The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
These are the search results for the query, showing results 261 to 275.
Learning 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 EntryMarch 2011 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march%20-2011-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! In this issue we are pleased to present you the latest updates about our research, upcoming events, and news and media coverage.</b>
<h2><b>Researchers@Work</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">RAW is a multidisciplinary research initiative. CIS believes that in order to understand the contemporary concerns in the field of Internet and society, it is necessary to produce local and contextual accounts of the interaction between the Internet and socio-cultural and geo-political structures. To build original research knowledge base, the RAW programme has been collaborating with different organisations and individuals to focus on its three year thematic of Histories of the Internets in India. Monographs finalised from these projects are online for peer review.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">New Blog Entry by Zainab Bawa in Transparency and Politics</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/transparency/transparency-politics-it-in-india" target="_blank">A History of Transparency, Politics and Information Technologies in India</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Digital Natives with a Cause?</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? is a knowledge programme initiated by CIS and Hivos, Netherlands. It is a research inquiry that seeks to look at the changing landscape of social change and political participation and the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who want to critically engage with the dominant discourse on youth, technology and social change, in order to look at the alternative practices and ideas in the Global South. It also aims at building new ecologies that amplify and augment the interventions and actions of the digitally young as they shape our futures.</p>
<h3>Column on Digital Natives</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A fortnightly column on ‘Digital Natives’ authored by Nishant Shah is featured in the Sunday Eye, the national edition of Indian Express, Delhi, from 19 September 2010 onwards. The following was published recently:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/watson-knows" target="_blank">Watson knows the Question</a> [Indian Express, March 6, 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entries by Maesey Angelina</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Maesey Angelina works as a programme officer at Hivos, Jakarta on gender, women and development while exploring research initiatives on Digital Natives in Indonesia. She spent one month in CIS, working on her dissertation, exploring the Blank Noise project under the Digital Natives with a Cause framework. She writes a series of blog entries. The new ones are:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/reflecting-from-the-beyond" target="_blank">Reflecting from the Beyond</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/activism-unraveling-the-term" target="_blank">Activism: Unraveling the Term</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/the-many-faces-within" target="_blank">The Many Faces Within</a> </li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entries by Samuel Tettner</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Samuel Tettner is a Digital Natives Coordinator in CIS. He has written the following blog entries:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/i-believe-that-______-should-be-a-right-in-the-digital-age" target="_blank">I Believe that .......... should be a Right in the Digital Age</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/science-technology-and-society-conference-in-indore-march-12-13" target="_blank">Science, Technology and Society International Conference – Some Afterthoughts</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Accessibility</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/accessible-mobile-handsets" target="_blank">Accessible Mobile Handsets in India: An Overview</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/rights-of-persons-with-disabilities" target="_blank">Note on the Authorities under the Working Draft of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2011 (9th February 2011)</a> </li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Intellectual Property</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS believes that access to knowledge and culture is essential as it promotes creativity and innovation and bridges the gaps between the developed and developing world positively. Hence, the campaigns for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for print-impaired, advocating against PUPFIP Bill, calls for the WIPO Broadcast Treaty to be restricted to broadcast, questioning the demonization of 'pirates', and supporting endeavours that explore and question the current copyright regime. Its latest endeavour has resulted into these:</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/plagiarism-in-indian-academia" target="_blank">Pirates, Plagiarisers, Publishers</a> [ Written by Prashant Iyengar and originally published in the Economic & Political Weekly, February 26, 2011, Vol XLVI No 9]</li>
</ul>
<h3>Submission</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/wipo-broadcast-treaty-comments-march-2011" target="_blank">Comments to the Ministry on WIPO Broadcast Treaty</a> (March 2011)</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Openness</b></h2>
<h3>Workshops organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/design-public" target="_blank">Design!publiC</a> [Taj Vivanta, New Delhi, March 18, 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/open-access" target="_blank">Open Access to Scientific Information Indian International Centre</a> [New Delhi, March 16, 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Internet Governance</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Although there may not be one centralized authority that rules the Internet, the Internet does not just run by its own volition: for it to operate in a stable and reliable manner, there needs to be in place infrastructure, a functional domain name system, ways to curtail cyber crime across borders, etc. The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), paragraph 34 defined Internet governance as “the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.” CIS involvement in the field of Internet governance has taken the following shape:</p>
