The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 251 to 265.
RIM Offered Security Fixes
https://cis-india.org/news/rim-offered-security-fixes
<b>In India Talks, BlackBerry Maker Said It Could Share Metadata, Notes Show</b>
<p>Research In Motion Ltd. has offered information and tools to help India conduct surveillance of wireless email and messaging services on RIM's popular BlackBerry, say people familiar with the negotiations, illuminating RIM's dealings as it seeks to balance sovereign security concerns with its customers' privacy.</p>
<p>In a series of discussions that intensified this summer, RIM offered to provide crucial information that would help the Indian government track down messages sent via the company's popular and encrypted corporate email service, according to those familiar with the confidential talks and to minutes of meetings reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.</p>
<p>In a July 26 meeting, RIM representatives told Indian officials "they have a setup to help the security agencies in tracking the messages in which security agencies are interested," according to an Indian government summary of the meeting.</p>
<p>The Waterloo, Ontario, company has become an industry leader in part on the strength of a secure technology that offers information privacy to customers. But as RIM seeks to expand, it is grappling with how its promise of user confidentiality is encountering resistance from governments around the globe.</p>
<p>RIM's challenge, along with Google Inc.'s face-off with China over censorship issues, illustrates the growing tensions between Western technology giants, who seek to woo millions of emerging-market consumers with increasingly sophisticated technology, and governments that are trying to maintain security in the face of it.</p>
<p>The stakes are high in India, the world's No. 2 wireless market, behind China, with 635 million subscribers. Emerging economies are vital to RIM as its smartphones face competition in North America from Apple Inc.'s iPhone and devices that run on Google's Android software. RIM's new international subscribers for the first time outnumbered new North American subscribers in the quarter that ended Feb. 27, according to brokerage GMP Securities.</p>
<p>Discussions between RIM and India took a public turn Thursday when India's government threatened to block some BlackBerry services from the country's telecommunications networks unless the services could be opened to surveillance by Aug. 31. On Friday, an Indian government official said RIM had assured India it would meet the deadline.</p>
<p>A spokesman for RIM in India declined to comment on negotiations with India. Sachin Pilot, India's Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology said Friday there are promising signs that the company is willing to cooperate, but there's no deal "until I have something in writing."</p>
<p>RIM has come under scrutiny in recent months amid contentious negotiations with countries including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which have also sought to monitor BlackBerry services for threats to national security.</p>
<p>A person familiar with the negotiations in the U.A.E. said officials in the region believed RIM had been holding back from them technological solutions that had been offered to Western governments, specifically in regards to BlackBerry Messenger.</p>
<p>RIM declines to discuss its negotiations with governments and didn't comment on negotiations in India and other countries.</p>
<p>In a statement issued Thursday, RIM outlined its guidelines for how far it is willing to go in helping carriers meet surveillance needs. RIM said it will only help carriers meet strict national-security rules, won't provide more access than its competitors already do and won't alter the security architecture of its corporate email servers in response to government needs.</p>
<p>"RIM maintains a consistent global standard for lawful access requirements that does not include special deals for specific countries," the statement said.</p>
<p>Governments are pressuring RIM to comply with their demands for information in part because unlike other smartphone vendors, it operates its own network of servers, the biggest of which is in Canada, outside their monitoring reach and jurisdiction.</p>
<p>That contrasts with devices such as the iPhone, which don't operate their own email services. Governments generally have laws that allow them to monitor traffic on mobile and computer networks operating within their own countries.</p>
<p>Talks between RIM and various countries have centered mostly on data routed through the company's system for corporate emails, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and its instant-messaging service, BlackBerry Messenger, whose high levels of encryption can prevent government monitors from deciphering content or determining sender or recipient. RIM has said that even it can't decrypt BlackBerry corporate emails.</p>
<p>India's security services argue they need access to selected emails to ward off criminal and terrorist threats. "In terms of our issues of national security, any responsible government would not want to compromise," said Mr. Pilot, the communications minister. "I don't think what we are asking is out of the ordinary vis-à-vis other countries."</p>
<p>Security and technology experts say each country has different surveillance needs, technology infrastructures and laws governing how security forces and police can access data. It is generally Internet service providers and telecommunications carriers that must implement the country's monitoring regime, and the kinds of help RIM gives carriers in doing that varies with each nation, says a person familiar with RIM's operations.</p>
<p>According to minutes taken by the Indian side, the parties discussed whether RIM could provide "metadata" from encrypted corporate emails—information such as the email's sender and recipient and the time sent. "After some persuasion, the [RIM] representative agreed that they can provide the metadata of the message," according to an Indian summary of one discussion.</p>
<p>Cyber-security experts say such metadata would give government intelligence services important leads to locate BlackBerry traffic on corporate email servers, where messages are in decrypted form. It wasn't clear under what circumstances RIM would agree to divulge such information.</p>
<p>In the meetings, RIM also promised to develop tools to help Indian authorities tap into third-party Internet chat services, such as Google's Gmail, that run on its handsets, according to the meeting minutes. It isn't clear whether or how RIM has proposed to help security officials decode BlackBerry Messenger.</p>
<ul><li> <a class="external-link" href="http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/08/13/backupberry-options-for-blackberry-addicts/?KEYWORDS=RIM">Just in Case: Backup Options for Addicts</a></li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960004575426942856075682.html">RIM Optimistic About India</a></li><li><a class="external-link" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704388504575420050826635826.html">Saudis Await RIM Ruling</a></li></ul>
<p>RIM also appears to have put itself in a role of educating Indian officials over the operation of its network and on network security in general, suggesting to officials that emails that aren't subject to heavy corporate encryption can be viewed with assistance from local carriers.</p>
<p>Governments that have been reviewing their data-access arrangements with RIM have been sharing information with each other, said an official in the region with knowledge of the Indian negotiations.</p>
<p>The U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia, the Middle East's largest economies, upped their ante with RIM weeks before India did. Both countries have been negotiating with RIM for the same kinds of access to data that India wants, but people familiar with talks in the Gulf countries say they have been acrimonious.</p>
<p>Government officials say RIM has taken a condescending attitude to developing countries' security demands, and say they believe the company was holding out on solutions to access information, such as on BlackBerry Messenger, that had been offered to other countries.</p>
<p>"They refuse to listen to us," said a person familiar with the negotiations. "It's like we aren't speaking the same language."</p>
<p>Anger boiled over last month with the U.A.E. announcing a ban on BlackBerry email, Internet and instant-messaging services from Oct. 11, citing a lack of progress in more than three years of negotiations. Saudi Arabia followed with a threatened ban on BlackBerry Messenger.</p>
<p>Tensions were fueled when RIM co-CEO Michael Lazaridis said in an interview earlier this month with The Wall Street Journal that many of the nations the company deals with aren't tech-savvy and don't understand the Internet. "We work with these countries to educate them," he said.</p>
<p>Negotiations between the U.A.E. and RIM are ongoing. The government says it remains optimistic of a solution. In Saudi Arabia, telecommunications regulators announced earlier this week that RIM had offered them a technical fix that would let them access data from BlackBerry Messenger.</p>
<p>In RIM's home country of Canada, the U.S. and other countries, police and security agents typically must get a court order to gain access to things like the content of emails.</p>
<p>India's regulations in this area are murky. An 1885 law that has been updated over the years allows the government to intercept Internet traffic "on the occurrence of any public emergency." A 2008 law gives bureaucrats in various agencies the authority to order monitoring of any entity's Web traffic, though the matter can be challenged in court.</p>
<p>It remains unclear whether RIM's promise to provide metadata to corporate messages will be enough to satisfy India's concerns. A more drastic solution, says Sunil Abraham of the Bangalore-based Center for Internet and Society, would be for the government to require RIM to build a BlackBerry data center within India—something that could cost tens of millions of dollars, people familiar with the matter say—and then classify the company as an Indian Internet service provider.</p>
<p>Such a move would put India on stronger legal footing, analysts say, to demand data from RIM as well as companies whose employees use BlackBerrys. Under such a scenario, "the government would be allowed to get a room inside RIM and install whatever machines they want to monitor that traffic," Mr. Abraham said.</p>
<p>It wasn't clear from the government documents summarizing the meetings between RIM and the government whether such an option is being considered. The company would vehemently oppose such a classification, people familiar with the situation say. In the U.A.E, RIM has balked at the government's request that it set up a local data center, people familiar with those negotiations said.</p>
<p>Read the original in <a class="external-link" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960004575427312899373090.html?mod=googlenews_wsj">Wall Street Journal</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/rim-offered-security-fixes'>https://cis-india.org/news/rim-offered-security-fixes</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecom2011-04-02T10:24:12ZNews ItemNishant Shah Quoted in Livemint 2011 Tweet-out
https://cis-india.org/news/skinputting-mobile-computing
<b>Livemint, recently did a tweet-out which quoted people about what will be big in 2011. Nishant Shah was also quoted. </b>
<p>#LM_2011 Nishant Shah: Skinputting – Mobile computing that uses human body as interface to net; data projected on skin to go truly mobile.</p>
<p>Read the original tweet in Livemint <a class="external-link" href="http://twitter.com/#!/livemint/status/21824111298748416">here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/skinputting-mobile-computing'>https://cis-india.org/news/skinputting-mobile-computing</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecom2011-04-02T00:58:18ZNews ItemWi-Fi Direct promises range, bandwidth higher than Bluetooth
https://cis-india.org/news/wi-fi-direct
<b>Sharing, printing and connecting for Wi-Fi devices is going to be more convenient than ever with soon-to-be-launched technology Wi-Fi Direct, which enables devices to connect to each other without a conventional Wi-Fi hub. This article by Ramkumar Iyer was published in the Hindu on 31 October 2010.</b>
<p>Previously known as Peer-to-Peer Wi-Fi, this new technology will allow the Wi-Fi Direct enabled devices to connect directly to each other anytime, anywhere.</p>
<p>It's much like Bluetooth except that it promises typical Wi-Fi range (up to 200 metres) and bandwidth (up to 250 mbps) much higher than what Bluetooth technology offers.</p>
<p>Moreover, the devices have a quick set-up mechanism, follow the latest security protocols and can easily connect to existing Wi-Fi networks.</p>
<h3>Seamless usage</h3>
<p>It means that the huge variety of existing Wi-Fi applications can be used with the new technology seamlessly.</p>
