The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
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Inputs for NTP 2011
https://cis-india.org/telecom/inputs-ntp-2011
<b>The Centre for Internet and Society wishes to commend the DoT on the draft of the New Telecom Policy and offers its suggestions to improve the draft with specific changes.</b>
<p>The new draft contains several noteworthy initiatives and goals such
as Delicensing additional frequency bands for public use, Network
sharing, spectrum sharing, pooling and trading , recognizing that
revenue generation is not the primary reason for licensing spectrum and
that auctions often result in inordinate delays, identifying the mobile
phone as a primary instrument for development and inclusion, Convergence
of broadcast, telecom and cable infrastructure, promotion of cloud
based technologies, Nationwide license, free roaming and one number,
promotion of fixed mobile convergence to free up spectrum, promoting
consumer interests by increasing choice and quality and addressing concerns of
privacy, data security, etc and placing emphasis on research and
development, awareness raising and capacity building.</p>
<p>We offer below suggestions to improve the draft with specific changes marked in bold print.</p>
<h2>Spectrum Management</h2>
<p>We endorse the approach to permit spectrum ‘pooling, sharing and
later, trading for optimal and efficient utilization of spectrum’ as
described in 4.1. In this regard, we would like to suggest that the
Government may consider mandatory spectrum sharing as is being done in
USA with respect to white spaces and digital dividends as a better
approach over licensing spectrum to a single operator and allowing
voluntary sharing since it could result in more dynamic and efficient
use of spectrum with access being authorized as per requirement from a central data base driven system.</p>
<h2>De-licensing additional spectrum</h2>
<p>We agree with the approach to prioritise identification of additional
frequency bands for license exempt use for the operation of low power
devices, as stated in section 4.6 of the National Telecom Policy 2011.
We also support the promotion of the use of technology such as Software
Defined Radios (SDRs) and Cognitive Radios (CRs) in white spaces, as
mention in section 4.9 of the NTP. These developments in the Indian
Telecom policy show promise for the deployment and spread of affordable technologies operating in de-licensed frequencies,
which will contribute to the bridging of the digital divide present in
India. We offer certain recommendations in this regard:</p>
<ol><li>WPC should have more unlicensed bands available for internet and
multimedia to fuelinnovation and efficient spectrum utilization.
Unlicensed bands need to be allocated inbigger chunks in various slots.</li><li>Frequencies
in the 5.15GHz-5.35GHz bands, as well as 5.725-5.825GHz bands are
delicensedfor indoor use only. These bands should be de-licensed for
outdoor use as well in order to facilitate the creation of wider
wireless communication networks and the use ofinnovative technologies.</li><li>Bands
for the use of DECT technologies have already been de-licensed in
Europe and theUnited states. The1800-1890MHz band, which is earmarked
for the operations of DECT based devices in India, should be de-licensed
for the use of low power cordless communication technologies in line
with international practices.</li><li>The 433-434 Mhz band should be unlicensed for data telemetry as it is done in many other countries.</li><li>Unutilized slots in between TV channels (white spaces) should be made available for unlicensed/Class license usage.</li></ol>
<h2>Licensing, Convergence and Value Added Services</h2>
<p>
With respect to allowing the sharing of network mentioned in 3.6, we
would like to propose a similar model as suggested for spectrum sharing,
which is more along the lines of Singapore or Australia’s NGN, with the
network(s) being run by public private partnership (PPP) consortiums,
but led by a private operator.</p>
<h2>Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities</h2>
<p>
Persons with disabilities should be mentioned specifically within the
policy and steps should be taken to enable access to telecommunications
facilities for them. These would include steps like formulating a Code
of good practice for manufacturers and service providers, identifying
accessibility standards in different areas, investing in R&D in
accessible technologies, setting up a nationwide emergency and relay
service, mandating broadcast accessibility to ensure that set-top boxes are accessible and that at least 50 per cent of all TV
programmes are captioned, carrying out regular surveys to gather
statistics on use of telecommunications services by persons with
disabilities, etc.</p>
<h2>Specific recommendations</h2>
<h3>Mission</h3>
<em>(To be modified to read as)</em>
<p>1. To develop a robust, secure state-of-the-art telecommunication
network providing seamless coverage with special focus on rural and
remote areas and bridging digital divide amongst disadvantaged persons, including persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3> Objectives</h3>
<em>(To be modified to read as)</em>
<p>28. Protect consumer interest by promoting informed consent,
transparency, accountability and accessibility in quality of service,
tariff, usage etc.
36. Put in place an accessible web based, real time e-governance
solution to support online submission of applications for all services
of DoT and issuance of licences and clearances from DoT.</p>
<h3>Universal Service Obligation Fund</h3>
<p>
To include ‘Persons with Disabilities, elderly and illiterate persons’
specifically as a category of beneficiaries within the charter of the
fund. Telecom infrastructure/ row issues, green telecom, clear skyline,<br /><em>(Point to be modified to read as)</em><br />5.13. To prescribe sectoral Standard Operating Procedures for
effective and early mitigation during disasters and emergencies. To
mandate Telecom Service Providers to provide alternative accessible
reliable means of communication at the time of disaster by creating
appropriate regulatory framework.
5.15. To facilitate an institutional framework to establish nationwide
Unified Emergency Response Mechanism by providing nationwide single
access number for emergency services and to ensure that the same are also accessible to persons with disabilities.</p>
<h2>Broadband and universal service</h2>
<p>
Given that the uptake of broadband has been rather slow in comparison
with mobile phones, a useful step to scaling up broadband penetration
and providing ubiquitous broadband services could be to identify
broadband as an ‘essential service’ under the Essential Services
Maintenance Act, 1981. This could be recognized as an objective in the
policy and will help to ensure provision of affordable and reliable
provision of broadband.</p>
<h2>Specific recommendation</h2>
<em>(Point to be modified to read as)</em>
<p> 3. Recognize broadband as an ‘essential service’ under the Essential
Services Maintenance Act and provide affordable and reliable broadband
on demand by the year
2015 and to achieve 175 million broadband connections by the year 2017
and 600 million by the year 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed as
well as making available higher speeds of at least 100 Mbps on demand.</p>
<h2>Multi stakeholder approach</h2>
<p>
All activities such as setting up a council under 2.3, advisory groups
in 2.4, 2.10, etc should necessarily include participation from civil
society to ensure a balanced representation of the public interest
perspective.</p>
<h2>Specific recommendations</h2>
<em>(Points to be modified to read as)</em>
<p>2.3. To set up a council consisting of experts from Telecom Service
Providers, Telecom Manufacturing Industry, Government, civil society,</p>
<h3> Academia and R&D institutions.</h3>
<p>2.4. To promote synergy of academia, R&D centres, manufacturers, service providers, civil society, consumer groups and
other stakeholders for achieving collaboration and reorientation of
their efforts for creation of IPRs, development and deployment of new
products and services suited to Indian environment.</p>
<h2>Implementation and monitoring</h2>
<p>
While the policy identifies several laudable objectives and initiatives,
there is little indication as to time lines and mechanisms for
enforcement with measurable indicators. It would be useful to clearly
specify these to ensure smooth and effective implementation of the
policy.</p>
<h2>Protection of consumer interests</h2>
<p>
Any initiatives taken in this regard, such as formulation of a Code etc,
must necessarily involve consumers. The policy also needs to recognize
that special effort is required to ensure that information is made
available to consumers and more steps are taken towards consumer
outreach. This also includes making web sites more user friendly and
accessible to consumers. At present even the web sites of the DoT, USOF,
and TRAI etc are extremely inaccessible.</p>
<h2>Regulation</h2>
<p>
While it is important to create a conducive regulatory framework for
India’s development agenda, we would nevertheless like to caution
against over regulation, especially in cases where market forces
themselves take care of the situation. It is best to have a light handed
approach based on need. It is also suggested that a review of the TRAI
act as proposed under 12.1 could result in vesting the sector regulator
with greater autonomy and independence.</p>
<h2>Specific recommendation</h2>
<em>(Point to be modified to read as)<br />
</em>
12.1. To review the TRAI Act with a view to addressing regulatory
inadequacies/impediments in effective discharge of its functions <strong>and strengthening it by increasing its autonomy.
</strong>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/inputs-ntp-2011'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/inputs-ntp-2011</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecomAccessibility2012-01-02T05:07:57ZBlog EntryAccessibility in the New Telecom Policy 2011
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/accessibility-new-telecom-policy-2011
<b>Responding to the call for comments on NTP 2011, 27 organisations sent a joint letter requesting that accessibility for persons with disabilities be included specifically within the goals and objectives of the policy. The submission is available here. It deals exclusively with the issue of accessibility in telecommunications for persons with disabilities, which has been left out of NTP 2011. We outline below in some detail the rationale for including accessibility in the NTP.</b>
<h3>Demographic case</h3>
<p>The ‘World Report on Disability’, issued in June 2011 by the World
Health Organization in cooperation with the World Bank, estimates that
over a billion of the world’s population lives with some form of
disability.<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility-in-new-telecom-policy#fn1" name="fr1">[1]</a></p>
<p>
According to World Bank estimates, 20 per cent of the world's poorest
people are disabled and are understood to be the most disadvantaged
sections of society.<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility-in-new-telecom-policy#fn2" name="fr2">[2]</a> The global literacy rate for persons with disabilities was reported at approximately three per cent in 1998 by UNDP.<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility-in-new-telecom-policy#fn3" name="fr3">[3]</a></p>
<p>Whether due to discrimination or an inability to work, the
unemployment rate amongst the disabled is very high, almost 80 per cent
in some countries. In India, while there are no accurate statistics on
the number of disabled or their access to ICT, education and employment,
it is commonly believed that the number of persons with disabilities
can be safely estimated to be above 70 million. Added to this is a vast
population of elderly and illiterate persons who are unable to access
mainstream telecommunications services as are available today.</p>
<h3>Legal case</h3>
<p>India has signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and is therefore obliged to
ensure the human rights under the UNCRPD, including those of education,
employment, to life and access to information and communication
technologies and to treat persons with disabilities on an equal basis as
others. Even under domestic law, our constitution recognises equality
and non discrimination as important guiding principles and under the
prevailing as well as new draft disability laws. We are committed to
ensuring access to information, ICTs and all other aspects of social
life which are essential to enjoy the right to life.</p>
<h3>Global best practices:</h3>
<p>Countries around the world, both developed as well as developing have
recognised the important role that ICTs play in connecting the
disabled, and also that special efforts and measures need to be taken to
promote accessibility of and access to telecommunications facilities
and services for persons with disabilities. For instance, Australia,
Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Japan, Malaysia, South Africa,
Sri Lanka, Sweden, USA, UK and many other countries in the European
Union have at least one if not multiple policies and legislations to
promote accessible telecommunications and these include both provisions
in mainstream as well as exclusive policies. Similarly at least 17
countries around the world have specific provisions for connecting the
disabled and providing services through their universal service funds.