<h3>Submissions</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/electronic-delivery-of-services-comments" target="_blank">The Draft Electronic Delivery of Services Bill, 2011 – Comments by CIS</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/policy-for-governments-presence-in-social-media-recommendations" target="_blank">Policy for Government's Presence in Social Media - Recommendations</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/rtis-on-website-blocking" target="_blank">RTI Applications on Blocking of Websites</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is doing a project, ‘Privacy in Asia’. <i>It is funded by Privacy International (PI), UK and the International Development Research Centre, Canada and is being administered in collaboration with the Society and Action Group, Gurgaon</i>. The two-year project commenced on 24 March 2010 and will be completed as agreed to by the stakeholders. It was set up with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around challenges and violations of privacy in India. In furtherance of these goals it aims to draft and promote over-arching privacy legislation in India by drawing upon legal and academic resources and consultations with the public.</p>
<h3>Submission</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/privacy_govdatabase" target="_blank">Privacy and Governmental Database</a> </li>
</ul>
<p>Workshops organized</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/privacy-matters-ahmedabad" target="_blank">Privacy Matters - A Public Conference in Ahmedabad</a> [Ahmedabad, March 26, 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/ian" target="_blank">Public Talk by Dr. Ian Brown on Privacy, Trust and Biometrics</a> [Centre for Contemporary Studies, IISc, Bangalore, March 21, 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/electronication" target="_blank">Electronication: Ragas and the Future</a> [Jaaga, Bangalore, March 6, 2011]</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/fostering-freedom-of-expression" target="_blank">Role of the Internet in Fostering Freedom of Expression and Strengthening Activism in India - A Workshop in Delhi</a> [Constitution Club, New Delhi, March 4, 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/global-freedom-expression" target="_blank">Global Challenges to Freedom of Expression</a> [Constitution Club, New Delhi, March 4, 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Telecom</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. It is imperative to resolve these issues in the common interest of users and service providers. CIS campaigns to facilitate this:</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/blog/untapped-potential" target="_blank">India's untapped potential: Are a billion people losing out because of spectrum?</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Column</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Shyam Ponappa is a Distinguished Fellow at CIS. He writes regularly on Telecom issues in the Business Standard and these articles are mirrored on the CIS website as well.</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/blog/big-bang-budgets" target="_blank">Big-Bang Budgets?</a> [published in the Business Standard on March 3, 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Forthcoming Events</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is organising some conferences/workshops in the month of March/April:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/w3c-conference-hyderabad" target="_blank">Web Sites Accessibility Evaluation Methodologies: A New Imperative for State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities</a>[Hyderabad International Convention Centre, Hyderabad]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/shadow-search-in-cis" target="_blank">Shadow Search Project (SSP) in CIS</a> [CIS, Bangalore]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/facebook-resistance" target="_blank">Facebook Resistance Workshop</a> [CIS, Bangalore]</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>News & Media Coverage</b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/networking-better-governance" target="_blank">Networking its way to better governance</a> (Hindu, March 28, 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/failed-uk-nir-project" target="_blank">‘Learn from failed UK NIR project’</a> (Deccan Chronicle, March 22, 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/design-public-livemint-coverage" target="_blank">Design!publiC - News from Livemint</a> (Livemint, March 18, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/muzzling-internet" target="_blank">Muzzling the Internet</a> (Outlook, March 17, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/battle-internet" target="_blank">Battle for the Internet</a> (Down to Earth, Issue: March 15, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/cause-and-effect" target="_blank">Cause and effect Facebook-style</a> (Hindustan Times, March 13, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/catch-all" target="_blank">Catch-all approach to Net freedom draws activist ire</a> (Sunday Guardian, March 13, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/suspended-in-web" target="_blank">Lives suspended in the Web</a> (Indian Express, March 11, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/it-guidelines-gag-internet-freedom" target="_blank">Draft IT guidelines may gag internet freedom</a> (Times of India, March 11, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/govt-proposal" target="_blank">Govt proposal to muzzle bloggers sparks outcry</a> (Times of India, March 10, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/online-censorship" target="_blank">New Indian Rules May Make Online Censorship Easier</a> (Yahoo News, March 7, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/anti-social-network" target="_blank">Anti-Social Network</a> (Mail Today, February 27, 2011)</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
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</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march%20-2011-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/march%20-2011-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-30T10:59:46ZPageIndia's untapped potential: Are a billion people losing out because of spectrum?