<p>The Wi-Fi Alliance — a coalition of technology industry giants that does the research and standardisation in Wi-Fi — announced on October 25 that it had begun certifying devices as being compatible with the new technology protocol. </p>
<p>According to the Wi-Fi Alliance Website, the technology can be implemented in any device such as cameras, mobiles, laptops and human interface devices.</p>
<h3>Single-tech solution</h3>
<p>“The Wi-Fi users worldwide will benefit from a single-technology solution to transfer content and share applications quickly and easily among devices, even when a Wi-Fi access point isn't available,” said Wi-Fi Alliance Executive Director Edgar Figueroa in a press release. </p>
<p>The technology is aimed at both consumer and enterprise applications and has a vast range of applications which aim at making gaming, sharing, printing and remote operations simpler and convenient.</p>
<p>While the Wi-Fi Direct's entry into the market may present new opportunities for application developers, it may be argued that such kind of range and speed can be easily misused.</p>
<h3>Security consciousness</h3>
<p>Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT-Madras, agrees: “This technology poses a security risk because if just one device in a group is compromised, almost all the devices in the group are at risk too. And this is especially true of organisations, because unlike in the past, wireless data transfers can now take place without the organisation being able to monitor them and particularly over a larger area. </p>
<p>“People will now have to be more security conscious than ever. Especially, the ones with a previous case of security breach.”</p>
<h3>End of Bluetooth?</h3>
<p>Wi-Fi Direct not only has all the features of Bluetooth, but boasts superior transfer speeds and range. Does this mean the demise of Bluetooth? </p>
<p>Experts speculate that Bluetooth will not be affected much.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“In an existing market where there are millions of Bluetooth-enabled devices, it is unlikely that any manufacturer will retire the technology just because of a new one.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>“Bluetooth will not be affected much; at least in the next couple of years,” said Sunil Abraham, Executive Director of Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Read the original in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/article859680.ece">Hindu</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/wi-fi-direct'>https://cis-india.org/news/wi-fi-direct</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecom2011-04-02T08:13:27ZNews ItemThe South African Telecommunications Sector: Poised for Change
https://cis-india.org/events/lecture-tour-by-sagie-chetty
<b>CIS in collaboration with the LINK Centre, Graduate School of Public and Development Management,
University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and in association with different institutions across India is organizing a Lecture Tour by Sagie Chetty from 19th Oct to 30th Oct.</b>
<p>CIS in collaboration with the LINK Centre, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and in association with different institutions across India is organizing a Lecture Tour on: <br />“The South African Telecommunications Sector: Poised for Change” By Sagie Chetty, Senior Manager, Eskom, South Africa. <br />It will be our pleasure to have you join us for the talks.</p>
<p>The Co-hosts, Dates and the Venues for the Talk are given below –</p>
<ul><li>Co-Host: Indian Institute of Technology, Madras<br />Date: 19th October, 2009 at 3.30pm<br />Venue – IIT-M, Chennai</li></ul>
<ul><li>Co-Host: Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay<br />Date: 20th October, 2009 at 4.00pm<br />Venue – IIT-B, Mumbai<br /></li></ul>
<ul><li>Co-Host: International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore<br />Date: 23rd October, 2009 at 4.00pm<br />Venue – IIIT-B, Bangalore<br /></li></ul>
<ul><li>Co-Host: Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi<br />Date: 26th October, 2009 at 3.00pm<br />Venue – IGNOU, Delhi<br /></li></ul>
<ul><li>Co-Host: National Institute of Science Technology and Development Studies, Delhi<br />Date: 27th October, 2009 at 3.00pm<br />Venue – NISTADS, Delhi<br /></li></ul>
<ul><li>Co-Host: CCMG - Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi<br />Date: 29th October, 2009 at 2.00pm<br />Venue – CCMG - Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi</li></ul>
<h3>About the Speaker:</h3>
<p>Sagie Chetty is a Senior Manager in Eskom, South Africa’s largest electricity utility. Sagie spent the first part of his career at Eskom as Information Manager in the Generation Division. In that time he was responsible for information systems strategy development and implementation. Some of the key projects he has been involved in are the implementation of SAP Plant Maintenance, Business Intelligence systems and other bespoke Information Systems for Generation Power Stations.</p>
<p><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/Sagie%20Chetty..jpg/image_preview" alt="Sagie Chetty" class="image-inline" title="Sagie Chetty" /></p>
<h3>Abstract of the Lecture: The South African Telecommunications Sector: Poised for Change</h3>
<p>With a gross domestic product of over $506 billion (PPP, 2008) South Africa is one of the leading economies on the African continent. Only Nigeria with a GDP of $328 billion and Egypt with a GDP of $453 billion currently rival the South African economy. The economy is strong in manufacturing and agriculture, but is still based significantly on mining of gold, diamonds, platinum, coal and iron ore. Its main trading partner is the European Union. Bilateral trade with India amounts to $6, 2 billion (2008) with the balance of trade in South Africa’s favour to the value of about $1 billion.<br />Although one of the leading economies in Africa, South Africa’s Information and Communications (ICT) sector has not shown the concomitant level of development that reflects its economic position in Africa. ICT usage – telephony and Internet – has historically been low, and electronic transactions are utilised largely by business. There are a number of reasons for this; however the high cost of telecommunications is certainly a contributing factor. The high cost is attributed largely to policy and regulatory failure in the telecommunications sector. The sector is characterized by powerful incumbent telecoms operators that thwart competition and further entrench their dominant market positions. The consequence is that the high telecommunications costs impact access, affordability and the cost of doing business for the region.<br />Recent developments in the telecommunications sector, however could spell the end to high costs if policy and regulatory actions do not hinder competition. South African consumers can in the very near future look forward to lower telecommunications prices with the laying of new undersea cables, a new national backbone to compete with the existing one, new satellite ventures to provide the backhaul between cellular and broadband towers, a landmark court decision allowing value added network service providers (VANS) to build their own networks and the imminent entry of the incumbent telecommunications fixed line operator into the mobile arena. It is an opportune time for policy makers and regulators to take bold steps to free up the sector and open it up for true competition.<br />Lines that historically demarcated fixed, mobile, voice, data are blurring, causing shifts in market structures. However, currently the market is structured around the incumbent Telkom for fixed lines services and Vodacom and MTN for mobile services. A second PSTN, Neotel has been licensed but is only offering limited services. A third mobile operator, Cell C is operating but has yet to gain any significant market share. <br /><br />The talk is open to all and there are no registration or entry fees. <br />Please let us know if you require any further details.<br /><br /></p>
VIDEOS
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/events/lecture-tour-by-sagie-chetty'>https://cis-india.org/events/lecture-tour-by-sagie-chetty</a>
</p>
No publisherradhaTelecom2011-10-21T09:59:51ZEventOpening India's Spectrum
https://cis-india.org/events/opening-spectrum
<b>India's Government monopolised the radio spectrum until the mid-1990s and even now, non-governmental use of wireless is more limited than in other democracies. Restrictive policies constrain the growth of mobile telephony, broadcasting, wireless broadband and many other services important to India's social and economic development. Can anything be done to change this? Robert Horvitz, director of Open Spectrum Foundation suggests changes.</b>
<div align="center"><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/RH.jpg/image_thumb" alt="Robert Horowitz" class="image-inline" title="Robert Horowitz" /></div>
<p> </p>
Robert Horvitz, director of the Open Spectrum Foundation (<a href="http://www.openspectrum.info/">http://www.openspectrum.info</a>
<p>), and author of the Local Radio Handbook, is visiting India to study this question and suggest strategies for citizen action to reform radio regulation. On Thursday, 14 January, at 18:00 he will discuss some of his preliminary findings at the Centre for Internet and Society.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<strong> VIDEOS
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/events/opening-spectrum'>https://cis-india.org/events/opening-spectrum</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshTelecom2012-01-19T11:07:40ZEventMatching Realities and Aspirations
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-shyam-ponappa-february-1-2018-matching-realities-and-aspirations
<b>Leaving aside fixing the 'mountains' such as land acquisition, NPAs etc, here are some thoughts on systemic focus and action.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/matching-realities-and-aspirations-118013101812_1.html">Business Standard</a> on January 31, 2018 and in <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.in/2018/02/">Organizing India Blogspot</a> on February 1, 2018.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There’s an upbeat sense from the annual Economic Survey, and indicators such as soaring stocks and official statements.Yet, the ground realities don’t match because of gritty facts such as not being able to pay electronic tolls on a national highway near Delhi though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) controls local administration1, Korean steel giant Posco abandoning a huge investment last year after struggling for over a decade, two public sector divestments, Bharat Aluminium Company and Hindustan Zinc, mired in difficulties2, or the hobbling state of services such as electricity and telecommunications despite short-term consumer benefits from lower prices, and so on. Another aspect is that so many college graduates, including engineers, law students and MBAs, compete for low-end government jobs such as peons in state governments. Clearly, something beyond talkfests and episodic discussions is needed. Leaving aside fixing the “mountains” — the land acquisition act, non-performing assets (NPAs), high component taxes — here are some thoughts on systemic focus and action.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Fix infrastructure</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong> </strong>With rare exceptions, our governments do not appear to recognise a clear priority to fix infrastructural deficiencies. After national security and maintaining law and order, correcting critical deficiencies of infrastructure in all its forms needs to be an all-out priority. This is a basic requirement for citizens to function effectively and live well. Without infrastructure one cannot function anywhere near full capacity, because of having to spend time, energy and resources dealing with problems of living and hygiene arising from the non-availability of adequate water and sanitation, inefficient travel and logistics for employment, education or health care, communications, dysfunctional equipment because of power shortages, and so on.Instead, some misconceptions in policies and practices appear to be broadly accepted as driving factors not only in the government, but also to some extent in the public perception. One is that all foreign direct investment (FDI) is a panacea for our ills and aspirations. The second is the idea that for services such as water, electricity and communications, the public interest is best served by the lowest consumer prices for those who get such services, regardless of sustainability. Issues such as access to services for half the population living outside urban areas, high and consistent quality, sustainability, and minimising environmental impact appear to be less important criteria.<br /><br /><strong>The Panacea of FDI?