Many of these countries have included the aim of connecting the disabled
as a goal in their national policies and then gone on to achieve this
through specific policy initiatives. It is important to identify this as
a national commitment within the policy to ensure adequate follow up.</p>
<h3>Challenges to disability access to telecommunications in India:</h3>
<p>Given below are a few key challenges impeding disability access to telecommunication and ICT services in India today:</p>
<ul><li>Unaffordability of telecommunications products and services for
persons with disabilities living below the poverty line and in rural
areas.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Unavailability of compatible assistive technologies in local languages and at affordable rates.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Absence of special enabling measures such as provision of
hearing aid compatible phones, priority assistance in repairs, low
tariff on basic telephony services, accessible services and customer
care,<br /></li></ul>
<ul><li>Absence of a national relay service and emergency service system.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Unavailability of low cost handsets in the market which are compatible with assistive technology.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Failure of mainstream programmes and initiatives to reach out to
persons with disabilities, for instance the Common Service Centres need
to be made accessible to all.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Inaccessibility of broadcast services: includes inaccessibility
of hardware like set top boxes which can at present not be navigated by
blind persons, as well as inaccessibility of TV programmes because of
lack of captioning and descriptions.</li></ul>
<h3>Recommendation</h3>
<p>Given that there is a lot which needs to be done to connect persons
with disabilities to the information society, we strongly urge the DoT
to clearly identify this as a national goal under the policy. Without
this, it will be difficult to ensure that adequate programmes and
policies are created to make telecommunications accessible and
universally available and persons with disabilities will be unable to
enjoy even the basic rights of life such as the right to health care, to
information, education, employment, recreation and many more. Finally
we would also like to stress that mention of accessibility in NPIT and
other policies alone will not suffice to ensure accessibility of telecom
services. While those do govern accessibility of web sites, standards
and content, the NTP will take care of accessibility of telecom services
like broadband and fixed and mobile telephony, as well as of products.
Given that today a large and ever increasing number of persons are
relying solely on mobile phones to communicate and transact, creating an
accessible<br />telecommunications environment becomes an inevitable priority goal.</p>
<h2>Annexure – List of Signatories</h2>
<ol><li>Accessability (Delhi)</li><li>Alternative Law Forum (Bangalore)</li><li>Andhjan Kalyan Trust (Gujrat)</li><li>Arushi (Bhopal)</li><li>Blind Persons’ Association(Ahmedabad)</li><li>Blind Relief Association (Delhi)</li><li>Centre for Internet and Society(Bangalore)</li><li>Daisy Forum of India(Delhi)</li><li>Deafway(Delhi)</li><li>Deaf Mutes Society (Ahmedabad)</li><li>Dr. Amrik Singh Cheema Foundation Trusts(Chandigarh)</li><li>Fourthway Foundation (Bangalore)</li><li>Indian Association for the Blind(Madurai)</li><li>Indian Institute for Assistive Technology(Mumbai)</li><li>Maraa (Bangalore)</li><li>Mitra Jyothi (Bangalore)</li><li>National Association for the Blind(Mumbai)</li><li>National Association for the Deaf(Delhi)</li><li>Saksham(Delhi)</li><li>Samrita Trust(Secundrabad)</li><li>Score Foundation (Delhi)</li><li>Sightsavers International (Mumbai office)</li><li>Society for Visually Handicapped (West Bengal)</li><li>Sruti Disability Rights Centre (Kolkata)</li><li>Technical Training Institute(Pune)</li><li>Third Eye Charitable Trust(Chennai and Kolkata)</li><li>Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (Mumbai)<br /></li></ol>
<hr />
<p>[<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility-in-new-telecom-policy#fr1" name="fn1">1</a>]http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/en/index.html<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility-in-new-telecom-policy#fr2" name="fn2">2</a>]http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=18<br />[<a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility-in-new-telecom-policy#fr3" name="fn3">3</a>]Ibid.</p>
<p><img alt="" /> <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/accessibility-in-new-telecom.pdf" class="internal-link" title="NTP 2011">Click to download the file</a> [PDF, 182 kb]</p>
<p><em>The submission was made to the Department of Telecommunications,
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of
India on 9 December 2011.</em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/accessibility-new-telecom-policy-2011'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/accessibility-new-telecom-policy-2011</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecomAccessibility2012-01-02T05:12:12ZBlog EntryHealing self-inflicted wounds
https://cis-india.org/telecom/healing-self-inflicted-wounds
<b>A spate of dysfunctional actions and retrograde developments has led to an unimaginable mess for India. Can the damage to growth prospects be undone? Does it need to be? If so, how? Three areas are discussed below. </b>
<p>Some months ago, the spectre was of consoling ourselves with a reduction of two per cent in growth, from 9.5 to 7.5 per cent. That’s history. What looms ahead is a larger, more serious threat. This ominous tidal-wave-in-the-making comprises many separate currents converging to undermine India’s take-off yet again. The prospect is long-term growth hamstrung by policy stand-offs, foreign direct investment in retail being a case in point, and social tensions fuelled by high unemployment.<br /><br />Those who think India has arrived should be aware that it will take another decade of eight to nine per cent growth to be able to fund reasonable basic infrastructure and necessities for everyone. Why should it matter if you live in a rich cocoon? At the very least, you’ll be able to go out without stepping into filth or smelling it, or seeing masses of people struggling to survive.<br /><br />Instead of a high-growth trajectory, we may get six to seven per cent, with luck. These prospects are clouded by wasteful expenditure, such as the perpetuation of an ill-functioning public distribution system and its concomitant, ration-shop-mentality, instead of efficient direct retail subsidies through electronic transfers. The negativity is amplified by fractious social and political tensions, and shoddy infrastructure crippling productivity: power outages, low-speed communications and poor logistics. One can argue (ah, argument) that the tensions are justifiable as an antithesis to increasing levels of corruption from political, bureaucratic and corporate kleptocracy feeding off the land and people, or hardening sectarian interests competing for predatory control. But if there’s one thing we can learn from others’ experience, it is to work together for better outcomes, or suffer; in game theory parlance, collaborate to optimise, or settle for worse.</p>
<h3>Undoing Sectarian Alignments</h3>
<p>Undoing the fractious underpinnings of sectarian alignments of language, caste and religion is beyond the scope of this article. The unpleasant reality is that unless such structural social impediments are addressed, malfunctions will continue. So we have this reality where, at one level, India is wonderful in the way people stream and swirl together, and at another, it is horrible because our potential is not manifested in living standards, with people fed, clothed and housed properly, and clean streets.<br /><br />To return to misapplied intelligence in the political economy, consider three areas: interest rates, airlines, and telecommunications.</p>
<h3>Interest Rates</h3>
<p>It seems only the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was unaware that the consequences of interest rate hikes since February 2010 would (a) not control inflation (short of an economic collapse), and (b) lead to a severe curtailing of growth. To be fair, some economists aided and abetted with remarks that interest rates must be raised because of high inflation.</p>
<p>By contrast, the accompanying charts for China and Germany (euro zone) show their negative real interest rates.</p>
<table class="plain" align="center">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/realinterestrates.jpg/image_preview" title="Real Interest Rates" height="149" width="320" alt="Real Interest Rates" class="image-inline image-inline" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>What we have to do is reduce interest rates, with selective credit controls to ensure that credit for speculation is constrained and costs are high, e.g., in certain real estate, commodities, stocks and derivatives. Implementation, likewise, has to be “intelligent”, with online tracking by exception, and not cumbersome or voluminous weekly or fortnightly reports that are manually compiled and/or analysed, filtered and then presented to committees for decisions.</p>
<h3>Airlines</h3>
<p>The structural anomalies in India’s taxes on aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and airport charges defy logic. For a decade, there has been talk of cuts in central and state taxes on ATF, but the problems continue. Consider the missed opportunity: India has a large domestic market and is well positioned for airlines to use this for establishing global leadership, as well as ubiquitous domestic services. Instead, the sector is bled for short-term government revenues, giving foreign airlines the advantage. ATF charges in India for international flights cost 16 per cent more than they do abroad, and local airlines pay over 50 per cent more because of taxes and additional charges. Consider the ludicrous stipulation that foreign airlines cannot invest in India, and the irrationality defies imagination. Add the illogic of a government-funded, loss-making airline undercutting private airlines, and we have the mess we are in.<br /><br />Globally, airlines suffer from gratuitous free-market philosophies, the exceptions being airlines from strategically focused countries, e.g., in West Asia, Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand) and, of course, China. Wake up! Surely no one doubts that aviation is an integral aspect of logistics and transportation? The government needs to recognise this and build capacity, with policies like uniform, low state taxes. Also, as in telecommunications, aviation requires an oligopolistic structure with limited competition, which if ignored brings chaos and grief, because nothing else is sustainable.</p>
<h3>Telecom & Broadband</h3>
<p>The draft National Telecom Policy 2011 promises good things. Yet, like India’s potential, the promise will be realised only with convergent action. This iconic sector, which changed the way the country functions and is perceived, is on the verge of being ruined by dysfunctional intervention. For instance, the regulator and the government seem bent on applying retrospective charges for “excess spectrum”, taking the bottom out of the market. Worse, 3G services are hamstrung by government attempts to restrict services, while operators threaten litigation. Meanwhile, the bastions of “free market”, the US and the UK, are initiating shared spectrum policies. What good are our brilliant objective statements about excellent, affordable services if the government acts to achieve the opposite? And is it beneficial for India to hound solid companies like Telenor and Qualcomm (unless they commit transgressions), instead of taking a problem-solving approach?<br /><br />If the confused doublespeak – of punitive charges, restrictive practices, PSUs building state-of-the-art networks, auctions and spectrum sharing, all in the same breath – continues, we may lose a decade or more because of instability and irrational policies. It is time for decisions on pay-for-use, open-access spectrum and networks. Incumbent network companies can be compensated along a downward-sloping power curve to give up their competitive advantage. We must start being reasonable and do things that make sense.</p>
<p>This article by Shyam Ponappa was published in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappa-healing-self-inflicted-wounds/457164/">Business Standard</a> on 1 December 2011. Read the article at <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.com/2011/12/healing-self-inflicted-wounds.html">Organizing India Blogspot</a><br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/healing-self-inflicted-wounds'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/healing-self-inflicted-wounds</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2011-12-05T09:10:20ZBlog EntryTelecom Path-Breaker?