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/untapped-potential
<b>As one of the world’s fastest growing economies and with over 65% of its billion-plus population under 35, India has huge potential. But according to Shyam Ponappa of the Centre for Internet & Society, its spectrum management – the electromagnetic waves that are used from home appliances like microwaves and remote controls, to radios, cell phones, and of course, the internet – could be a huge barrier to the country’s economic and social development.</b>
<p>Until the global economic downturn that began about two years ago, the economic model for spectrum distribution in India and many developing countries was based on the free market. But Ponappa demonstrates in a <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/node/11864/">new report </a>for APC that spectrum is worth treating as a public utility the way we do roads, electricity and other basic infrastructure, which would allow for people in rural areas to access spectrum-dependant services like mobile phones and wifi and increase quality of services for all.</p>
<p>Currently in India, as in most other countries, spectrum is being treated as a property, where “chunks” of spectrum are sold to the mobile phone and telecommunications operators with the highest bid. Commonly there are 3 – 4 operators in a developed country; however, in India there are up to sixteen. The extreme competition has resulted in the Indian bidders paying outrageous fees that they are never able to recuperate. So while the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/glossary/term/353">government</a> makes a profit on the sale, this profit comes at a societal cost.</p>
<p>Ponappa proposes pooling spectrum and to have a set of network providers, who in turn serve operators for retail users. This effectively opens up the spectrum and could make costs ten or fifteen times cheaper than they are now.</p>
<p>“It is appropriate to push the concept of open spectrum in developed markets who underwent their development phase some 60 – 100 years ago and put in place basic infrastructure systems. But in countries like India and the Asian sub-continent, it does not make sense to do this because we are not at the same stage of economic development,” Ponappa told APCNews.</p>
<p>“When markets are well structured and organised,” he continues, “[<a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/glossary/term/353">government</a> control] can be less effective and efficient for society as a whole, compared with open competition. However developing economies don’t have the integrated systems in place that advanced economies do. India does not have an adequately developed network of copper, optical <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/glossary/term/293">fibre</a> or microwaves covering most of its population. And we are at a stage of development at which infrastructure is a fundamental determinant of productivity, as well as of a reasonable quality of life.”</p>
<p>Ponappa argues that in India’s case it would be advisable for governments to work with other stakeholders – corporations, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/glossary/term/354">state</a>-owned agencies, and civil society – on a collaborative solution. “It would be much more conducive to a sound economy to have either the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/glossary/term/353">government</a> step in and open up the commercial spectrum, or to have two to three main operators (possibly subsidised, but not necessarily) as we do with the provision of utilities,” he says. Yet, the free market mentality continues to reign, and a surfeit of operators is trying to make a profit in the telecommunications <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/taxonomy/term/325">wireless</a> sector.</p>
<h3>Everybody wants a piece of the pie</h3>
<p>In India, every operator is assigned a sliver of spectrum for their exclusive use and the rest is assigned to the government, the public sector and defence.</p>
<p>The result is high-cost infrastructure for operators (setting up networks with multiple sets of more advanced equipment because of the limited spectrum, with the capital constraints resulting in less extensive networks in rural areas) as well as for users (who have to pay for all this equipment).</p>
<p>“Too many operators make for increased capital costs for each operator, and cumulatively for all operators,” Ponappa explains.</p>