</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong> </strong>There’s no question about the need for foreign investment, but uncontrolled FDI, particularly at our stage of development, is inadvisable. One wonders where these forms of the erstwhile East India Company and/or winner-take-all might lead. And does it matter, as long as consumers enjoy good living, defined as access to material comforts at low prices? To see why it does matter, consider these parodied scenarios, with apologies to Jonathan Swift’s satirical A Modest Proposal3.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>A Modest Proposal for 100% FDI — A Parody</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong></strong>Imagine how well all consumers could do, this time without leaving the other half out, if we invite the likes of (indicative list, in alphabetic order) Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft (with guarantees of compensation if there are sudden policy reversals, which we are prone to) to use all unsold and unused spectrum to provide connectivity and digital services pronto. They could put in so much investment to get to year five on day one a couple of years or so out, even Reliance Jio might pale.Don’t want Americans? Why not invite the Chinese and Huawei? We might get even better deals in digital services from the world leader in 4G and beyond.Not to mention the attendant benefits from associated companies to keep consumers happy with smartphones, air conditioners, refrigerators, air purifiers, TV sets, cars, two-wheelers, and so on. There will also be power plants, aircraft, and trains, fixing all three sectors with one swipe. Some impediments would have to be removed of course, such as allowing power plants to come up, electricity lines to be laid out, spectrum to be used, land acquired, changes in labour laws, and so on. As for employment, there could be plenty of local assembly, manufacturing and distribution from all of the above, provided we willingly submit to some regimentation in our lives.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><strong>Alternative: Fix The Basics & Do It Ourselves</strong><br />We have to fix the basics to help ourselves and make FDI succeed in our interests. We need priorities in objectives, as everything cannot have the highest priority. Even more difficult is getting experts and practitioners to work out detailed process plans, evaluating alternatives with realistic simulations, and so on. It takes time, energy, understanding and competence, and patience, to get beyond seat-of-pants discussions. Apply all these from a systems perspective, map the distilled ideas to action plans for each set of interrelated processes, and the upshot could be those process plans. We may get end-to-end strategies leading to convergent results to improve our infrastructure, which will enable agricultural and manufacturing production, services, and trade, with resulting jobs, while limiting negative environmental impact.Goals such as increasing jobs and farm income are desirable. To get on a higher long-term growth trajectory beyond a cyclical recovery, in addition to skilling, there need to be initiatives and investments that fit with the circumstances. An excellent example is the Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016, now in its second 10-year cycle, which resulted in India becoming a preferred automobile assembly location with 32 million jobs in FY16. Similar approaches could be worked out for connectivity, electricity, and the rest, that address the needs/opportunities/markets, the products/services, how delivery will be organised, what the resources are and where they will be sourced from, how they will be organised and when, i.e., the detailed strategy, process plans and flow charts.Also, effective corporate practices such as facilitation for catalysing group decisions could be used if they are not already, to help administrators, experts, and practitioners arrive at sound, practical decisions.4 Another area is simulation and modelling of alternatives and scenarios. A third is overall strategy.<br /><br />These steps will help improve our ability to achieve our aspirations.</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Shyam (no space) Ponappa at gmail dot com<em>1. ‘India’s road to digital highway’, Nivedita Mookerji, Business Standard: </em><a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/india-s-road-to-digital-highway-118012401544_1.html">http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/india-s-road-to-digital-highway-118012401544_1.html</a><br /><em>2. ‘India as a ‘business partner’, Kanika Datta, Business Standard: </em><a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/india-as-a-business-partner-118012401599_1.html">http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/india-as-a-business-partner-118012401599_1.html</a><br /><em>3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal;<a href="https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/modest.html">https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/modest.html</a>4.<a href="https://www.centreforfacilitation.co.uk/files/public/What%20is%20process%20facilitation.pdf">https://www.centreforfacilitation.co.uk/files/public/What%20is%20process%20facilitation.pdf</a></em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-shyam-ponappa-february-1-2018-matching-realities-and-aspirations'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-shyam-ponappa-february-1-2018-matching-realities-and-aspirations</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2018-03-09T03:03:58ZBlog EntryNPAs & Bad Banks
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-march-1-2018-shyam-ponappa-npas-and-bad-banks
<b>Correcting misinformed impressions about NPAs, and the Swedish model for setting up a Bad Bank.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The article was originally published in the Business Standard on February 28, 2018 and re-posted in <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.in/2018/03/npas-bad-banks.html">Organizing India Blogspot</a> on March 1, 2018.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Two features about non-performing assets (NPAs) deserve exploration. First, prevailing impressions about banks and NPAs, such as:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>Large borrowers are primarily responsible for non-performing loans;</li>
<li>Small borrowers rarely default;</li>
<li>Privatisation will prevent NPAs and frauds; and</li>
<li>A bad bank for problem loans will help or it won’t.</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Second, solutions for NPAs have been limited to providing some government funding, with hopes of muddling through.First, take the contention that large borrowers account for most bad loans<a class="storyTags" href="http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=bad+loans" target="_blank">.</a> Of total NPAs of Rs 10,149.16 billion, the published Big 12 comprise 25 per cent (Rs 2,537.29 billion).1 Another 100 wilful defaulters of over Rs 2.5 million against whom suits were filed constitute 7.3 per cent (Rs 740.2 billion).2 While these constitute a third of NPAs, smaller accounts make up the other two-thirds.Among housing loans, NPAs are highest among small loans not exceeding Rs 200,000 (10.4 per cent, or Rs 1,361.26 billion of Rs 13,089 billion), more than double the rate for larger loans over the last five years.3 The lowest NPAs are in the over-Rs 2.5-million category at 0.9 per cent, decreasing with loan size.Housing loans contribute 13.4 per cent to total NPAs, i.e.:</p>
<ul style="text-align: justify; ">
<li>About half the top 12 defaulters (25 per cent), and</li>
<li>Double the 100 wilful defaulters (7.3 per cent).</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Therefore, the need is for a systemic fix across all levels, not only big defaults.Second, the context for NPAs is the economy. As last year’s Economic Survey (2016-17) pointed out:- A number of NPAs resulted from overleveraging after a high-growth period. Corporates used debt to invest heavily in long-gestation projects in infrastructure, such as power, mines and metals, and spectrum and coal auctions, encouraged by the government. From 2004-05 to 2007-08, the investment-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio rose from 27 per cent to 38 per cent, while bank credit doubled. Then, costs rose along with difficulties in acquiring land and environmental clearances, and oil prices. Import prices rose 2.4 times between 2010 and 2014. The rupee dropped sharply against the dollar, increasing foreign borrowing costs. Domestic borrowing costs also increased with interest rates (Chart 1) as growth fell.<br /><br />Chart 1: Real Interest Rate: Lending Rate Minus GDP Deflator</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p2Wf1fiSlew/WpdesrRMa5I/AAAAAAAAD8w/XuGL12yzrE06KIgePJZSHn9TKyIqmZBvQCLcBGAs/s320/Real%2BInterest%2BRates-2009-2018-Trading%2BEconomics-2018-02-25.jpg" /><br /><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p2Wf1fiSlew/WpdesrRMa5I/AAAAAAAAD8w/XuGL12yzrE06KIgePJZSHn9TKyIqmZBvQCLcBGAs/s1600/Real%2BInterest%2BRates-2009-2018-Trading%2BEconomics-2018-02-25.jpg"></a><a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/india/real-interest-rate-percent-wb-data.html">https://tradingeconomics.com/india/real-interest-rate-percent-wb-data.html</a> <br /><br />- By 2013, nearly a third of Indian companies had interest cover less than 1 (EC1), i.e., annual earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) less than interest. By 2015, nearly 40 per cent were at this level. From 2012 through mid-2015, EC1 companies’ earnings were around Rs 250 billion per quarter. By end-2015, earnings had dropped to Rs 20,000 per quarter, and by September 2016, to Rs 15,000 per quarter. Cash flow was insufficient to service debt from 2014. The result was a sharp increase in NPAs<a class="storyTags" href="http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=npas" target="_blank"> </a>(Chart 2), which could increase to 11.1 per cent by September 2018.<br /><br />Chart 2: NPAs</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><img src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l-hmwyRcD-8/WpdcC2KytXI/AAAAAAAAD8c/kCQQqKIT-EgjRABYlsAJQH9p9rF_mME1gCLcBGAs/s320/NPAs-1998-Mar%2B2017-Trading%2BEconimics-2018-02-25.jpg" /><br /><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l-hmwyRcD-8/WpdcC2KytXI/AAAAAAAAD8c/kCQQqKIT-EgjRABYlsAJQH9p9rF_mME1gCLcBGAs/s1600/NPAs-1998-Mar%2B2017-Trading%2BEconimics-2018-02-25.jpg"></a><a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/india/bank-nonperfoming-loans-to-total-gross-loans-percent-wb-data.html">https://tradingeconomics.com/india/bank-nonperfoming-loans-to-total-gross-loans-percent-wb-data.html</a><br />What’s difficult to understand is why and how systemic controls against inappropriate evergreening and fraud, such as integrating SWIFT, or Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, with in-house systems, and avoiding underreporting of NPAs, have not been enforced until now. Systems have to be properly designed and implemented.However, while we dither over a bank for bad loans, NPAs need resolution. The most salutary model of banking reform, privatisation and recovery is from Sweden.<br /><br />Sweden’s transformation after its banking crisis of 1991-1992 is remarkable. Their prior experience parallels ours in some ways, although our attributes are very different, i.e., small versus large, advanced/developing, highly skilled small population/underskilled large population, and so on. For years, Sweden was an underperforming economy with low real wage growth, high inflation and public debt. Then a period of rapid growth and credit expansion led to a real estate bubble and collapse, like ours.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Housing prices fell by 25 per cent and commercial real estate by 42 per cent between 1990 and 1995. NPAs went from 5 per cent to nearly 50 per cent among banks (all private), and bankruptcies soared. In this crisis, the entire political leadership decided to unite to resolve their problems. Then, despite fighting behind the scenes, they worked together to take quick action.4 The Swedish centre-right government and the Social Democratic opposition decided on (a) state ownership of troubled banks (b) while guaranteeing all depositors and creditors except bank shareholders.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This united approach restored confidence. A ‘bad bank’ was set up and NPAs evaluated and assigned to ‘good’ or ‘bad’ banks by an independent body disposing of bad assets. Sweden’s banking system recovered to support a sound economy with growth.In our case, undertakings untainted by greed or moral turpitude with cash flow problems deserve efforts at rehabilitation. Examples are where there’s a likelihood of improving cash flows, as in some of the power projects that have run aground for reasons such as lower demand, or exceptional input cost increases. An objective evaluation process by an expert group to triage the NPAs is needed, categorising the untainted and impaired, and where there is scope for revival. Also, rehabilitation measures need to be formulated. The rub is that India is ill-equipped by culture and customary practices to do this. Yet, we would benefit greatly if we could draw on Sweden’s experience in taking corrective action. Private asset reconstruction companies have not been effective. It is unlikely that partial measures will fare better.The primary requirement is political unity across all parties.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Without this, none of the rest can follow. Then, setting up an independent professional entity unencumbered with political considerations to do what is needed. This becomes evident in comparing the US crisis of 2008 (all private banks) with the Swedish experience. After Lehman Brothers collapsed, the Democrats agreed to the Treasury Secretary’s ad hoc $700-billion bailout package, then denounced it just before a vote. The Republicans rejected their own plan, leading to turmoil in the markets. The bill finally passed a week later, and although successful in cleaning impaired assets at a much lower than expected cost, led to a slow recovery and was hugely unpopular. Similarly, the Japanese approach has been slow and not a clear success. Can India’s political parties replicate Sweden’s example? Will they?</p>