https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-path-breaker
<b>Does the draft National Telecom Policy-2011 reflect true brilliance or smoke-and-mirrors? It will be a game-changer if a shared network is implemented effectively, writes Shyam Ponappa in this article published in the Business Standard on November 3, 2011.</b>
<p>There’s much to criticise the government about for not initiating systematic reforms. Yet, the draft National Telecom Policy 2011 (NTP-2011), announced three weeks ago, is a stunner.<a name="fr1" href="#fn1">[1] </a>It begins with a solid, integrated-systems preamble to IT, Communications and Electronics, followed by an excellent vision statement: “[to provide] secure, reliable, affordable and high quality... telecommunication services anytime, anywhere.” A sound beginning, although open-ended in terms of how the details could evolve.</p>
<p>There are potential problems with such high-level pronouncements, of course. A number of commentators castigate the motherhoods in the draft. With a lofty perspective and few details, much depends on how the open-ended possibilities develop, including the difficulties of execution in dealing with ground realities and obstacles.</p>
<h3>An Assessment</h3>
<p>NTP-2011 addresses six major areas: spectrum, licensing, broadband, convergence, roaming, and manufacturing. Focusing on the first two, there are sweeping proposals:</p>
<ul><li>licences will not be linked to spectrum; and</li><li>spectrum sharing will be permitted.</li></ul>
<p>Some view the separation of licences and spectrum as retrograde, because spectrum is essential for service delivery. Others suggest that transgressions that led to the scams are now being inducted as new policies, e.g., operators accessing networks they do not own, which is characterised as being against the public interest. Some heap opprobrium, alleging that like the previous policy, NTP-99, which they call retrograde (although it led to the phenomenal growth in mobile telephony), its main purpose is to allow companies to avoid paying licence/auction fees to the government.</p>
<ul><li>The last expostulation is the most ludicrous, because revenue collections after NTP-99 far exceeded estimated fees foregone: Rs 20,000 crore estimated “loss” by March 2007, but Rs 40,000 crore actually collected, and Rs 80,000 crore collected by March 2010.<a name="fr2" href="#fn2">[2]</a>Add tax collections on exponential growth with increased profits, and the result is even higher total government revenues.<br /></li><li>Opposing operator access to networks arises from confused objectives; blocking access is like cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. The purpose of the sector is to provide services and access to users for legitimate activities. The public interest lies in facilitating access on appropriate terms.</li><li>To evaluate licensing and spectrum, begin with the premise of shared spectrum. Spectrum is essential for effective service provision, particularly in the rural and semi-urban areas with about 70 per cent of the population. An aspect not commonly known is that larger bands of spectrum enable more efficient throughput. For example, 1 MHz of a 12 MHz band carries 50 per cent more traffic than 1 MHz of a 6 MHz band. An estimate of the benefit to Indian operators of more bandwidth at international norms is a reduction of 20 per cent in operating costs.</li></ul>
<h3>Spectrum Occupancy</h3>
<p>In practice, assigned spectrum is idle much of the time, except during the busy hours in India’s heavy-traffic metros, for extraneous reasons: too many operators, with too little spectrum, in too- narrow bands. This aspect becomes clear from spectrum utilisation or occupancy studies. For instance, the chart shows spectrum occupancy in Bangalore, Edinburgh and Stony Brook (New York) sometime in 2011.</p>
<p>The low readings (250 to 850 MHz in Bangalore, 600 to 950 MHz in Edinburgh, and 500 to 850 MHz in Stony Brook, NY) indicate available “white spaces” that can be better utilised.</p>
<ul><li>High-traffic cities like Delhi and Mumbai have much higher utilisation than cities elsewhere in the world. It comes at increased costs to operators, because of advanced equipment and the closer spacing of towers, as well as having negative environmental effects. If a system with on-demand access to centralised, more efficient spectrum bandwidth were available, the capacity would be much higher, while operators would gain tremendous savings.</li></ul>
<ul><li>Another aspect has to do with the structuring and pricing of shared spectrum. One scenario for sharing is to enable operators to share assigned bands on mutually acceptable terms, leaving the onus of structuring and deployment on the respective operators, as for mobile telephony towers. As with the towers, there are likely to be coalitions of operators/independent entities who are able to work out arrangements among themselves, while not attaining the ultimate efficiency of unified coordination. For instance, participants who share towers in India share passive but not active infrastructure, and a critical element of active infrastructure is spectrum.</li></ul>
<ul><li>An alternative scenario would be mandated spectrum sharing. Spectrum on demand could be made available to any operator/counterparties for the duration of every communication “transaction”. This would need a database-driven Dynamic Spectrum Assignment facility, as deployed by Spectrum Bridge in the US. The more efficient throughput would mean higher traffic capacity for a given investment through better utilisation.</li></ul>
<ul><li>The distributed processing alternative through cognitive radio in every user device is (a) much less efficient, and (b) far more expensive. The market consolidation-through-acquisition approach, with more auctions, is the least efficient and most expensive.</li></ul>
<h3>Common-Access Networks</h3>
<p>There would be further efficiencies if the entire network (and not just the spectrum) were accessed on-demand for payment per use. Another benefit from a public perspective would be much lower collective investment in resources, because of better utilisation. A third benefit would be the reduced environmental impact because of a lower carbon footprint and radiation from two or three common-access national networks (assuming competition is essential for effectiveness and efficiency).</p>
<p>In other words, database-driven, shared spectrum and networks have to be organised and managed as a coordinated unit if the potential benefits are to be realised. America is doing this with TV white spaces/the digital dividend, through the appointment of 10 database administrators (including Spectrum Bridge, Google and Microsoft). This should elicit our interest.</p>
<p>Once the government and stakeholders accept these concepts, the next major task is structuring the networks as consortiums to align the interests of operators and network providers, with state-of-the-art lead partners. In this process, incorporating and reorienting BSNL and MTNL as guardians of national interests with oversight by an adequately empowered regulator will be the remaining major tasks.</p>
<hr />
<p>[<a name="fn1" href="#fr1">1</a>].<a class="external-link" href="http://www.dot.gov.in/NTP-2011/NTP2011.htm">http://www.dot.gov.in/NTP-2011/NTP2011.htm</a></p>
<p>[<a name="fn2" href="#fr2">2</a>].TRAI, 2005: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/StudyPapers/2/ir30june.pdf">http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/StudyPapers/2/ir30june.pdf</a><br /> CAG: <a class="external-link" href="http://cag.gov.in/html/reports/civil/2010-11_19PA/Telecommunication%20Report.pdf">http://cag.gov.in/html/reports/civil/2010-11_19PA/Telecommunication%20Report.pdf</a></p>
<p><strong>Shyam's article was originally published in the Business Standard</strong>. It can be read <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.com/2011/11/telecom-path-breaker.html">here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-path-breaker'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-path-breaker</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2011-11-18T05:42:00ZBlog EntryFacing up to Moral Hazard
https://cis-india.org/telecom/facing-up-to-moral-hazard
<b>Systems upholding the law and standards help navigate the grey areas of moral hazard and adverse selection writes Shyam Ponappa in this article published in the Business Standard on October 6, 2011.</b>
<p>Amid the general sense of an ailing socio-economic environment in the country, consider these situations:</p>
<p>Coal supplies for power generation are eight per cent short of generation capacity. Worse, nearly 42,000 Mw of additional generation capacity over the next five years is jeopardised because anticipated supplies are short by two-thirds of the requirement (100 million tonnes against demand for 313 million tonnes). </p>
<ul><li>The rural employment guarantee scheme, well intentioned and with some reported successes (as in Melghat in Vidarbha), shows few tangible results while distorting farm labour practices and pricing. The reasons are many: inadequate design and supervision (mud roads that are washed away every year), no integration with agricultural programmes, palliatives that deny real infrastructure and support, like extension schemes that build on successes leveraging ICT, no skill development for alternative (self) employment, and so on. </li><li>The telecommunications sector is buffeted by scandal, the downward spiral of public sector operators BSNL and MTNL, and pressures of intense competition with constrained resources and regulations.</li></ul>
<p>Leaving aside venality, a common thread is of laws and rules not upheld, slack standards, contracts not honoured, an absence of hard decisions and the requisite effort, and a degradation of mindsets. These are the grey areas of “moral hazard” on the one hand – where protection from the consequences of irresponsible actions induces irresponsibility – and of adverse or negative selection on the other, avoiding the best feasible choices for easier, inferior alternatives. They are widespread, and need assiduous effort to identify and set right with systems, even as criminality is dealt with by the legal system. Good people do not game situations for self-gain, but everyone faces the hazard in making choices. The importance of devising and upholding credible systems, standard operating procedures and laws that are seen to work through incentives and penalties is that these perceptions uphold the social contract and protect one from moral hazard.</p>
<p>Whatever the policies, they must have integrity and coherence; the hazard arises from not ensuring these conditions. The specific hazard is the change in behaviour for the worse. Absent this skein of expectations and constraints, there is no coherence to every individual’s uncoordinated wish list or gripes. This is the problem with well-intentioned social vigilantism, because it destroys the very fabric of order.</p>
<h3>Down the Slippery Slope</h3>
<p>The hazards in grey areas are manifested in several ways. </p>