<p>And these higher costs are increasingly difficult to recover from consumer-generated revenue, as India undergoes huge price wars. Many operators may eventually go bankrupt. While no consumers ever complain about low costs –and India has some of the world’s lowest mobile rates– they will complain about poor quality and unreliable service. Consequently, consumers may not have to pay much to use mobile services, but they may not always be able to make or receive calls when they need to, and do not have access to broadband.</p>
<p>While most countries have moved on to 3G networks (which has more capacity for a given spectrum band than 2G, meaning better call quality) as many as four of India’s sixteen operators have not even developed their 2G networks. Making the switch to 3G seems like a good idea, but there are substantial costs associated with deploying these more advanced techniques to both operators (for network upgrades) and for end users (in terms of new handsets).</p>
<p>Too much competition in this case has made operators inefficient.</p>
<h3>Spectrum as a national common good</h3>
<p>If spectrum were treated as if it were a public utility, posits Ponappa, each operator would have access to a bigger chunk of spectrum, and the traffic-handling capacity of each would increase at a lower cost.</p>
<p>“With the current model the capacity of networks is suffering because networks cannot afford to expand or make technical improvements without economic losses. Other infrastructure services such as electricity and water supply are managed by utility companies, which are typically monopolies for a product-segment, or duopolies for purposes of competition. So why not treat spectrum the same way?” suggests Ponappa.</p>
<p>Ponappa suggests treating networks, and spectrum as a part of networks, as we would an oil pipeline, where everyone accesses the same one, and pays a fee for its use.</p>
<p>This would bring more people onto the network and increase revenues, since operating costs would be shared. The more revenue it can generate, the more efficient operators will be, using the same high-capacity circuits. The more revenue the main operators have, the more they could invest in up-to-date technology to extend their networks and provide a better service to clients. The better the technology, the more people could access the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/taxonomy/term/258">internet</a> and other now vital sources of information, as well as focus on broadband and infrastructure to the country’s isolated rural areas, which today have rudimentary communications infrastructure.</p>
<h3>India’s rural populations, the lost resource</h3>
<p>As a predominantly rural country, lack of basic IT infrastructure means that the largest segment of India’s population has no <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/taxonomy/term/300">access to information </a>and communications technologies.</p>
<p>Ponappa grew up on a farm in a rural area some 200 km from Bangalore where even fixed line phone networks were unreliable. “We have multiple telephone lines because we never know which one will work,” he says.</p>
<p>Given India’s massive rural population, this means that there are hundreds of millions of people that are unable to access the internet. Services like quality distance education are not even an option if basic infrastructure such as fixed telephone lines is not in place and the country itself is losing out on the incalculable potential of this untapped human resource.</p>
<p>Download the report <a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/publications/india-untapped-potential" class="internal-link">here</a> [pdf - 280 kb]</p>
<p>See the report in the APC <a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/pubs/research/open-spectrum-development-india-case-study">website</a></p>
<p><i>This article was written as part of the APC’s project work on </i><a class="external-link" href="http://www.apc.org/en/node/10445/"><i>Spectrum for development</i></a><i>, an initiative that aims to provide an understanding of spectrum regulation by examining the situation in Africa, Asia and Latin America.</i></p>
<p>Photo by <a class="external-link" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kiwanja/3170290086/">kiwanja</a>. Used with permission under Creative Content licensing.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/untapped-potential'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/untapped-potential</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecomFeatured2012-12-14T10:31:43ZBlog EntryBig-Bang Budgets?
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/big-bang-budgets
<b>Clarity of planning and conceptualisation needs to be the hallmark of policy planning for the Budget, says Shyam Ponappa in this article published in the Business Standard on March 3, 2011.