<hr style="text-align: justify; " />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><br /><em>Shyam (no space) Ponappa at gmail dot com</em><br /><br /><br /><em>1: <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/finance/steel-firms-dominate-list-of-rbi-s-12-defaulters-117061601393_1.html" target="_blank">http://www.business-standard.com/article/finance/steel-firms-dominate-list-of-rbi-s-12-defaulters-117061601393_1.html </a></em><br /><em><br /></em><em>2: <a href="https://suit.cibil.com/">https://suit.cibil.com/</a></em><br /><em><br /></em><em>3:<a href="https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_ViewBulletin.aspx?Id=17314">https://rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_ViewBulletin.aspx?Id=17314</a></em><br /><em><br /></em><em>4:<a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_pivot/2012/10/sweden_when_its_banks_failed_the_scandinavian_country_made_a_miraculous.html">http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/the_pivot/2012/10/sweden_when_its_banks_failed_the_scandinavian_country_made_a_miraculous.html</a> </em><br /><em><br /></em><em>and </em><br /><br /><em><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sweden-banks-analysis/swedish-banks-safe-bet-or-risky-business-idUSKBN1500ZX">https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sweden-banks-analysis/swedish-banks-safe-bet-or-risky-business-idUSKBN1500ZX</a></em></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-march-1-2018-shyam-ponappa-npas-and-bad-banks'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/business-standard-march-1-2018-shyam-ponappa-npas-and-bad-banks</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2018-03-25T03:53:25ZBlog EntrySpectrum reforms - Good & Bad news
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/spectrum-reforms
<b>A good initiative is under way, but needs changes to work out complex issues, writes Shyam Ponappa in this article published in the Business Standard on May 5, 2011.</b>
<p>There’s some good news, and yes, some bad news… The good news is that momentous developments are under way in spectrum and telecom policy:</p>
<ul>
<li>The Ministry of Communications & Information Technology held consultations with service providers, then posted the transcript on the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) website.</li>
<li>The Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing (WPC) disclosed data on all commercial spectrum allocations – frequencies allotted by geography and service provider or operator – on its website.</li>
</ul>
<p>Terrific first steps in a constructive approach. There’s more: the ministry’s report of 100 days states: "We will hold consultations with key stakeholders to evolve a clear and transparent regime covering licensing, spectrum allocation, tariffs or pricing, linkage with roll out performance, flexibility within licenses, spectrum sharing, spectrum trading, MVNOs, unlicensed bands, M&A, etc, in a technology agnostic environment after due consideration of Trai recommendations in this regard. Interest of the 'aam aadmi' would be the prime consideration." That’s comprehensive alright, which is good, though the 'aam aadmi' bit is either confused or manipulative. Elected governments should act in the public interest, no more, no less. While the private sector is exhorted not to play games, the government at all levels – politicians, administrators and agencies – must also focus on results, and avoid populism.</p>
<h3>Display & Presentation</h3>
<p>The presentation of information could be more effective for the patterns and structure to be easily accessible. The WPC display is of voluminous raw data. There is no overview, with the ability to drill down to details, nor to aggregate details by operator or frequency. The full set runs into 32 pages of tables (Figure 1).</p>
<p align="left"><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/SpectrumAvailableAllottedBWA2.32.jpg/image_preview" alt="spectrum alloted" class="image-inline image-inline" title="spectrum alloted" /></p>
<p>Compare this with a display in colour from the US’ National Telecommunications and Information Administration (Figure 2). Similar information from the WPC runs into many pages.</p>
<p align="left">Figure 2: Fragment of Allocation Chart (USA)</p>
<p align="left"><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/sa2.jpg/image_preview" alt="spectrum allocation" class="image-inline image-inline" title="spectrum allocation" /></p>
<p align="left">Source: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf">http://www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf</a></p>
<p>However, the US display contains not as much detail, and has no interactive capabilities (these are possible extensions). For an interactive graphical interface, consider the “market map” by Moneycontrol.com for stocks (Figure 3, left).</p>
<p>One can drill down in any sector by clicking on the rectangle. For example, “Telecommunication”, which opens a map with the listed companies, each colour-coded to reflect more detail (green for gains, red for losses).</p>
<p>Clicking on a company shows its daily price and volume chart (Figure 3, right). In a variant (at Smartmoney.com), it opens a menu with access to details like news, financials and so on. Similar spectrum displays could show, for example, information by operator for network rollout and subscribers by frequency.</p>
<p align="left">Figure 3: Market Map of Stocks (Sectors) Companies</p>
<p align="left"><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/MarketMapofStocks.jpg/image_preview" alt="market map" class="image-inline image-inline" title="market map" /></p>
<p align="left">Source: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.moneycontrol.com/mcplus/marketmap/nse/marketmap.php">http://www.moneycontrol.com/mcplus/marketmap/nse/marketmap.php</a></p>
<p align="left">An alternate display format is the “Topics most commented on” on The Economist's website.<br />When the cursor hovers on a topic, related comments are displayed. Clicking on a topic realigns the clusters based on content around that topic, as for India in Figure 4.</p>
<p align="left">Figure 4:</p>
<p align="left"><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/visualisation.jpg/image_preview" alt="visualisation" class="image-inline image-inline" title="visualisation" /></p>
<p align="left">Source: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.economist.com/conversation-cloud?days=30">http://www.economist.com/conversation-cloud?days=30</a></p>
<p align="left">This would work well for aggregating comments on related issues in the consultation transcripts.</p>
<p class="discreet">Imagine what such a graphical interface to a relational database could do for effectiveness and transparency in spectrum policy. It could be extended to telecom and broadband next, and, eventually, to all of government.</p>
<h3>The Bad News: Process Limitations</h3>
<p>Judging from news reports, process inadequacies might render the ministry’s grand intentions unachievable. The following examples show why.</p>
<p>- Spectrum sharing is an obvious solution for high demand with limited supply. The DoT has reportedly considered it for years, but discussions so far have been superficial and on "excess spectrum". Also, the statements of intent on sharing or trading are confusing. "Spectrum trading" implies exclusive rights to spectrum, unless otherwise specified. "Spectrum sharing" means aggregating spectrum for redeployment, with Dynamic Spectrum Allocation. This is analogous to “common carrier access” and “big pipes” for railways, roads, oil pipelines, or airways. Therefore, from a policy perspective, spectrum sharing and spectrum trading are mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>Spectrum and airways or flight paths coexist in the atmosphere. Imagine if airways were auctioned to each airline for its exclusive use, instead of being available to all airlines for similar aircraft through Air Traffic Control. That’s what we have with spectrum auctions in communications. The logic for spectrum auctions is based on old technology with no allowances for improvements in managing interference in the last 60-70 years. Also, allocating spectrum in this way means that aggregate capacity is constrained for two reasons. One is that each operator uses only part of allotted capacity. A study in Singapore in 2008 found that only two bands had a utilisation rate of 50 per cent; the overall utilisation rate for 80-5,850 MHz was about five per cent (Figure 5).</p>
<p align="left">Figure 5: Average Occupancy of Frequency Bands in Singapore</p>
<p align="left"><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/SingaporeSpectrumStudyJul152008.jpg/image_preview" alt="singapore spectrum" class="image-inline image-inline" title="singapore spectrum" /></p>
<p align="left">Source:<a class="external-link" href="http://www.pwtc.eee.ntu.edu.sg/News/Documents/Spectrum%20survey%20in%20Singapore_%20Occupancy%20measurements%20and%20analyses.pdf">http://goo.gl/qVyBv</a></p>
<p>Second, a large band provides much greater capacity than the sum of smaller bands.</p>
<p>Our spectrum predicament arises primarily from inappropriate allocation policies. Therefore, forward-looking policies need the incorporation of a technical understanding of spectrum occupancy, of the effects of spectrum aggregation versus fragmentation, and of technologies like multiple antenna effects (multiple-input and multiple-output, or MIMO), which enable more effective spectrum use and improve functional attributes of higher frequencies. A backward-looking audit of historical data will not serve these purposes.</p>
<ul>
<li>Another damaging effect is the move to extract spectrum from Defence to auction to the private sector. The rationale apparently is the high revenues the government can collect. This cannot be in the public interest, especially since the alternate optical fibre network to have been built by BSNL is still not ready. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Decisions on issues like the desirable number of operators per circle need an objective rationale. No data have been offered contrary to the UK Ofcom’s findings of maximum welfare at three to four operators.</li>
</ul>
<p>An inherent limitation of the consultation-and-pronouncement approach (as opposed to a collaborative-stakeholder-workout) is that external expertise in technology and process consultation, sorely needed in India, has to be brought in only by the government. This must be done before formulating new policies, because the issues are too complex to resolve without objective expertise.</p>
<ul>
<li>Read the original blog post <a class="external-link" href="http://organizing-india.blogspot.com/2011/05/spectrum-reforms-good-bad-news.html">here</a></li>
<li>For article published by Business Standard, click <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappa-spectrum-reforms-goodbad-news/434477/">here</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/spectrum-reforms'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/spectrum-reforms</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-07-26T10:02:48ZBlog EntryLearning from Fukushima
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/fukushima
<b>Take remedial steps and demystify the unreasoning dread of nuclear power, says Shyam Ponappa in his latest column published by the Business Standard on April 7, 2011.</b>
<p>Official statistics report over 22,000 deaths related to fires, 27,000 by drowning and 144,000 in traffic accidents annually in India<strong>[<a href="#1">1</a>]</strong>. By contrast, the number of deaths resulting from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is about 10,000 in total, estimates Frank von Hippel, a nuclear physicist at Princeton, who is co-chairman of the International Panel on Fissile Materials (other estimates: World Health Organisation 4,000; International Agency for Research on Cancer 16,000; Belarus 93,000 plus 270,000 cancer patients; and Ukraine 500,000). Against this, he estimates the number of deaths owing to pollution from coal plants in the US alone at 10,000 each year <strong>[<a href="#2">2</a>]</strong>.</p>