<ol><li><strong>Abdication of responsibility by the government:</strong> The most prominent moral hazard may be the central government’s abdication of responsibility epitomised by the 2G scandal. A redeeming feature is that some alleged perpetrators are being prosecuted eventually — although how matters end will establish whether it is truly a redemption or a perpetuation of banditry with the state’s complicity (by abstaining from intervention). Similar scandals in mining and civil aviation are unravelling or are on the brink. It is these egregious developments added to the hassles in routine dealings with the government that have led to such public alienation.<br /><br />There are also many errors of government omission or inaction, such as initiatives not taken in infrastructure, like stalled efforts at power supply reforms, including the state governments’ reluctance to address sustainable electricity tariffs, or not reducing the extent of administered pricing and taxes in petroleum products (or state governments imposing non-uniform sales tax), the deterioration in the railways, and so on.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Taking to the streets:</strong> Citizens who feel alienated can take to the streets when they are desperate or outraged. This seems to be the sentiment not only in the Arab spring, but also in varying degrees in established democracies in Europe, Israel and India. There are incipient signs even in America, with the amorphous “Occupy Wall Street” movement spreading from New York to other cities, protesting against various inequities.<br /><br />When both government and citizens are irresponsible, chaos follows. In India, absence of governance is an extenuating circumstance for activism. But equally, there are indefensible lapses by citizens: the unwillingness to be disciplined, to outgrow the anti-colonial paradigm of railing against the government-as-imperial-ruler, of fasting and civil disobedience as acceptable forms of protest, of not subscribing to order, whether in traffic, respecting queues, or managing garbage and sanitation. Yet, reports of queuing by Delhi Metro users suggest that we can perform if we must — as do all the IT professionals delivering services to international markets. But for the most part, we rail against other people’s transgressions, while being unwilling to observe discipline ourselves.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Corporate chicanery</strong>: Apart from criminality such as in the mining and 2G scams, there is the grey area of bending the rules. Examples include the financial and operational performance of many real estate developers, or the poor automotive service quality that is an adjunct to the undeniably more refined automobiles themselves.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Media overreach</strong>: The advent of 24x7 news channels is a boon for choice and sourcing. Tragically, many have morphed into whipping up a frenzy rather than delivering solid news and balanced views, given the battle for viewership with a lowest-common-denominator bias for sensationalism.<br /><br /></li><li><strong>Stalled government decisions</strong>: Government decisions in a number of areas were already stalled owing to problems in the approach to land acquisition, environmental effects, and in sectors such as nuclear energy. A combination of circumstances comprising all these and hyper-aggressive audits, a popular outcry stoked by frenzied media treatment relating to scams in land acquisition, 2G spectrum, and mines, has in effect created a gridlock, in which no forward-looking decisions seem possible, because of the risk of retribution for perceived missteps or errors of judgment, with hindsight.<br /><br />The grey areas occupy the space between what we want – superior standards – and what we have, which is a slackness of systems because of widespread shoddiness in the practice of leadership and citizenship, with neither inspiring confidence in the other. The way out is conceptually simple, though difficult to execute: take responsibility, devise coherent systems and practices in all areas, with incentives and penalties applied impartially, and live by them.<br /><br />Read the original article in the Business Standard <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappa-facingto-moral-hazard/451562/">here</a></li></ol>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/facing-up-to-moral-hazard'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/facing-up-to-moral-hazard</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecom2011-10-26T12:50:08ZBlog EntrySeptember 2011 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2011-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! In this issue we are pleased to present you the latest updates about our research, upcoming events, and news and media coverage that happened in the month of September 2011.</b>
<h2><b>Researchers@Work</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">RAW is a multidisciplinary research initiative. CIS believes that in order to understand the contemporary concerns in the field of Internet and society, it is necessary to produce local and contextual accounts of the interaction between the Internet and socio-cultural and geo-political structures. To build original research base, the RAW programme has been collaborating with different organizations and individuals in order to focus on its two year thematic of Histories of the Internets in India. Five monographs were recently launched at a workshop, <a href="https://cis-india.org/research/conferences/conference-blogs/workshop">Locating Internets: Histories of the Internet(s) in India — Research Training and Curriculum</a> held in Ahmedabad from 19 to 22 August 2011.</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/rewiring-bodies">Re:Wiring Bodies</a> by Asha Achuthan</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/last-cultural-mile">The Last Cultural Mile</a> by Ashish Rajadhyaksha</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/porn-law-video-technology">Porn: Law, Video, Technology</a> by Namita A Malhotra </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/archives-and-access">Archives and Access</a> by Aparna Balachandran and Rochelle Pinto </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/internet-society-space">Internet, Society and Space in Indian Cities</a> by Pratyush Shankar</li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h2><b>Digital Natives with a Cause?</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by CIS, India and Hivos, Netherlands. It is a research inquiry that seeks to look at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who want to critically engage with the dominant discourse on youth, technology and social change, in order to look at the alternative practices and ideas in the Global South. It also aims at building new ecologies that amplify and augment the interventions and actions of the digitally young as they shape our futures.</p>
<h3>Featured Publication</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/dnbook">Digital AlterNatives with a Cause?</a> - This collaboratively produced collective, edited by Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen, asks critical and pertinent questions about theory and practice around ‘digital revolutions’ in a post MENA (Middle East - North Africa) world. It works with multiple vocabularies and frameworks and produces dialogues and conversations between digital natives, academic and research scholars, practitioners, development agencies and corporate structures to examine the nature and practice of digital natives in emerging contexts from the Global South.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Book Review</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/digital-alternatives-book-review">Digital (Alter)Natives with a Cause? — Book Review by Maarten van den Berg</a> - The books come in a beautifully designed cassette and are accompanied by a funky yellow package in the shape of a floppy disk containing the booklet ‘D:coding Digital Natives’, a corresponding DVD, and a pack of postcards portraying the evolution of writing - in the sentence ‘I love you’, written with a goose feather in 1734, to the character set ‘i<3u’ entered on a mobile device in 2011, writes Maarten van den Berg. The review was published in "<a href="http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Digital-Alter-Natives">The Broker</a>" on 19 September 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/book-launch">Digital AlterNatives book launch</a> – CIS and Hivos launched this book at the Museum for Communication, Hague on 16 September 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Accessibility</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3>Event Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/usof-meeting">Stakeholders Meeting of the USOF on Facilitating ICT Access to Persons with Disabilities in Rural Areas</a>, on 7 September 2011. Nirmita Narasimhan made a presentation.</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Access to Knowledge</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Access to Knowledge is a campaign to promote the fundamental principles of justice, freedom, and economic development. It deals with issues like copyrights, patents, and trademarks, which are an important part of the digital landscape. CIS believes that access to knowledge and culture is essential, and such access promotes creativity and innovation, and helps bridge the differences between the developing and developed worlds in a positive manner. Towards this end, CIS is campaigning for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for print-challenged people, advocating against laws (such as the PUPFIP Bill) that privatize public-funded knowledge, call for the WIPO Broadcast Treaty to be restricted to broadcast, question the demonization of 'pirates', and support endeavours that explore and question the current copyright regime.</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/copyright-bill-parliament">Copyright Amendment Bill in Parliament</a> by Nirmita Narasimhan, 30 August 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/photocopying-the-past">Photocopying the past</a> by Sunil Abraham in the Indian Express, 2 September 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/calling-out-the-bsa-on-bs">Calling Out the BSA on Its BS</a> by Pranesh Prakash, 9 September 2011.</li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h2><b>Internet Governance</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Internet technologies have fundamentally questioned the notion of governance, not only at the level of administration but also at the level of mechanisms of control, regulation and shaping of the individual. e-Governance initiatives, in combination with other regimes of surveillance, control and censorship, are redefining what it means to be a citizen, a subject, and an individual. We look at questions of governance — at the micro level of the individual and the private (family, relationships, community structures, etc.) as well as the level of governmentality — at the macro level of nation state, citizenship, market economies, and the public (spaces of consumption, work, leisure, political engagement, etc.) under the umbrella of digital governance.</p>
<h3>New Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/understanding-right-to-information">Understanding the Right to Information</a> by Elonnai Hickok, 28 September 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/internet-as-a-tool-for-political-change">Using the Internet as a Tool for Political Change: Lessons Learned and Way Forward</a>, IGF, Nairobi, 27 September 2011. </li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Telecom</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. It is imperative to resolve these issues in the common interest of users and service providers.</p>
<h3>Articles by Shyam Ponappa</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Shyam Ponappa is a Distinguished Fellow at CIS. He writes regularly on Telecom issues in the Business Standard and these articles are mirrored on the CIS website.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/reviving-growth">Reviving Growth</a>, published in the Business Standard on 1 September 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/open-spectrum-for-development-in-the-context-of-the-digital-migration">Open Spectrum for Development in the Context of the Digital Migration</a>, IGF, Nairobi, 29 September 2011.</li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h2><b>Miscellaneous</b></h2>