</b>
<p>A good holding action in the face of turbulence is a real achievement. It’s a tremendous relief, with a positive spin. That’s what the finance minister seems to have given us with this year’s Budget. So, the glass could well turn out to be half-full, if heaven plays its part, and the demons — for example, rising oil prices because of turmoil in the Arab world — are in abeyance. For now, India’s spirits are up, and we have a shot at getting on with it. And if we don’t, heaven forefend, the government could resort to something as irresponsible as another spectrum auction (2.5 GHz for 4G/LTE) to pull itself out of the morass.</p>
<p>Given this reprieve, how best can we capitalise on it? Some of us have this notion that it is a tradition that major projects or schemes are announced at the time of the Budget. Is this a good way for the government to proceed? Are there better ways, and if so, what might they be? Also, after the Budget, several opinions reflected disappointment with the lack of big moves. What sort of actions would deserve the “Big Move” label?</p>
<p>Ignoring for the time being the FM’s statements about bills for banking, insurance and pension funds that could add up to a big bang, there was in fact a Big Move, with the ground prepared well beforehand, as it should be: the proposed cash transfer of Rs 37,000 crore allocated for kerosene, LPG and fertilisers to BPL users. This move to cash transfers will be a major change that should be for the better, despite apparent misgivings from the Left. In fact, its effect should be much more than an equivalent allocation in the previous system, with its infamous leakages. The logical extension of this process would be smart-card purchases of specified products with designated limits from any retailer, with direct rebates from the government in a single transaction. No forms, no fuss, thanks to the Unique Identification Number (UID). Next could be food subsidies of over Rs 74,000 crore through smart cards.</p>
<p>In this time of drift over several years, there has been an apparent lack of visible leadership until the appointment of a new telecom minister after the destabilisation of the past few months. This was followed by the prime minister’s assertive statements in both houses of Parliament. Similarly, the UID thrust and the first step with cash transfers show that the government can indeed take well planned initiatives. Here we have a set of steps taken with clear objectives (although somewhat muddled in the telling), with plans being developed and executed with what we hope will manifest as high quality, on time and within Budget. So it’s possible, although not our usual practice. If only we could get more of this assertive leadership to good ends.</p>
<p>Imagine if we brought the same clarity of objectives and conceptualisation to, say, addressing the supply of energy to end users. True, this is a very difficult area because of the multiple challenges across several ministries/agencies (fuel production and distribution, transportation, power generation, transmission, distribution, pricing, state electricity boards), and our habitual malpractices as users. The approach, however, would presumably be the same as for the UID. We would start with clear objectives that are coherent, ie, not disjointed or contradictory, and undertake a systematic, multidisciplinary effort — no ivory tower geniuses — to plan and execute through a process of sound project management to achieve the desired results. This would be an end-to-end effort that would have little to do with the budget except for the annual announcement of financial allocations, once the activities and resource requirements are specified. Its fundamental characteristic would be that it would have to be an integrated systems approach to get results.</p>
<p>Most important are well planned, convergent, goal-directed activities. Whether for food storage, anganwadis, power, roads, railways, integrated energy and transport programs, or communications and broadband, the process flow needs to be defined thoroughly, and every aspect specified for our environment in the implementation plan. This process would improve the odds of achieving the objectives. For instance, if cold stores are not meshed with production and markets, or transport linkages are deficient, chances are that they will fail.</p>
<p>The process could begin at any time of the year, and not necessarily announced at budget time in the annual cycle. Once the initial approach is conceptualised and the initiative launched, the programme plans would be scoped and spelt out, and the budget estimation completed. At budget time, as with the cash transfers linked to the UID, there would be an allocation of funds for the activities in the next 12-month phase.</p>
<p>Now to the Railway budget: the much touted Railways desperately need rehabilitation. In view of the significant multiplier effect that the Railways have on many other sectors, the government really must reassert its leadership in the next couple of months (after the West Bengal elections?), and reclaim this crucial area of transportation. The urgent need is to reverse the atrophy over recent years, as well as to begin to build for the future, as for instance China has done, with trains that take passengers over 1,000 km in three hours.*</p>
<p style="text-align: center; "><img src="https://cis-india.org/home-images/TrainBulletTraininChinaNYTFeb22011.jpg/image_preview" title="Train bullet" height="209" width="400" alt="Train bullet" class="image-inline image-inline" /></p>
<p>To conclude, it is time the government took one infrastructure sector or programme at a time, including education/vocational education/continuing education, and developed clear, goal-driven plans to provide the framework for the next budget session.</p>
<p>* 'China Sees Growth Engine in a Web of Fast Trains', Keith Bradsher, New York Times, February 12, 2010:</p>
<p>Read the original article in the Business Standard <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/ltbgtshyam-ponappaltbgt-big-bang-budgets/427056/">here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/big-bang-budgets'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/big-bang-budgets</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-07-26T10:10:21ZBlog EntryFebruary 2011 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/february-2011-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! In this issue we are pleased to present you the latest updates about our research, upcoming events, and news and media coverage:</b>