<p>In this context, what are we to make of a top Indian scientist’s demand for stopping nuclear power production in India pending a transparent safety audit of all nuclear plants? Why not stop all traffic because of traffic accidents, to paraphrase another leading scientist? Should we shut down all our cities and towns until the sewerage systems work? A conscious effort should be made to demystify nuclear power.</p>
<p>To consider this rationally, let’s begin with some reported facts. The Fukushima accident happened after the earthquake, after the plant shut down. The plant was designed to withstand waves of six metres, but was struck by an eight-metre high tsunami, according to the US’ National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (other estimates range between 6.71 and 14 metres).</p>
<p>The reactor core takes several days to cool after being shut down and requires external cooling. The cooling system lost power from the grid because of the earthquake. The backup diesel generators worked for an hour, then stopped (there are conflicting reports on the reasons). The backup batteries then powered the pumps until they ran out. There are also conflicting reports of alternate diesel generators that were either of insufficient capacity or could not be connected for reasons that are unclear (flooded connectors, incompatible plugs and so on). The tsunami devastated the surroundings even as it hampered assistance from elsewhere. The failure appears to have been in the supply of power and water, that is , ancillary services.</p>
<p>Japan has 55 nuclear power reactors and it experiences frequent earthquakes. Though there have been instances of plants being shut down after earthquakes (2007: electrical transformer fire at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, and some leaks of slightly radioactive water reported; 2004: one unit at the same plant was shut down), there has been no failure of nuclear plants because of earthquakes. So, no new facts relating to earthquakes or tsunamis seem to have surfaced to cause India to shut down its nuclear plants arbitrarily.</p>
<p>An increase in energy use in India is inescapable, given the correlation between growth and energy consumption. On balance, we need all the energy we can get staying within reasonable risks and costs. Objectively, what can we expect from our government and related agencies such as the Department of Atomic Energy and the Atomic Energy Agency?</p>
<h3>Remedial Action</h3>
<p>One could be to expect action to reduce risks based on experience.</p>
<ul><li>After the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, a 3.2-km wall was constructed at Kalpakkam, which was in the path of the tsunami, fortified with sandbags, rocks and embankments. (The plant is situated at over 9 metres above the sea, with the reactor floors at a height of nearly 10.7 metres.)</li><li>The backup generators are located some distance away from the plant, out of the reach of tsunamis.</li><li>Mangroves and casuarinas along the coast helped diffuse the impact of the waves in 2004. News reports indicate the Department of Atomic Energy plans to augment these after its recent review of coastal nuclear plants.</li><li>News reports also mention that portable generators will be acquired for backup and tsunami alarms will be installed at coastal sites.</li></ul>
<p>Other remedial measures based on experience may have been incorporated at Indian plants, or if not, could be incorporated now. For instance, referring to Fukushima, Dr von Hippel describes a filtered vent system designed to reduce radioactivity before releasing pressure from the containment building in the event of a meltdown (see diagram). Though it was ignored in the US, Sweden adopted it and so did France and Germany. Presumably, a benefit of Areva’s partnership with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India for constructing India’s new reactors will be the inclusion of filtered vents, if appropriate and not already in our design.</p>
<h3>Costs, Benefits and Risks</h3>
<p>Another issue is educating people on the risks, costs and benefits of different fuels. Life-cycle emissions capture one aspect of these costs (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/content/general_pdf/040711_01.pdf">see figure for Europe</a>).</p>
<p>A similar study is available for the US: “Life-Cycle Assessment of Electricity Generation Systems and Applications for Climate Change Policy Analysis” by Paul J Meier, University of Wisconsin-Madison, August 2002 (<a class="external-link" href="http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/pdf/fdm1181.pdf">http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/pdf/fdm1181.pdf</a>) Besides, there are costs such as population displacement and environmental effects associated with hydroelectric plants, land requirements and the environmental impact of manufacturing for solar generation, noise levels for wind farms, or pollution and the higher risk of accidents associated with coal <strong>[<a href="#3">3</a>]</strong>.</p>
<h3>Open Information and Communication</h3>
<p>A third issue is easy access to accurate and relevant information. After the tsunami in 2004, the information sharing with the public was exemplary, with open and transparent briefings at Kalpakkam. This approach needs to be instituted as a standard operating procedure for governance by all departments and agencies, displaying integrity in systems, thereby instilling confidence in the public.</p>
<p>Prompt and accurate information about safety features including design and remedial measures could be compiled for ready access on websites, with pointers during press briefings. Regular and effective communication of systems and procedures, and measures to mitigate risks, could reduce our unreasoning dread of nuclear energy. Such steps would help assess risks reasonably and provide a good framework for governance and crisis management.</p>
<h3>Notes</h3>
<p> <br /><a name="1">[1]."Table 38.1 Incidence of Accidental Deaths", http://mospi.nic.in/...38%20ACCIDENT%20STATISTICS/Table-38.1.xls [2008: latest available data].</a></p>
<p><a name="2">[2].“It Could Happen Here”, Frank N von Hippel, New York Times, March 23, 2011: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/opinion/24Von-Hippel.html.</a></p>
<p><a name="3">[3].“Nuclear power is safest way to make electricity, according to study”, David Brown, Washington Post, April 2, 2011: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/nuclear-power-is-safest-way-to-make-electricity-according-to-2007-tudy/2011/03/22/AFQUbyQC_story.html.</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/fukushima'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/fukushima</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecom2011-08-30T12:47:25ZBlog EntryUnderstanding Spectrum
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/understanding-spectrum
<b>What is spectrum and how do government and commercial decisions on this scientific phenomenon affect public facilities and costs? Shyam Ponappa examines this in his latest blog published in the Business Standard on March 4, 2010.</b>
<p>Twenty years ago, “spectrum” implied the colours of the rainbow. Now, we understand that spectrum also relates to mobile phones. We encounter spectrum daily, in TV remote controls, microwave ovens, even sunlight. So, what exactly is spectrum, and how do government and commercial decisions on this scientific phenomenon affect public facilities and costs?</p>
<p>“Spectrum” is short for “electromagnetic spectrum”, the range of radiated energies that envelop the Earth. This electromagnetic radiation (EMR) is primarily from the sun, and secondarily from the stars/cosmos, radioactive elements in soil, rock and gases... .</p>
<p>One section of EMR is visible light; another is radio frequency (RF) spectrum. There are many other “wavelengths” in EMR with different characteristics and effects, such as infrared and ultraviolet rays. All countries have the same RF spectrum in equivalent areas.</p>
<h3>How is spectrum used?</h3>
<p>The length of a wave, its associated frequency (“wavelengths” or “cycles” per second) and energy determine its usage (see <a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/understanding" class="internal-link" title="Spectrum">Figure 1</a>).</p>
<ol><li>Radio waves are relatively long, with wavelengths from 1,000 metres (1 km) to 10 cms, and frequencies from 3 kilohertz (3,000 cycles per second) to 3 gigahertz (GHz) or 3 billion cycles per second for the shortest, sometimes also called microwaves. (There are longer waves, e.g., electric power, of several km.)</li><li>Microwaves in the centimetre and millimetre range can have frequencies up to 300 GHz. There is an overlap in terminology depending on use; microwaves for cooking use several hundred watts of electricity at RF wavelengths of about 32 cms (915 MHz) and 12 cms (2.45 GHz). Microwaves from low-powered devices of a few watts at these frequencies are used for communications, and emit insignificant heat.</li><li>Infrared waves are smaller, and are felt as heat, e.g., from lamps and infrared grills used for cooking. Higher infrared bands used for communications in remote control devices and for imaging/night vision have no heating effect.</li><li>Wavelengths between 700 and 400 nanometres (about 430 to 750 terahertz or THz) form the visible spectrum from red to violet, combining to form white light. For example, we perceive wavelengths of about 635-700 nm (430-480 THz) as the colour red.</li><li>Shorter wavelengths form ultraviolet rays, of which those around 380-280 nm cause sunburn. Sunlight at sea level comprises about 53 per cent infrared, 44 per cent visible light, and 3 per cent ultraviolet rays.</li><li>Yet smaller waves are classified as X-rays, and the smallest as gamma rays, both used in medical and industrial imaging.<br /></li></ol>
<h3>The sweet spot in the RF spectrum for telephony and the Internet</h3>
<p>For telephony and broadband, lower frequencies (700-900 MHz) are most cost-effective, as they traverse long distances without attenuation, penetrating walls and foliage. Radio waves in the atmosphere are affected by water vapour and ionisation, as well as events such as solar flares with bursts of X-rays. Depending on temperature, moisture, etc., radio waves may be absorbed, refracted, or reflected in the atmosphere, and by hills or other obstacles. Low frequency waves penetrate buildings and trees, and curve over slopes. Higher frequencies are more absorbed or reflected by the atmosphere; they are also more attenuated by distance and rain. Networks at lower frequencies require fewer towers than at higher frequencies.</p>
<h3>What are 2G and 3G?</h3>
<p>These signify different stages of technological development, starting with 1st Generation (1G) analog wireless in the 1980s, e.g., in car phones. 2G (2nd Generation) began in the 1990s with the digital wireless GSM standard for mobiles, extending to other standards, e.g., CDMA. 3G (3rd Generation) has faster data speed and greater network capacity.</p>
<h3>What is 2G/3G spectrum?</h3>
<p>There is no difference in the spectrum; only the convention of government regulations and harmonisation between countries by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) earmark wavelengths for different applications. Both 2G and 3G can and do work at 800-900 and 1800-1900 MHz.</p>
<p>Combined with the advantages of prices dropping as volumes rise, one estimate puts 3G coverage with 900 MHz at 50-70 per cent lower cost than at the designated 2.1 GHz. 3G networks using 900 MHz (“2G spectrum”) exist in Finland, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Venezuela, Denmark and Sweden, and countries like France encourage 2G networks to upgrade to 3G services.</p>
<p>Spectrum allocated for 2G and 3G by various countries is at <a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/spectrum" class="internal-link" title="Understanding Spectrum Figure 2">Figure 2</a>; the current and proposed allocation in India is shown below.</p>
<p>This shows India’s dearth of spectrum for public use because of government and defence allocations. We need innovative methods to maximise capacity given our needs, limited landline networks, and the relative costs. (For details on the chart, please see <a class="external-link" href="http://www.umtsworld.com/technology/frequencies.htm">umtsworld.com</a>.</p>
<p>For example, China has allocated 250 MHz in the 800/1800 MHz bands. By not charging auction fees and spectrum charges, ubiquitous networks were built at lower cost with high capacity. These result in lower costs for users and higher productivity. With its focused approach, China also developed its own standard (TD-SCDMA).</p>
<p>India’s spectrum allocation is burdened with short-term revenue collection for the government, and a shortage mentality. There is apparently insufficient clarity on spectrum usage for ubiquitous broadband/telephony as in other countries, let alone more ambitious targets, such as developing an Indian standard.</p>