<h3>Film Screening</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/partners-in-crime">Screening of Partners in Crime</a>, Vikalp@Smriti Nandan along with CIS screened the film and followed it with a discussion with the director of the film, Paromita Vohra, Smriti Nandan Cultural Centre, 9 September 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/workshop-rsa-encryption">Prime Security: The Mathematics of RSA Encryption</a>, a one-day workshop with Rohit Gupta, a leading Mathematician.</li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h2><b>News & Media Coverage</b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/social-media-masks-forgotten-protests">India's social media "spring" masks forgotten protests</a> [Alistair Scrutton in Reuters, 25 August 2011].</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/social-media-key-to-hazare-success">Social media holds the key to Hazare's campaign success</a> [Alistair Scrutton in NEWS.scotsman.com, 26 August 2011].</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/digital-divide">Digital divide: Why Irom Sharmila can’t do an Anna</a> [FirstPost.Ideas, 25 August 2011].</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/revolutions-viral?searchterm=When+revolutions+go+viral+">When revolutions go viral</a> [Times of India (Crescent Edition), 27 August 2011].</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/ibsa-seminar">IBSA Seminar on Global Internet Governance</a>, organised by the Brazilian Ministry of External Relations, with support from the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br) and the Center for Technology & Society (CTS/FGV) and governmental and non- governmental actors from India, Brazil and South Africa, 1 to 2 September 2011, Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV) - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pranesh Prakash participated in this event.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/copyright-amendment-bill-in-indian-parliament">Copyrights Amendment Bill to Be Tabled in Indian Parliament – Parallel Import provisions have Been Removed</a> [Mike Palmedo in infojustice.org, 5 September 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/power-of-information">The Power of Information: New Technologies for Philanthropy and Development</a> [Indigo Trust, 15 September 2011]. Sunil Abraham participated in this event. A video of his speech is now available on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhpLkEhn9AY">YouTube</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/using-social-media-to-understand-peoples-pulse">Planning Commission, Census 2011 and India Post using social media to understand people's pulse better</a> [Vikas Kumar in the Economic Times, 20 September 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/foss-instrument-for-accessible-development">The Impact of Regulation: FOSS and Enterprise</a>, organised by FOSSFA and ICFOSS, IGF, Nairobi, 28 September 2011. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/privacy-security-access-to-rights">Privacy, Security, and Access to Rights: A Technical and Policy Analyses</a>, organised by Expression Technologies, IGF, Nairobi, 29 September 2011. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/how-can-privacy-be-protected">Putting Users First: How Can Privacy be Protected in Today’s Complex Mobile Ecosystem?</a>, organised by GSM Association, 29 September 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/truman-show-in-kerala">The Truman Show, in Kerala</a> [Times of India, posted on CIS website on 23 September 2011].</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/making-difference-online-offline">Making a difference, online and offline</a> [LiveMint, 27 September 2011].</li>
</ul>
<h2>Follow us elsewhere</h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=456&qid=46981" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Follow CIS on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=457&qid=46981" target="_blank">identi.ca</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Join the CIS group on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=458&qid=46981" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Visit us at <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=459&qid=46981" target="_blank">www.cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2011-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/september-2011-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceCISRAW2012-07-30T06:34:19ZPageReviving Growth
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/reviving-growth
<b>The government needs to reduce interest rates and undertake specific reforms to revive growth. The focus needs to be on communications, specifically broadband, it would yield results. Mobile communications have grown phenomenally but the meteoric rise got stalled. However, if the government initiates reforms in spectrum policies with incentives for broadband delivery, prospects could revive and communications could go through another meteoric rise, becoming the growth engine for the economy.</b>
<p>India’s heady economic prospects of a year ago have deteriorated unthinkably. True, the rest of the world is wobbly, too, from America’s unreconstructed and unsustainable headlong decline, to much of Europe’s companion piece. But the possibility of some buffering for India seems to have evaporated. Expectations of better prospects were not so much from decoupling as from our limited dependence on exports, and headroom from activity levels with enormous scope for improvement and expansion — in basic infrastructure, housing, second-order infrastructure like education, sanitation and health care, as well as manufacturing, tourism and retail.</p>
<p>Rising input costs and interest rates started the decline in margins, and self-destructive actions made matters worse, epitomised by the implosion of the scams (2G, the Commonwealth Games, the Karnataka mining scandal, the land scams…). The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) actions of increasing interest rates when faced with inflation caused by factors beyond its ambit, such as food prices rising because of supply constraints, or energy prices on account of expensive imports, have amplified the negative sentiments.</p>
<h3>The Bogey: Growth versus Inflation</h3>
<p>The economy is slowing, and earlier estimates of well over nine per cent growth for 2011-2012 have gone overboard. In May, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s estimate was nine per cent; in August, an RBI survey consensus was under eight per cent; Morgan Stanley’s was barely over seven per cent. Yet, policy makers maintain that despite the deleterious effects on growth, raising interest rates to control inflation through monetary policy is paramount.* In absolute terms, the need for controlling inflation is incontestable, but societal needs provide an exigent imperative for making the trade-off in favour of growth. The consideration now needs to be of steps that could alleviate the slowdown, and the likely effects of such actions not only on inflation, but also in collateral damage to economic activity.</p>
<p>Consider India’s shortcomings, namely, insufficient food production and associated storage and distribution, inadequate agricultural extension support services, expensive oil and coal imports, and lack of educational and vocational training facilities for a burgeoning, youth-dominated population. Add another level of inadequacy arising from our continuing lack of infrastructure, from basic sanitation, water and health care, extending through energy, transportation and communications (broadband). These structural bottlenecks exacerbate the negative aspects of our predicament.</p>
<p>Against this backdrop, we have a slowing economy, now threatened by a global slowdown. In the quarter ending March 2011, a third of the Sensex companies had missed their earnings estimates, while in the last quarter ending June 2011, nearly half of them were below estimates. With offshore revenues estimated to contribute nearly a third of FY12 profits, the threat of a global slowdown is ominous.</p>
<h3>Inappropriate Rate Hikes</h3>
<p>From this perspective, raising interest rates to combat inflation appears decidedly ill-advised. As expected, interest rate increases have not reduced inflation. The reduction can happen only when economic activity slows so much that demand for essentials falls, a horrific prospect. As for attracting foreign investment, rate hikes do little to induce confidence in foreign investors in skittish times, because they look to India and emerging markets for growth, not for stability. To be a safe haven, India has to be perceived not as a developing economy, but as an equivalent of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development — a long way and many years ahead.</p>
<p>The economy, therefore, needs shoring up. Can RBI and the government take steps to reverse the decline? Consider the following corrective actions:</p>
<ul><li>Reduce rates to revive growth</li></ul>
<p>In these circumstances, the priority has to be growth. Otherwise, apart from minimal foreign investment, domestic investment also is likely to be curtailed further, and social instability triggered by economic pressures could grab centre stage to devastating effect. International commodity prices are outside India’s control, but RBI can reduce interest rates. Cutting rates can raise margins and revive consumer demand.</p>
<p>The central bank needs to reverse its repressive stance on rates, no matter what the textbooks say, so that enterprise profits recover to a high-growth trajectory.</p>
<p>An immediate cut in borrowing rates, together with a concerted move to reset positive expectations and sentiments, is an urgent requirement.</p>
<ul><li>Selective credit controls for asset bubbles</li></ul>
<p>Further, the RBI has avoided instituting selective credit controls to avoid asset bubbles, perhaps because of legacy reasons concerning commodity pricing and the potential for interference in markets. With smart e-governance at hand, this nettle must be grasped in place of the blunt instrument of overall rate increases, to use real-time, targeted additional margins, cash reserves and rate increases to defuse incipient asset.</p>
<ul><li>Reforms to build momentum</li></ul>
<p>In tandem, we need reforms to rebuild economic momentum. All sectors need reform, e.g., energy, communications, transport, sanitation/water/health and education. For instance, the energy/power sector sorely needs drastic reforms, but it is so complex, with so many layers that need disentangling, that while initiatives are necessary, they are unlikely to revive growth in a reasonable period. The need, therefore, is to focus on what is practicable with the likelihood of achieving results.</p>
<p>In practical terms, we have to prioritise, and focusing now on communications, specifically broadband, could yield results. Mobile communications grew phenomenally over the last decade. The meteoric rise stalled for a variety of reasons: excessive competition, ultra-low tariffs, saturation in urban markets, limited access to spectrum, no incentives for broadband, restrictive actions against BSNL and MTNL, scandals and policy uncertainties. Yet, if the government initiates appropriate reforms in spectrum policies with incentives for broadband delivery, prospects could revive. If the government can (a) formulate major reforms with a New Telecom Policy 2011 that achieves growth, while(b) resolving problems relating to past irregularities through sound legal processes and judgement, communications could go through another meteoric rise, becoming the growth engine for the economy.</p>
<p>This article by Shyam Ponappa was published in the Business Standard on September 1, 2011. The original story can be read <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.com/2011/09/reviving-growth.html">here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/reviving-growth'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/reviving-growth</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2011-10-20T13:36:59ZBlog EntryOpen Spectrum for Development in the Context of the Digital Migration
https://cis-india.org/events/open-spectrum-for-development-in-the-context-of-the-digital-migration
<b></b>
<p><strong>Concise Description</strong>:</p>
<p>While the communication technologies that use the radio spectrum continue to develop at a brisk pace, our general approach to regulating the spectrum has not changed much since the 1930s when the spectrum was regulated to a very high degree in order to assure that interference between signals would not occur. For this reason, frequencies are assigned for specific uses and overseen quite closely by national regulators as well as an international system of governance. However, as technology rapidly changes, approaches to managing the spectrum should change as well.</p>
<p>Around the world, countries are migrating their broadcast systems –in particular, television- from analogue transmitters and receivers to digital ones. Digital broadcasting utilises the spectrum more efficiently, generally allowing for more channels in the space where one analogue channel could exist. This provides opportunity for other uses of the freed spectrum.</p>
<p>This digital migration creates the opportunity for improving how spectrum can be used and regulated. In particular, for expanding internet access. For this opportunity to realise, new means should be built into all spectrum allocation regimes. Open spectrum is one approach to spectrum management that would allow various users to utilise parts of the spectrum that are available. Sharing the spectrum in such a way would create a “spectrum commons” and would require a simple set of rules for communicating with one another and making decisions. But even if some frequencies are set aside as commons, more transparent and clear ways to regulate the spectrum being used by all stakeholders -including broadcasters, mobile companies and the military- need to be set. </p>
