slowly.

Something

personal. Your skills as a key BJP negotiator is well known and

ministry for parliament affairs is somewhat compatible with

those skills. But how come you got the IT portfolio?

Distribution

of portfolio is the Prime Minister's prerogative. Sometimes it

is a political decision sometimes it is accidental. I do not

know what it was in this case.

You are too

important a politician to be accidentally given any job.

Well,

with all modesty, I can tell you that during my short tenure in

the ministry of information & broadcasting, I was

instrumental in starting the sports and the news channels. I

proposed privatization of the FM channels and not only took a

policy decision but also made the bandwidth available by

"negotiating" with all concerned. And for the first

time, the ministry made Rs 550 crore out of just selling thin

air. And there was no scandal. It was completely transparent.