<p>Our policies could address the requirement for enhanced coverage/capacity at low cost to make services available everywhere at reasonable prices. Innovative approaches to spectrum management could help get these, through:</p>
<ol><li>Technology-neutrality: the UK and Norway have not restricted the use of recently auctioned spectrum to any technology.</li><li>A focused strategy for service delivery at low cost, as in China.<br /></li></ol>
<p>This needs a combination of methods, e.g., along with technology-neutrality, (a) data-base driven, shared spectrum usage, under trial in the US, (b) “Cognitive Radio”, whereby smart devices sense available channels for dynamic, non-conflicting use in unlicensed spectrum bands, (c) incentives for rural broadband delivery, e.g., by subvention of fees and government charges, with (d) subsidies.</p>
<p>Follow the original article on <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappa-understanding-spectrum/387446/">Business Standard</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/understanding-spectrum'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/understanding-spectrum</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T10:48:19ZBlog EntryThe Right Ring Tone
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/ring-tone
<b>Focus on improving service quality with a strong partner, and not on one-shot stake sales, says Shyam Ponappa in his article published in the Business Standard on April 1, 2010.</b>
<p>Just five years ago, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) was India’s second most profitable company, with net profit of nearly Rs 6,000 crore — nearly equal to Hindustan Unilever’s revenues — with over Rs 36,000 crore in revenues. By March 31, 2010, BSNL expects a big loss, while a competitor, Bharti, with revenues of only Rs 8,000 crore then, has caught up in revenues and is far more profitable. Mahaganar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), too, is struggling to stay profitable.</p>
<p>While these public sector giants are in a graveyard spiral, they still have valuable assets in their reach and their networks of hundreds of thousands of kilometres. They also have a corps of technical professionals, with unmet user needs burgeoning in cities, towns, and all over India’s hinterland.<br /><br />How can BSNL/MTNL be extricated from their predicament, and built up to become more like a State Bank of India, instead of a moribund Air India and the once-dominant Indian Airlines? Consider the present and future possibilities.<br /><br />The pertinent facts are:</p>
<ul><li>The network and capacity are valuable assets for operations, provided services are rationalised and extended in commercially sound ways.</li><li>Neither BSNL nor MTNL has been able to successfully capitalise on its headstart in WiMAX and 3G.</li><li>Given present trends, both will run up mounting losses.<br /></li></ul>
<p>All management and employees, including the Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officers, will have to engage in radical changes voluntarily. This is why all stakeholders, including the government, have to seek collaborative solutions, to resolve anachronistic legacy situations that cannot continue on terms as fair as possible, including a VRS, and possibly pay cuts for deferred profit-sharing. The alternative is losing a strategic backbone network-operating capability, something India needs, with the associated hardship for so many employees.</p>
<h3>Dire prospects</h3>
<p>The outlook for both BSNL and MTNL shows in their performance (Figures 1 and 2).<br /><br />For BSNL and MTNL, increased employee costs after the Pay Commission recommendations, together with declining fixed-line revenues, led to deteriorating profits. Meanwhile, years of stalled procurement, decreasing earnings and a recommendation to divest 30 per cent have all led to a stand-off at BSNL, with a threatened strike. Whether in public or private sector, there have to be good services with good profits; otherwise, competitors will devour them.</p>
<h3>Doing the unthinkable</h3>
<p>Are there ways out? Can these investments in equipment and people be resuscitated by some miracle of management and IT engineering to be at the heart of the country’s expanding communications services? Can their personnel pull together?<br /><br />That magic could come about if individuals and interest groups rise above themselves, avoiding opportunistic self-enrichment, and approach problems collaboratively instead of antagonistically, and if the government can abjure misguided fiscal zeal.</p>
<ul><li>Instead of divesting a stake as a one-shot, revenue-raising deal, induct a strong partner to build services and revenues.</li><li>Serve user needs, instead of offering “products” with some internal geographic or technological definitions that are not easily understood.</li><li>Rationalise services like EVDO cards (broadband data cards) that are not customer-centric, because if they work in the rest of the country, they don’t in Delhi and Mumbai, and vice versa.</li><li>BSNL and MTNL could go for collaborative data-streaming with 2.4 Mbps EVDO cards usable everywhere, offered with a service level and style that can only come with a hands-on partner changing the off-putting way BSNL and MTNL treat customers.</li><li>Get politicians out of procurement, and induct technology like wireless corDECT at 512 Kbps for rural areas if appropriate, even if it is “old” and not state-of-the-art, instead of waiting for years for alternatives that aren’t there of 3G or LTE (Long-Term Evolution or 4G), and will cost much more.</li><li>Move up to 3G/LTE after some years of generating profits.</li><li>Work with India’s technology companies to build local equivalents of Huwaei and ZTE, with India’s assured markets. (This requires policies far beyond the ambit of the DOT, as in the way China has nurtured Huawei/ZTE for years.)<br /></li></ul>
<p>Put the whole package together, end-to-end, and BSNL/MTNL could be winners, as would the public.* Private operators will face competition if this happens, but they can gain from the rise in business levels. These are big issues for immediate consideration and action. Such challenges are best addressed collaboratively.</p>
<p>Although collaboration seems far removed, notable exceptions like Amul, Operation Flood, the Sirmour farmers’ cooperatives for irrigation, SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) and Infosys prove that it is feasible.</p>
<h3>Problem-solving vs confrontation and attrition</h3>
<p>Thinking and acting in our collective interests require making hard choices after cost-benefit analyses. From this perspective, we should address BSNL and MTNL from an assessment of India’s needs and available alternatives, rather than only as a historical mess. True, the mess has to be dealt with, but with forward-looking considerations of public benefits for the common good. Employees need to recognise this, juxtaposed with the consequences of unyielding self-interest. We need problem-solving, not battles of attrition from hardened, silo positions of unions, government, and management, or ITS versus the rest, or any entrenched interest group. These legacy positions are “dug in”, and perpetual confrontation leads to desecration: of service capability, of competitive staying power, productivity and of sheer employability. There is so much more they could do for a potential one billion users.<br /><br />It isn’t that self-improvement is not being attempted, like the Sanchar Nigam Executives Association (SNEA) addressing processes such as Call Detail Record (CDR) systems for customer care and billing, or Managed Services and Managed Capacity, Bharti’s innovations in outsourcing not only development and maintenance, but even procurement to Ericsson, as recommended by the Pitroda committee.** The change that is required is for all groups to pull together, however simplistic it may sound. Then, these national assets — the networks and human resources — can be leveraged to compete effectively with private operators.</p>
<p>Read the original article in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponapparight-ringtone/390367/">Business Standard</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/ring-tone'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/ring-tone</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T10:39:51ZBlog EntryChina Club instead of Bombay Club?
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/China-club-Bombay-club
<b>Emulate China's coordinated policies for strategic sectors, and we'll rely less on commodity exports, says Shyam Ponappa in his article in the Business Standard on May 13, 2010.</b>
<p>With the momentum of the past few years, India’s potential for growth is enormous, despite the chaotic loose linkages. In sectors like power and telecommunications, this translates to demand far outstripping capacity. Some contend that domestic inability to build capacity — i.e., being able to actually pull it off, as against the perpetual potential — will conscribe not only these sectors, but also limit overall growth. So the argument goes, e.g., let China build India’s power plants, because we need the power and don’t have capacity/they do it cheaper.</p>
<p>Comparative advantage notwithstanding, this reasoning is fallacious given the realities of national interests and self-interest. To understand why, consider the naïveté of the underlying assumptions — about “rational man”, that capitalism is fair, capital is immobile, surplus value accrues to countries and not to companies, or that the pursuit of self-interest maximises societal <a class="external-link" href="http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/papers/free-software/BMind.pdf">benefits</a>.</p>
<p>Our quandary is aggravated by our inability so far to orchestrate supportive policies for even a level playing field. Ironically, one need only consider India’s approach to IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS) in the initial growth years to realise this. India’s policies in IT and ITeS, while far from perfect — in fact, sneaked through by stealth, as in the preferential 64 kbps communications lifeline, and the tax breaks for software service exporters — provided the foundations for transforming IT and then ITeS/BPO/KPO (Business Process and Knowledge Process Outsourcing).</p>
<p>These sectors also benefited from a controlled exchange rate, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) managed a steady depreciation during those years. But they did not have another vital ingredient of coordinated policies as did the Asian tigers: low borrowing rates (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/general/pdf/050610_03.jpg">see the diagram</a>)</p>
<p>This is one reason why, for instance, India’s machine tool manufacturers or shipbuilders have not matched the growth of knowledge-based services. The former need inexpensive, long-term capital for production and marketing, as well as for continuous innovation, upgrade and <a class="external-link" href="http://www.wu.ac.at/europainstitut/noeg/raju_s2.3-2">scale</a>.</p>
<h3>Why labour arbitrage and not products</h3>
<p>This is also one reason why we lack product orientation, because product design, development and marketing require the support of easy access to cheap capital for a long period. Labour arbitrage needs little capital. Therefore, we have been better mercenaries than producers of products, compared with the chaebols (Samsung, Hyundai) or keiretsu (Mitsubishi, Dai-Ichi/Mizuho). There are, of course, many additional reasons: their education, training, work practices, our policies against large corporations, etc.</p>
<p>With growth in domestic markets across a broad range — telecom equipment, engineering goods, power — there are domestic manufacturing initiatives, such as L&T and Bharat Forge in power generation joining Bhel, or Tejas Networks in optical switching. But for the transformational changes we have witnessed in IT, we need coordinated industrial policies that support domestic manufacturing, because that’s the competition. Unthinking acceptance of “open markets” without heed to how others — including developed economies — cosseted and built their manufacturing capacity will ensure that India stays a raw materials and commodities exporter, while importing trains, aircraft, machine tools, and equipment for power generation, telecommunications and defence.</p>
<h3>Integrated policies work</h3>
<p>Ideally, supportive policies comprise a coordinated range, such as state and central taxes, favoured locations with good infrastructure — energy, transport and communications, subsidised land, favourable exchange and interest rates, preferred access to domestic markets, and barriers to unfair competition, like import tariffs not below the WTO floor, and safeguard duties. Without this orchestration, the victors are companies and countries that have understood these principles, and have these systems in place. (This applies equally to farm products.)</p>