<p>This workshop will be aimed at identifying current practices that are contributing to build the spectrum commons, as well as debating different perspectives on policy and regulatory issues involved in spectrum management and its impacts on development.</p>
<p>In this workshop we will explore alternative regulatory frameworks in different contexts and regions, considering how technological developments can shape the future of spectrum-based communication. Considering, in particular, the opportunities brought by the transition to digital broadcasting systems.</p>
<p><strong>Which of the five broad IGF Themes or the Cross-Cutting Priorities does your workshop fall under?</strong></p>
<p>Emerging Issues</p>
<p><strong>Have you organized an IGF workshop before? Yes</strong></p>
<p><strong>If so, please provide the link to the report:</strong></p>
<p><a class="external-link" href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposalsReports2010View&wspid=110">http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=WSProposalsReports2010View&wspid=110</a></p>
<p>Provide the names and affiliations of the panellists you are planning to invite:</p>
<p>Moderator:</p>
<p>- Claire Sibthorpe, Maple Consulting Services, UK</p>
<p>Panelists:</p>
<ul><li>Steve Song, Village Telco, South Africa</li><li>Muriuki Mureithi, Researcher, Summit Strategies ltd, Kenya</li><li>Carlos Afonso, Instituto NUPEF, Brazil</li><li>Willie Currie, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, South Africa</li><li>Giacomo Mazzone, European Broadcasting Union, Switzerland</li><li>Sascha Meinrath, New America Foundation, USA</li><li>Paul Mitchell, Microsoft Corporation, USA</li></ul>
<div> </div>
<div>Remote moderator:</div>
<div>
<ul><li>Henrik Almström, APC, South Africa</li></ul>
<div><br />Provide the name of the organizer(s) of the workshop and their affiliation to various stakeholder groups:</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>Association for Progressive Communications (APC) (civil society)</div>
<div>KictaNet (multistakeholder network)</div>
<div>Balancing Act (private sector)</div>
<div>Centre for Internet and Society (civil society)</div>
</div>
<div><br /><strong>Organization</strong>:Association for Progressive Communications</div>
<div><strong>Contact Person</strong>: Pablo Accuosto</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Workshop Number 121</div>
<div> </div>
<div>See the background paper <a class="external-link" href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/components/com_chronocontact/uploads/WSProposals2011/20110909040934_Spectrum_BackgroundPaper.pdf">here</a></div>
<div>See the details on IGF website <a class="external-link" href="http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/component/chronocontact/?chronoformname=Workshops2011View&wspid=121">here</a></div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/events/open-spectrum-for-development-in-the-context-of-the-digital-migration'>https://cis-india.org/events/open-spectrum-for-development-in-the-context-of-the-digital-migration</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecom2011-10-13T01:14:26ZEventSagie Chetty- Report
https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/SC%20Study%20Tour%20Report%202009-11-08%20_2_.pdf
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/SC%20Study%20Tour%20Report%202009-11-08%20_2_.pdf'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/SC%20Study%20Tour%20Report%202009-11-08%20_2_.pdf</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaTelecomPublications2011-08-23T03:30:41ZFileTRAI response
https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/TRAI%20CP%20Response-Nov%2012%202009.pdf
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/TRAI%20CP%20Response-Nov%2012%202009.pdf'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/TRAI%20CP%20Response-Nov%2012%202009.pdf</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaTelecomPublications2011-08-23T03:32:08ZFileTRAI - consultation Q 1- 57
https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/TRAI%20CP-Q%201-57-Nov%2012%202009.pdf
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/TRAI%20CP-Q%201-57-Nov%2012%202009.pdf'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/TRAI%20CP-Q%201-57-Nov%2012%202009.pdf</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaTelecom2009-11-23T08:53:00ZFileTRAI
https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/TRAI%20consultation.jpg
<b></b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/TRAI%20consultation.jpg'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/TRAI%20consultation.jpg</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaTelecom2009-11-23T08:51:35ZFileAugust 2011 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/august-2011-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! In this issue we are pleased to present you the latest updates about our research, upcoming events, and news and media coverage:</b>
<h2><b>Researchers@Work</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">RAW is a multidisciplinary research initiative. To build original research knowledge base, the RAW programme has been collaborating with different organisations and individuals to focus on its three year thematic of Histories of the Internets in India. Five monographs: <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/rewiring-bodies/rewiring-call-for-review" target="_blank">Re: Wiring Bodies</a> by Asha Achuthan, <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/archives-and-access/archive-and-access" target="_blank">Archive and Access</a> by Aparna Balachandran and Rochelle Pinto, <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/pleasure-and-pornography/pornography-and-law" target="_blank">Porn: Law, Video, Technology</a> by Namita Malhotra, <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/rethinking-the-last-mile-problem/last-mile-problem" target="_blank">The Last Cultural Mile</a> by Ashish Rajadhyaksha and <a href="https://cis-india.org/raw/histories-of-the-internet/blogs/internet-society-and-space-in-indian-cities/city-and-space" target="_blank">Internet, Society and Space in Indian Cities</a> by Pratyush Shankar were officially launched at the Locating Internets: Histories of the Internet(s) in India — Research Training and Curriculum Workshop in Ahmedabad.</p>
<h3>Workshop organised in CEPT, Ahmedabad</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/conferences/conference-blogs/workshop" target="_blank">Locating Internets: Histories of the Internet(s) in India — Research Training and Curriculum Workshop: Call for Participation</a> [19 to 22 August 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Digital Natives with a Cause?</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by CIS and Hivos, Netherlands. It is a research inquiry that seeks to look at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who want to critically engage with the dominant discourse on youth, technology and social change, in order to look at the alternative practices and ideas in the Global South. It also aims at building new ecologies that amplify and augment the interventions and actions of the digitally young as they shape our futures.</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/stirrup-and-the-ground" target="_blank">Between the Stirrup and the Ground: Relocating Digital Activism</a> (This paper by Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen was published in Democracy & Society, a publication of the Center for Democracy and Civil Society, Volume 8, Issue 2, Summer 2011).</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Accessibility</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3>Interview</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/interview-mada">An Interview with David Baines</a> (Maureen Agena interviewed David Baines of Mada Centre for Assistive Technology in Khattar).</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Access to Knowledge</b></h2>
<h3>New Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/govt-legalising-parallel-import-of-copyright-work" class="external-link">Govt for Legalising Parallel Import of Copyright Works; Publishers Oppose</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Openness</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS believes that innovation and creativity should be fostered through openness and collaboration and is committed towards promotion of open standards, open access, and free/libre/open source software.</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/ogd-draft-v2-call-for-comments" target="_blank">Call for Comments on Draft Report on Open Government Data in India (v2)</a> (Nisha Thompson has updated the Open Government Data Report prepared by CIS last year including additional case studies and the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/open-access-to-scholarly-literature" target="_blank">Open Access to Scholarly Literature in India: A Status Report: Call for Comments</a> (The report has been prepared by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam and Madhan Muthu. It surveys the field of scholarly and scientific publication in India and provides a detailed history of the open access movement in India).</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Internet Governance</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Although there may not be one centralized authority that rules the Internet, the Internet does not just run by its own volition: for it to operate in a stable and reliable manner, there needs to be in place infrastructure, a functional domain name system, ways to curtail cyber crime across borders, etc. The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), paragraph 34 defined Internet governance as “the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.” Its latest endeavour has resulted into these:</p>
<h3>New Blog Post</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/bye-bye-email" target="_blank">Bye Bye email?</a> (Email might be the default method of communication for most of us, but could it be going the telegram way, writes Nishant Shah. The article was published in the Indian Express on August 21, 2011).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Public Lecture</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/mirror-in-the-enigma" target="_blank">The Mirror in the Enigma: How Germany lost World War II to a Mathematical Theorem</a> (Rohit Gupta gave a lecture at CIS on August 12, 2011).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is doing a project, ‘Privacy in Asia’. <i>It is funded by Privacy International (PI), UK and the International Development Research Centre, Canada and is being administered in collaboration with the Society and Action Group, Gurgaon</i>. The two-year project commenced on 24 March 2010 and will be completed as agreed to by the stakeholders. It was set up with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around challenges and violations of privacy in India. In furtherance of these goals it aims to draft and promote over-arching privacy legislation in India by drawing upon legal and academic resources and consultations with the public.</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/ip-addresses-and-identity-disclosures" target="_blank">IP Addresses and Expeditious Disclosure of Identity in India</a> (Prashant Iyengar reviews the statutory mechanism regulating the retention and disclosure of IP addresses by Internet companies in India and provides a compilation of anecdotes on how law enforcement authorities in India have used IP address information to trace individuals responsible for particular crimes).</li>
</ul>
<h3>New Blog Entries<b> </b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy_wholebodyimagingcomparison" target="_blank">Whole Body Imaging and Privacy Concerns that Follow</a> (by Elonnai Hickok)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/privacy_uidfinancialinclusion" target="_blank">Financial Inclusion and the UID</a> (by Elonnai Hickok) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy/cctv-in-universities" target="_blank">CCTV in Universities</a> (by Merlin Oommen)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/privacy/key-escrow" target="_blank">Re-thinking Key Escrow</a> (by Natasha Vaz) </li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Report</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/privacy-chennai-report.pdf/view?searchterm=Privacy%20Matters%20Chennai" target="_blank">Privacy Matters, Chennai</a> – the event was organised by IDRC, Society in Action Group, Madras Institute of Development Studies, Consumer and Civic Action Group, Privacy India and CIS on August 6, 2011. </li>