<p>Many are apprehensive that what works elsewhere will not work in India because of malpractices, as seen in recurring scams. There is every need for systems with integrity, and for enforcement with penalties. But just as corruption in government or civil society does not do away with the need for either, misuse does not negate the need for incentives. It would be self-damaging to lose the opportunity to try and get our act together simply because of apprehensions of corruption and/or incompetence. That would be like not subsidising food for the poor; it’s a different matter that we need better methods to prevent gross misappropriation.</p>
<p>The consequence of heedless, ad hoc muddling through instead of orchestrated strategies is that manufactured imports will dominate our markets, while domestic manufacturing is fragmented, hamstrung or absent. Having said that, consider India’s needs in electricity or communications — telecom, Internet and broadcasting — and it is apparent that crafting policies is not simple. So many conflicting images, some based on facts, others, mere impressions, which are often more important than facts. What should policy-makers do for our needs on such a massive scale with growing shortfalls?</p>
<h3>Emulate China</h3>
<p>The short answer: learn from China. In the power sector, Chinese suppliers have the following advantages:</p>
<ul><li>
<p>Low-cost access to capital.</p>
</li><li>
<p>An exchange rate advantage (10-30 per cent).</p>
</li><li>
<p>No sales tax and octroi, aggregating to about 11 per cent.</p>
</li><li>
<p>Zero customs duty on equipment for large plants (China imposes a 30 per cent import duty)</p>
</li></ul>
<p>Corrective action discussed for years has not resulted in concrete steps. The power ministry, citing supposed user benefits, opposes the planning commission’s recommendation of a safeguard duty. This is as shortsighted as “free electricity” that undercuts investments in power.</p>
<p>In telecommunications, consider Huawei, with revenues of over $20 billion, nurtured for 20 years with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as an R&D partner and guaranteed customer, vis-à-vis, say, Tejas Networks from Bangalore, with no government support.</p>
<p>Our policies need to focus on our long-term interests with strategic intent and execution, as in other countries, balancing costs with the benefits of domestic capabilities. These sectors need government procurement support, not criteria that disqualify Indian companies in strategic sectors like power and communications. They also need interim methods for Chinese companies to contribute while upgrading our skills and processes. Our aim needs to be a level playing field.</p>
<p>Read the original article in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=393889">Business Standard</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/China-club-Bombay-club'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/China-club-Bombay-club</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T10:35:05ZBlog EntryCatching up on broadband
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/catching-broadband
<b>The govt can invest some of the Rs 1,00,000 crore from the spectrum auctions to help India catch up on broadband, says Shyam Ponappa in his latest article published in the Business Standard on July 1, 2010.</b>
<p>When it comes to broadband, India is “notably lagging its peers”, to quote Booz & Co, an international consulting firm.<span class="visualHighlight">1 </span>Its report recounts our pathetic coverage — less than half the anticipated 20 million — and recommends that both industry and government must act in concert. Spelling out the roles for both, it concludes that we need a national policy to improve fixed-line infrastructure more rapidly than the current market-based approach does, as well as satellite-based communications.</p>
<p>The report recommends this because advanced economies have broadband on widespread fixed-line networks, and many are pursuing strategies to further empower their citizens through state action, as before. The effects are many, but let’s start with examining costs. <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/general/pdf/070110_18.jpg">Figure 1</a> shows the relative cost of broadband in a sample of countries.</p>
<p>India seems favourably placed with its low purchasing power parity (PPP) cost. However, relative to costs in India, this is about 6 per cent of average monthly gross national income (GNI) per capita, ranked 78th, as shown in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/general/pdf/070110_19.jpg">Figure 2</a>. In comparison, the first 23 countries — Macao, Israel, Hong Kong, the US, Singapore, etc., Greece and Spain included — have costs below or close to 1 per cent; the next 16 have costs below 2 per cent. As the 39 countries have PPP costs of only 0.25 per cent to twice India’s cost, India’s cost as a percentage of its GNI is six times theirs, i.e. Indian users have to pay relatively more. Increasing GNI, while desirable, is harder, more complex, and will take much longer. By contrast, costs can be reduced quickly by sharing network resources and limiting government collections to a reasonable percentage of revenues, instead of auctions and arbitrary levies.</p>
<h3>Broadband leaders</h3>
<p>Wired Asian countries like Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea already offer broadband on the next generation of high-speed networks. Singapore’s approach especially should be of interest to India, with policies supporting a blend of public subsidies and private investment, while separating three activities: infrastructure, network operations (wholesale), and user services (retail).2</p>
<p>Two years ago, Singapore set out to create an environment with more open access to downstream operators by separating the building of infrastructure from the running of the network. It drew on the experience of local community networks in countries like Britain, France, the Netherlands and Sweden. Three Singapore companies partnered with Axia Netmedia, a Canadian broadband company, to form a consortium called OpenNet, the infrastructure operator. OpenNet uses one partner’s existing network (SingTel’s) as a base. With a government grant of 750 million Singapore dollars, OpenNet is building an extensive fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) grid to be completed by 2012. The second partner is a subsidiary of Singapore Power, SP Telecommunications, which leverages Singapore Power’s experience in developing infrastructure. The third, Singapore Press Holdings, is a leading media services company.</p>
<p>The network operator, a subsidiary of StarHub (a cable and phone operator), is Nucleus Connect. Residential services at 100 mbps have been announced, to be provided by over 10 retail service operators. While some analysts opine that increased competition may not lead to appreciable cost reduction, Singapore is already ranked fifth-lowest in cost as a percentage of average monthly GNI per capita.</p>
<p>Can India do some catching up?<br />a) Can India do something similar? Don’t we need to? How?</p>
<p>The answer to the first question is: only if the government decides on a concerted drive.</p>
<p>To the second: yes, to be competitive.</p>
<p>To the third: with a comprehensive, integrated systems approach. It is insufficient if only one or a few ministries and agencies are involved, because the development and execution of solutions require cutting across turf boundaries. The conventional approach of the ongoing Trai consultation followed by recommendations addressed by the DoT is simply inadequate, because their charter is too limited. Many issues concerning commercial and user decisions, particularly of government agencies and the Department of Defence, and radical changes in approach need active participation from these players as well as the private sector for resolution. Examples are Booz & Co’s recommendations of a better fixed-wire network, and satellite communications in the Ka band, or the possibility of exploiting the cable and satellite TV network of around 110 million households. The entire communications network, or at least the backbone, needs to be shared for efficiency, unlike the existing limited tower-sharing. Also, state governments need to be closely involved in issues like Rights of Way and user needs.</p>
<p>b) Governments at the Centre and all states need to facilitate the productivity of their citizens, instead of hamstringing them with taxes, levies, auctions and dysfunctional policies. This is more easily said than done, with our predatory history, fractious coalitions at the Centre and states, and freewheeling, combative state governments. Governments at all levels have to coordinate this problem-solving initiative for all stakeholders, adapting the experience of leading broadband countries, instead of predatory behaviour seeking personal gains. The consultative process needs to agree on goals, and then figure out practical ways to achieve them.</p>
<p>c) With inspired leadership and a constructive approach, half of the over Rs 1,00,000 crore from the 3G and BWA auctions could support a broadband gambit drawing on concepts like Singapore’s public-private partnership, instead of being just a damaging revenue-collection exercise. Again, easier said than done, but with result-oriented, strong leadership to elicit enlightened employee engagement, even MTNL and BSNL could be partners in a core network in a role like SingTel’s. A public-private network-builder can draw on the combined strengths of its participants to provide a platform for a number of private operators. Separating the infrastructure building and operations from wholesale network services and end-user services could make this feasible and practicable.</p>
<ol><li>
<p class="discreet">“Bringing mass broadband to India: Roles for government and industry”, Booz & Co, June 7, 2010: http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/Bringing_Mass_Boadband_To_India.pdf.</p>
</li><li>
<p class="discreet">“Singapore gets wired for speed”, Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/technology/15iht-rtechbroad.html?ref=internet.</p>
</li></ol>
Read the original in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappa-catching-upbroadband/399894/">Business Standard</a>
<p> </p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/catching-broadband'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/catching-broadband</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T10:32:27ZBlog Entry'Containing Inflation' - A myth
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/containing-inflation-a-myth
<b>We need problem-solving, not confused rhetoric or misguided action, says Shyam Ponappa. The article was published in Business Standard on 7 August, 2008.</b>
<p>It’s as if there’s a conspiracy to beat India’s growth surge to pulp, making sure the economy is hamstrung in the months and years ahead. Those of us seeking rational signals in the economy have watched incredulously as the cost inflation from edible oil, food and energy was misconstrued as overheating from 2006, leading to a series of misguided, self-destructive steps. Moreover, there has been a baffling obscurantism spread by many different quarters — the RBI, the Finance Ministry, and many economists including from the private sector, the media and press — spouting irrational sophistry about the need for the sledgehammer of rising interest rates “to contain inflationary pressures”.</p>
<p>Mutterings about the pass-through of international energy prices are of a piece. The effect of pass-throughs is to increase inflation further, and unlikely to reduce short-term demand (i.e. control inflation), unless the increase is so large that the economy slumps because of a drop in demand.</p>
<p>The build-up with the convoluted explications started with the RBI’s nagging suspicion [sic] in October 2006 that there “could be elements of overheating in the Indian economy”. This led to the hike of the repo rate from 7 per cent to 7.25 per cent, making financing more expensive in the Indian economy. By December 2006, the RBI raised the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points to reduce inflationary pressures, and by the end of January 2007, raised the repo rate to 7.5 per cent citing the demand-supply mismatch in food. By March 2007, the repo rate was raised to 7.75 per cent and the CRR by 50 basis points to 6 per cent citing continuing inflationary pressure. In June, the repo rate was raised to 8 per cent.</p>
<p>The benefit of hindsight makes it evident to all of us including the RBI and the government that these measures have done nothing to improve the supply of food or edible oil, or for the surge in petroleum prices. Inflationary pressures are expected to continue into 2009 despite these actions that have slowed the economy. So, what is the purpose, other than reducing growth precipitously? All that increasing rates and financing costs will do is to kill India’s growth story. This shows clearly in the figure in the slowdown from 2007 in GDP growth and in the Index of Industrial Production.</p>