</ul>
<h2><b>News & Media Coverage</b></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/net-gain" target="_blank">Net Gain</a> [The Telegraph, 24 August 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/iisc-students-boycott-uid" target="_blank">IISc students boycott UID, don’t want Big Brother to keep watch</a> [Bangalore Mirror, 23 August 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/right-circle" target="_blank">In the Right Circle</a> [Indian Express, 24 July 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/siege-of-android/?searchterm=%EF%82%A7The%20Siege%20of%20Android" target="_blank">The Siege of Android: How Google Lost The OS War</a> [Business.in, 17 August 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/unsocial-network" target="_blank">The Unsocial Network</a> [Mail Today, 14 August 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/hazare-clicks" target="_blank">Hazare 'clicks' with city techies</a> [India, 18 August 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/govt-to-monitor-facebook-twitter" target="_blank">Govt wants to monitor Facebook, Twitter</a> [Times of India, 8 August 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/nothing-unique-about-identity" target="_blank">Nothing unique about this identity</a> [Deccan Chronicle, 5 August 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/tired-of-tele-marketing-calls" target="_blank">Tired of tele-marketing calls? Act on privacy right: Experts</a> [Times of India, 7 August 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/knowledge-isnt-written" target="_blank">When Knowledge Isn’t Written, Does It Still Count?</a> [New York Times, 7 August 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/indian-super-cops-patrol-www-highway" target="_blank">Indian super-cops now patrol the www highway</a> [Hindustan Times, 6 August 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/better-understanding-of-privacy" target="_blank">Better Understanding of the Idea of Privacy Sought</a> [Hindu, 7 August 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/converting-indian-slacktivists" target="_blank">Converting Indian Slacktivists Takes (Offline) Time</a> [Wall Street Journal, 2 August 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h2>Follow us elsewhere</h2>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Follow CIS on <a href="http://identi.ca/main/remote?nickname=cis" target="_blank">identi.ca</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28535315687" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/" target="_blank">www.cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/august-2011-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/august-2011-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceCISRAWOpenness2012-08-13T05:13:23ZPageJuly 2011 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/july-2011-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! In this issue we are pleased to present you the latest updates about our research, upcoming events, and news and media coverage:</b>
<h2><b>Researchers@Work</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">RAW is a multidisciplinary research initiative. To build original research knowledge base, the RAW programme has been collaborating with different organisations and individuals to focus on its three year thematic of Histories of the Internets in India. Five monographs: <a href="https://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/rewiring/rewiring-call-for-review" target="_blank">Re: Wiring Bodies</a> by Asha Achuthan, <a href="https://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/archives/the-archive-and-the-indian-historian/?searchterm=archive%20and%20access" target="_blank">Archive and Access</a> by Aparna Balachandran and Rochelle Pinto, <a href="https://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/pleasure-porno/pornography-and-law" target="_blank">Pornography and the Law</a> by Namita Malhotra, <a href="https://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/last-mile/last-mile-problem" target="_blank">The Leap of Rhodes or, How India Dealt with the Last Mile Problem – An Inquiry into Technology and Governance</a> by Ashish Rajadhyaksha and <a href="https://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/Internetcities/city-and-space" target="_blank">Internet, Society and Space in Indian Cities</a> by Pratyush Shankar were sent for peer review.</p>
<h3>Upcoming Event in CEPT, Ahmedabad</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/conferences/conference-blogs/workshop" target="_blank">Locating Internets: Histories of the Internet(s) in India — Research Training and Curriculum Workshop: Call for Participation</a> [Deadline for submission – 26 July 2011; Participants to be selected by 30 July 2011; Workshop from 19 to 22 August 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Digital Natives with a Cause?</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by CIS and Hivos, Netherlands. It is a research inquiry that seeks to look at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who want to critically engage with the dominant discourse on youth, technology and social change, in order to look at the alternative practices and ideas in the Global South. It also aims at building new ecologies that amplify and augment the interventions and actions of the digitally young as they shape our futures.</p>
<h3>The Digital Natives Newsletter</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"Links in the Chain" is a bi-monthly publication which highlights the projects, ideas and news of the "Digital Natives with a Cause?" community members. It includes opinion posts by participants from the three workshops — <a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/talking-back/?searchterm=talking%20back" target="_blank">Talking Back</a> (Taipei, 15 – 18 August 2010), <a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/my-bubble-my-space-my-voice-workshop-perspective-and-future/?searchterm=my%20bubble" target="_blank">My Bubble, My Space, My Voice</a> (Johannesburg, 6 – 9 November 2010) and <a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/digital-natives-with-a-cause-workshop-in-santiago-open-call/?searchterm=santiago" target="_blank">From Face to the Interface</a> (Santiago, 8 – 10 February 2011) as well as the facilitators, interviews with them, comics and cartoons highlighting current issues affecting the community, as well as current news and discussions happening at the project website, <a href="http://www.digitalnatives.in" target="_blank">www.digitalnatives.in</a>.</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/2011/06/23/digital-dinosaurs" target="_blank">The Digital Dinosaurs</a> [Links in the Chain, Volume 7]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/Mid-year%20Edition%20-%20Final.pdf" target="_blank">Special Mid Year Edition</a> [Links in the Chain, Volume 8]</li>
</ol>
<h2><b>Accessibility</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/accessibility-policy-international-perspective" target="_blank">Accessibility Policy Making: An International Perspective</a> (Revised Edition 2011) [A G3ict White Paper researched and edited by the Center for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India. Editor: Nirmita Narasimhan, Revised edition: May 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Access to Knowledge (previously IPR Reform)</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS believes that access to knowledge and culture is essential as it promotes creativity and innovation and bridges the gaps between the developed and developing world positively. Hence, the campaigns for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for print-impaired, advocating against PUPFIP Bill, calls for the WIPO Broadcast Treaty to be restricted to broadcast, questioning the demonization of 'pirates', and supporting endeavours that explore and question the current copyright regime.</p>
<h3>Featured</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/intermediary-liability-wipo-speech" target="_blank">Don't Shoot the Messenger: Speech on Intermediary Liability at 22nd SCCR of WIPO</a> (speech by Pranesh Prakash at a side-event co-organized from 15 to 24 June 2011, by WIPO and the Internet Society on intermediary liability).</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Openness</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS believes that innovation and creativity should be fostered through openness and collaboration and is committed towards promotion of open standards, open access, and free/libre/open source software.</p>
<h3>Documentary</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/blog/people-are-knowledge" target="_blank">People are Knowledge – Experimenting with Oral Citations on Wikipedia</a> (co-produced by CIS in association with the Wikimedia Foundation, on Oral Citations in India and South Africa)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Featured</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/blog/opening-government-best-practice-guide" target="_blank">Opening Government: A Guide to Best Practice in Transparency, Accountability and Civic Engagement across the Public Sector</a> (published by Transparency & Accountability Initiative, CIS contributed the section on Open Government Data).</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Internet Governance</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Although there may not be one centralized authority that rules the Internet, the Internet does not just run by its own volition: for it to operate in a stable and reliable manner, there needs to be in place infrastructure, a functional domain name system, ways to curtail cyber crime across borders, etc. The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), paragraph 34 defined Internet governance as “the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.” Its latest endeavour has resulted into these:</p>
<h3>New Blog Post</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/2011/07/12/rti-and-third-party-info" target="_blank">RTI and Third Party Information: What Constitutes the Private and Public?</a> [by Noopur Raval]</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/socio-financial-online-networks/?searchterm=Radhika%20Gajalla" target="_blank">Socio-financial Online Networks: Globalizing Micro-Credit through Micro-transactional Networked Platforms – A Public Lecture by Radhika Gajalla</a> [at CIS, Bangalore on 8 July 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/internet-surveillance-policy-lecture" target="_blank">Internet Surveillance Policy: “…the second time as farce?” – A Public Lecture by Caspar Bowden</a> [at TERI, Bangalore on 27 June 2011]</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is doing a project, ‘Privacy in Asia’. <i>It is funded by Privacy International (PI), UK and the International Development Research Centre, Canada and is being administered in collaboration with the Society and Action Group, Gurgaon</i>. The two-year project commenced on 24 March 2010 and will be completed as agreed to by the stakeholders. It was set up with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around challenges and violations of privacy in India. In furtherance of these goals it aims to draft and promote over-arching privacy legislation in India by drawing upon legal and academic resources and consultations with the public.</p>