<p>Increasing rates can only curb inflation by reducing growth so much that demand is curtailed for those whose ability to buy food increases because of higher earnings. That’s what the obfuscatory talk of “containing demand” boils down to: forcing the economy to slow so that some people can afford to buy less food. It is also clear that by increasing demand through the loan waiver and NREGS without addressing supply constraints, the government’s actions increased inflationary pressures. Likewise if the Pay Commission recommendations are implemented now instead of delayed for a year.</p>
<p>What rising financial costs have done to the Indian economy is to vaporise all prospects of high growth and profits. Further aggravated by the global slowdown and the repercussions of the continuing meltdown of home loans and overleveraged US consumers, this has reduced the prospects of currency inflows that have so far provided a ballast to India’s dream investment run.</p>
<p>Corrective Actions Require Substance, Less Form: The government and RBI could take a constructive, problem-solving approach to growth, inflation, interest and exchange rates, provided their purpose is solution-oriented and not a preoccupation with appearing to take action. These involve (a) avoiding gamesmanship — loan waivers, NREGS, the imperfections of the PDS — and addressing more effectively (b) fuel taxes and pricing, and (c) supply and distribution.</p>
<p>The first step may be to acknowledge that in the short term, there is little that can be done to ameliorate high food prices with one exception, while taking measures to improve supply over the medium and long term. The exception is interim steps to help the poor through food coupons that enable direct subsidies through existing retail systems.</p>
<p>Over the medium term, a system using smart cards needs to be planned and implemented through the retail network that provides direct subsidies for food and fuel to lower-income users. On fuel, there has to be a concerted move to reduce taxes and remove anomalies in petrol and diesel pricing (i.e. subsidising private vehicle owners, inappropriately encouraging the growth of small diesel vehicle manufacture and sales).</p>
<p>Equally important, we have to learn to take the good examples of applied research and extension to make them more of a reality. It’s as simple or as difficult as getting good applied research work done in the field, and providing convincing extension support to local farmers. I had the opportunity recently to review an excellent instance of applied research, combined with sound extension practices that ensure supplies of fresh vegetables wholesale, organised and channelled flawlessly.</p>
<p>Of course, unique aspects make this not easy to replicate. The first is a well-managed farmers’ cooperative. This was organised in Ladakh by the late Rigzin Namgyal Kalon of Leh with great foresight, integrity and ability some 40 years ago. Mr Kalon had the ability to see how farmers could prosper by organising themselves for supplying farm produce to the sizeable army presence in Ladakh. When Mr Kalon passed away in 2002, his peers had the good sense to appeal to his family to continue to lead their effort. The second is a wholesale buyer (the Army). The third is the presence of an institute engaged in effective applied research in agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry in Ladakh. Started as the Field Research Laboratory under the Defence Research and Development Organisation, this is now the Defence Institute of High Altitude Research. This combination of elements provides the ingredients for a winning formula for the farmers of Ladakh.</p>
<p>Here are object lessons for those who see the potential for cooperatives, but think it cannot work in India. After all, there is Anand (the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd) and its extension to the National Dairy Development Board to prove that it can be done. We have to stop thinking of shortcuts, learn to replicate these ways, and teach ourselves to collaborate.</p>
<p>Read the original in <a class="external-link" href="http://www.bsl.co.in/india/news/%5Ccontaining-inflation%5Cmyth/330667/">Business Standard</a></p>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/containing-inflation-a-myth'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/containing-inflation-a-myth</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T10:30:56ZBlog EntryIndia's sorry spectrum story
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/sorry-spectrum-story
<b>In this article published in the Business Standard on June 3, 2010, Shyam Ponappa analyses the spectrum story in India. He says that the approach to spectrum management is an object lesson in how not to use information and communications technology for development.</b>
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<p>The network of roads is mostly public property. What if the government decided to make more money from our use of this property? Made users pay for these public assets, whether the roads are there, or yet to be built? Demanded upfront fees for a fixed-term right, followed by annual fees marked-to-market to reflect “fair market value”?</p>
<p>All roads would be expensive, and few people would be able to afford their use. Imagine what it would do to plans to build new roads. Imagine how much you would have to pay for road use, how road usage would drop, the sheer inconvenience it would cause, and the impediments to productivity that will be created.</p>
<p>This is not happening to the majority of our roads, but it is to communications, especially broadband. With some differences, this is what spectrum fees are about. The major difference is that spectrum fees are levied on operators, not end users (the equivalent for roads would be fees from government agencies/road operators).</p>
<p>For instance, Bharti and Vodafone paid upfront fees of Rs 12,300 crore and Rs 11,000 crore, respectively, for 3G spectrum. This is one reason why the country won’t get widespread broadband networks in a hurry, nor would it get reasonably priced services. The investment in spectrum fees and networks is so high that operators will probably offer limited, high-margin products. They will focus on high-traffic routes and ignore the rest, serving 50-100 million, instead of a billion — this is exactly the opposite of what we need.</p>
<h3>The spectrum story</h3>
<p>This approach to spectrum management is an object lesson in how not to use information and communications technology (ICT) for development. Each operator is exclusively assigned a sliver of spectrum. The resulting “scarce spectrum” predicament demonstrates why this approach is entirely unsuitable for optimising net benefits. Optimisation requires making trade-offs between technology, economics and commercial interests for development and the common good.</p>
<p>The situation is aggravated by three additional factors:</p>
<ul><li>Too many operators in a franchise area (12-16 in India, as against an international average of three to five), resulting in limited capacity and high capital costs.</li><li>Limited availability of spectrum for commercial use, because of the extent assigned to the government, defence and the public sector.</li><li>The government’s periodic efforts to extract as much revenue as possible from spectrum — an exploitative approach — instead of nurturing capacity to generate fair tax returns over the long term. Even in advanced economies, high auction bids have been disastrous.</li></ul>
<h3>Consequences</h3>
<p>The average spectrum available per user is of the order of 5.5 MHz in India, compared to an international average of about 22 MHz. Delhi and Mumbai have cell sites that are less than 100 metres apart, compared with around 200 metres in Istanbul, 300 metres in Munich, and 350 metres in Berlin. Decreased inter-cell distances increase interference, thus restricting capacity. If each operator has more spectrum, traffic-handling capacity increases at a lower cost. Improving technical efficiency at the cost of economic efficiency loses out on capacity at low cost. Cellular operators in India are forced to extract greater spectrum efficiency, which sounds good until you factor in the increased costs and opportunity losses.</p>
<p>The report titled “An assessment of spectrum management policy in India”, Plum Consulting, December 2008, by David Lewin, Val Jervis, Chris Davis, Ken Pearson, estimates that spectrum assignments increased to international norms would have lowered industry costs by an 21 per cent (Rs 11,700 crore or $2.6 billion in 2008). This would have resulted in a more extensive coverage at less cost, with greater consumer welfare.</p>
<p>The result is high-cost infrastructure for operators as well as for users. Too many operators make for increased capital costs for each operator, and cumulatively for all operators — unless they use common networks. Higher efficiency requires more base stations and more advanced technology, both adding to costs. Despite this, operators are exhorted to improve their spectrum efficiency. After a detailed assessment, the report concludes:</p>
<ul><li>The claims regarding the scale of the capacity increases possible with the use of various techniques are significantly overstated.</li><li>In the case of adaptive multi-rate (AMR) codecs, this technique is already being deployed on a widespread basis.</li><li>The claims wrongly assume that the capacity gains from the different techniques are additive. This is simply not true in a number of cases. For example, the gain achievable with DFCA is less if AMR has already been implemented.</li><li>There are substantial costs associated with deploying advanced techniques — both for operators in terms of network upgrades and for end users in terms of new handsets.</li><li>It is important to be aware that deployment of some of the techniques, such as AMR HR, leads to lower quality of service.</li><li>The focus on spectrum optimisation techniques for 2G networks fails to take into account the fact that the efforts of the suppliers have now shifted from 2G optimisation to 3G deployment.</li></ul>
<p>Those making these claims seek more intensive deployment of advanced techniques to maximise technical spectrum efficiency. But a better policy objective, as we argue (in a later section), is overall economic efficiency. From this perspective, it only makes sense to deploy advanced technologies when this is a lower cost way of increasing capacity than adding further base stations. Indeed it is against the interest of the Indian economy to deploy them if this is not the case.</p>
<p>The approach is counterproductive and against our interests. Advanced economies are doing the opposite, encouraging investment in broadband to improve productivity, while India’s policies actually constrain productivity.</p>
<p>A third consequence is the non-availability of spectrum in the more efficient bands, eg, 700-900 MHz. This has a negative effect on last-mile roll-out and services in rural areas. Lack of coverage in the hinterland is a severe deficiency in areas that are poorly served by fixed-line networks. It only perpetuates the vicious circle of low potential in rural areas with deficient broadband and Internet access.</p>
<h3>The curse of spectrum auctions</h3>
<p>Two recent developments have created additional burdens. One is the 3G auction, with bids of over Rs 67,000 crore (almost $15 billion). Another is the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s recommendation that 2G operators with over 6.2 MHz must pay for additional spectrum at prices determined by the 3G auction, resulting in a precipitous fall in the shares of major operators.</p>
<p>Why should governments be concerned when stock prices fall? For the same reasons, they should want stable markets: Investment and prosperity, leading to public welfare. It makes little sense to entice investment into high-potential, sunrise sectors, only to batter successful enterprises with arbitrary “taxes”. Bharti described the changes as “shocking, arbitrary and retrograde”; Vodafone called them “opaque, illogical and discriminatory”.</p>
<p>Like an absurd play, events have taken a surreal turn, with the Department of Telecommunications reportedly demanding spectrum fees from the defence department. However, no additional demands were made on companies cashing in on assigned spectrum rights that sold for windfall gains without any networks or users. This seems equally absurd.</p>
<p>The government needs to give up making short-term revenue killings, and instead, maximise net welfare through building productive capacity. Ubiquitous broadband is good for productivity and for the environment. As for auctions, remember that collections from revenue sharing after the New Telecom Policy, 1999 (NTP ’99), far exceed the bids. Let us have the wisdom to collect those golden eggs over time, instead of eating the goose now.</p>
<p>Read the original in <a href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappa-india/s-sorry-spectrum-story/396828/">Business
Standard</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/sorry-spectrum-story'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/sorry-spectrum-story</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T10:33:45ZBlog Entry