<h3>Featured</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/2011/07/19/privacy-media-law" target="_blank">Privacy & Media Law</a> (by Sonal Makhija). The research examines the existing media norms governed by Press Council of India, the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and the Code of Ethics drafted by the News Broadcasting Standard Authority, the constitutional protection guaranteed to an individual’s right to privacy upheld by the courts, and the reasons the State employs to justify the invasion of privacy.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Comments<b> </b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/privacy-bill-2010/?searchterm=%EF%82%A7Right%20to%20Privacy%20Bill%202010%20%E2%80%94%20A%20Few%20Comments" target="_blank">Right to Privacy Bill 2010 — A Few Comments</a> (by Elonnai Hickok). CIS has given specific recommendations and specific comments on the Right to Privacy Bill, 2010, which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha by Rajeev Chandrashekhar.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Report</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/2011/07/21/privacy-guwahati-report" target="_blank">Privacy Matters, Guwahati</a> – the event was organised by IDRC, Society in Action Group, IDEA Chirang, an NGO initiative working with grassroots initiatives in Assam, Privacy India and CIS on 23 June 2011. </li>
</ul>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/2011/07/15/scam-baiting" target="_blank">My Experiment with Scam Baiting</a> (by Sahana Sarkar)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/2011/07/18/when-data-is-privacy" target="_blank">When Data Means Privacy, What Traces Are You Leaving Behind?</a> (by Noopur Raval)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/2011/07/23/video-surveillance-privacy" target="_blank">Video Surveillance and Its Impact on the Right to Privacy</a> (by Elonnai Hickok)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/2011/07/23/consumer-privacy-e-commerce" target="_blank">Consumer Privacy in e-Commerce</a> (by Sahana Sarkar)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/2011/07/24/dna-overview" target="_blank">An Overview of DNA Labs in India</a> (by Shilpa Narani)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/uid-nothing-to-hide-fear/weblogentry_view" target="_blank">UID: Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Fear?</a> (by Shilpa Narani)</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>News & Media Coverage</b></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/failure-to-harness-power-of-net" target="_blank">Indian SMEs still fail to harness the power of Net</a> [Sunday Guardian, 19 June 2011]</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/sorry-wrong-number" target="_blank">Sorry Wrong Number</a> [Telegraph, 3 July 2011]</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/aadhaar-truth" target="_blank">Aadhaar’s moment of truth</a> [Deccan Herald, 5 July 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/walls-have-ears" target="_blank">The Walls Have Ears</a> [Outlook, issue, 11 July 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/transparent-government-india" target="_blank">Transparent Government, via Webcams in India</a> [New York Times, 17 July 2011]; news also published in other languages in <a href="http://www.wprost.pl/ar/253803/Truman-show-w-indyjskim-rzadzie/" target="_blank">wprost</a> (Polish), <a href="http://www.ictnews.vn/Home/thoi-su/An-Do-lap-camera-de-chong-tham-nhung/2011/07/2MSVC7185287/View.htm" target="_blank">ictnews</a> (Vietnamese) and <a href="http://www.arretsurimages.net/vite.php?id=11710" target="_blank">@rret sur images</a>(French)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/nyt-lauds-oommen-chandy" target="_blank">NYT lauds Oommen Chandy’s 24/7 office webcast</a> [Deccan Chronicle, 19 July 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/uid-worlds-largest-database" target="_blank">UID: The World’s Largest Biometric Database</a> [International School on Digital Transformation, 21 July 2011]. Sunil Abraham made a <a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/uid-largest-database" target="_blank">presentation</a>.</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/facebook-my-lousy-boyfriend" target="_blank">Facebook, my boyfriend is lousy</a> [Bangalore Mirror, 24 July 2011]</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/portugal-well-for-transparency" target="_blank">Portal augurs well for transparency</a> [The Hindu, 25 July 2011] </li>
</ul>
<h2>Follow us elsewhere</h2>
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<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
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<ul>
<li>Follow CIS on <a href="http://identi.ca/main/remote?nickname=cis" target="_blank">identi.ca</a></li>
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<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28535315687" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Visit us at <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/" target="_blank">www.cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p><i>CIS is grateful to Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/july-2011-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/july-2011-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceCISRAWOpenness2012-07-30T07:00:26ZPageThe Challenges of Direct Democracy
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/challenges-of-direct-democracy
<b>India must weigh the pros and cons of various approaches to direct democracy and develop one of its own.</b>
<p>Direct democracy is alluring. The dangers to our society and economy from reckless governance as well as confrontational activists, however, are the undermining of institutions, and the unintended consequences.</p>
<p>Our governments have a carry-over of feudal and colonial attitudes and do not communicate unless they must. Change is accepted only under duress, and is not initiated through leadership. Mismanagement is tolerated, resulting in various scams such as the 2G spectrum scam and associated problems.</p>
<p>The current anti-corruption drive by Anna Hazare et al and their well-intentioned cohorts uses tactics that echo a righteous, anti-authoritarian and non-collaborative pattern of “us” versus “them”, combined with an insistence on their way alone. Yet, collaboration is essential for solutions that lead to an equilibrium, recognising the legitimacy of all stakeholders – the government and civil society – as well as the criticality of credible institutions and processes.</p>
<p>We in India are not alone in being drawn to direct democracy. Switzerland’s success in citizen participation combined with its federal structure is the epitome of a workable system. But this model cannot simply be transplanted without regard to cultural contexts. Consider the sobering example of California.</p>
<h3>California's Predicament</h3>
<p>California has been in a state of financial crisis for several years. In 30 years, the Golden State’s credit rating fell from among the best of the 50 states to the worst. Despite everything from Silicon Valley to agriculture, defence, aerospace, biotechnology and Hollywood, why can this state not manage itself? Why does The Economist quote labels like “dysfunctional”, “ungovernable”, even “failed” for this El Dorado (April 20)? To understand what happened in California, we must start with its direct democracy model imported from Switzerland.</p>
<h3>The Swiss Model</h3>
<p>Since the 14th century, Switzerland has had a tradition of citizens participating in assemblies. Coordination among different sets of delegates, e.g. for building roads and bridges across different valleys, had to be approved by respective assemblies. On this canvas, Switzerland grafted America’s Constitution in 1848. It worked and still works because of its design, and Switzerland’s collaborative approach. Constitutional amendments require a referendum as well as a majority of votes by the cantons (states) in the legislature.</p>
<p>Thus, over half the cantons can overrule the popular majority in a referendum, because of the rule taken from America of two votes per state, even if they represent a minority of voters. After being approved in a referendum, the amendments go back to the legislature for redrafting. This enforces George Washington’s principle of “cool” debate outlined at the time of drafting the US Constitution, and embodied in Senate deliberations for dispassionate lawmaking. Initiatives for new laws by direct democracy go through the same process, but the legislature has the option to draft a counter-proposal. This process of engagement and negotiation is designed to avoid extreme outcomes and promote dispassionate solutions. As with America’s Constitution, this prevents two kinds of abuse: James Madison’s1 concerns regarding minority factions and their “swing vote” capturing outcomes (as in India, where minority factions become king makers), or a tyranny by the majority.</p>
<h3>The California Variant</h3>
<p>About 100 years ago, the Progressives in California brought in direct democracy from Switzerland. As in India today, the purpose then was to attack corruption, specifically, “The Octopus” of the Southern Pacific Railroad with its tentacles everywhere. California’s direct democracy was designed to achieve the opposite of the Swiss model. Switzerland emphasises compromise and consensus; California encourages confrontation, and the winners impose their will. Starting new initiatives (“propositions”) is easy; calling referendums on existing laws is difficult. In effect, California’s propositions are irreversible, because a retraction or reversal needs a two-thirds majority, which is virtually impossible because of minority factions and special interests.</p>
<p>For over half a century, there were no major problems. Then, in 1978, the anti-tax proponents initiated a property tax cap, Proposition 13. It limited state revenues (placing a ceiling on all property taxes at one per cent of the 1975 value, which could grow at no more than two per cent annually unless sold, thereby establishing a new value). There are contradictory views on the benefits of Proposition 13, with the defenders blaming opportunistic individuals, not the system, for problems. It is the old divide between tax-and-spend liberals versus cut taxes-and-services conservatives. The outcome, however, is that California went from being a liberal showcase with excellent infrastructure and services to a bankrupt state, cutting back on both.</p>
<h3>What India Can Learn</h3>
<p>India’s polity (at central, state, and local levels), at least now, must start creating systems that harness participation through all means available, so that the voice of popular assemblies is heard within the framework of our representative democracy, and acted upon.</p>
<p>The government needs to move away from the paradigm of “The Administration” against “The People”. Instead, the government must lead a process of collaborative stakeholder engagement for equitable resolution, like the one based on a lifeboat concept of shared interests and survival. As individuals, we need to move away from blaming routines (the government/everyone else is at fault, and I am a victim) to accepting the responsibility and discipline of institution building and processes.</p>
<p>What India Requires</p>
<ul><li>Discarding feudal/colonial notions of the durbar in political parties, among politicians and in government.</li><li>Channeling righteous public anger into the constitutional process with competence and discipline. Currently, there seems to be no effective way of demonstrating dissatisfaction except by taking to the streets.</li></ul>
<div>We need institutionalised incentives and penalties to steer towards these effective means, and to abandon arbitrary and angry ways.</div>
<div><br />Technology allows this on an unprecedented scale, with perhaps 100 million Internet users in India already. To harness and channel this capacity, systems need to be developed on the lines of the Obama campaign2, vastly extended with the expertise and support staff to inform citizens and channel their participation constructively within an institutional framework. These systems will need to cover everything, from issue-based analysis and presentation to spelling out responsible choices with the foreseeable consequences, and collating individual inputs and preferences. If executed with vision, imagination and commitment, this could reduce the instances of people taking to the streets.</div>
<div><br />This article by Shyam Ponappa was published in the Business Standard on July 7, 2011. Read the original <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.com/2011/07/challenges-of-direct-democracy.html">here</a></div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/challenges-of-direct-democracy'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/challenges-of-direct-democracy</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-01-30T12:51:10ZBlog Entry