<h2><b>Researchers@Work</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">RAW is a multidisciplinary research initiative. CIS believes that in order to understand the contemporary concerns in the field of Internet and society, it is necessary to produce local and contextual accounts of the interaction between the Internet and socio-cultural and geo-political structures. To build original research knowledge base, the RAW programme has been collaborating with different organisations and individuals to focus on its three year thematic of Histories of the Internets in India. Monographs finalised from these projects have been published online for public review:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/cis-raw/histories/Internetcities/city-and-space">Internet, Society & Space in Indian Cities</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Digital Natives</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS has interest in developing Digital Identities as a core research area and looks at practices, policies and scholarships in the field to explore relationships between Internet, technology and identity. The Digital Natives project is funded by Hivos, Netherlands. CIS involvement has resulted into these:</p>
<h3>Columns on Digital Natives</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A fortnightly column on ‘Digital Natives’ authored by Nishant Shah is featured in the Sunday Eye, the national edition of Indian Express, Delhi, from 19 September 2010 onwards. The following articles were published in the Indian Express recently:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/pull-plug">Pull the Plug</a> [published in the Indian Express on February 20, 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/flash-of-change">A FLASH of Change</a> [published in the Indian Express on February 6, 2011]</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/wiki-world">Wiki changes the world</a> [published in the Indian Express on January 23, 2011]</li>
</ul>
<h3>Workshop</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The third and final workshop in the Digital Natives with a Cause? research project took place in Santiago, Chile, from 8 to 10 February 2011. Samuel Tettner wrote a report about the workshop:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/santiago-workshop-an-after-thought">Digital Natives with a Cause? —Workshop in Santiago — an Afterthought</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entries by Maesey Angelina</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Maesy Angelina is doing Masters on International Development, specializing in Children and Youth Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University of Rotterdam. She is working on her research on the activism of digital natives under the Hivos-CIS Digital Natives Knowledge Programme. She spent a month at CIS, working on her dissertation, exploring the Blank Noise Project under the Digital Natives with a Cause? framework. She writes a series of blog entries. The new ones are:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/the-class-question">The Class Question</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/diving-into-the-digital">Diving Into the Digital</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entry by Samuel Tettner</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Samuel Tettner is a Coordinator in the Digital Natives project. He has written one blog entry:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/research/dn/computers-in-society">Computer Science & Society – The Roles Defined</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Accessibility</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3>New Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/working-draft">The Working Draft of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2010: Does it exceed its Mandate in Including Provisions Relating to Other Disability Legislations</a>?</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Intellectual Property</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS believes that access to knowledge and culture is essential as it promotes creativity and innovation and bridges the gaps between the developed and developing world positively. Hence, the campaigns for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for print-impaired, advocating against PUPFIP Bill, calls for the WIPO Broadcast Treaty to be restricted to broadcast, questioning the demonization of 'pirates', and supporting endeavours that explore and question the current copyright regime. Our latest endeavour has resulted into these:</p>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/exhaustion/weblogentry_view">Exhaustion: Imports, Exports and the Doctrine of First Sale in Indian Copyright Law</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/parallel-importation-rebuttal">Thomas Abraham's Rebuttal on Parallel Importation</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/indian-law-and-parallel-exports">Indian Law and "Parallel Exports"</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/ipr/blog/parallel-importation-of-books">Why Parallel Importation of Books Should Be Allowed</a>
<ul>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Openness</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS believes that innovation and creativity should be fostered through openness and collaboration and is committed towards promotion of open standards, open access, and free/libre/open source software, its latest involvement have yielded these results:</p>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/blog/digital-commons">Engaging on the Digital Commons</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/blog/comments-ifeg-phase-1">CIS Comments on the Interoperability Framework for e-Governance</a> (Phase I)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/openness/blog/withdrawal-of-journal-access">Withdrawal of Journal Access is a Wake-up Call for Researchers in the Developing World</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b> Internet Governance</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Although there may not be one centralised authority that rules the Internet, the Internet does not just run by its own volition: for it to operate in a stable and reliable manner, there needs to be in place infrastructure, a functional domain name system, ways to curtail cyber crime across borders, etc. The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), paragraph 34 defined Internet governance as “the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.” CIS involvement in the field of Internet governance has taken the following shape:</p>
<h3>Announcement</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/google-policy-fellowship">Google Policy Fellowship Program: Asia Chapter</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/intermediary-due-diligence">Comments on Intermediary Due Diligence Rules, 2011</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/cyber-cafe-rules">Comments on Cyber Café Rules, 2011</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/blog/security-practices-rules">Comments on Draft Reasonable Security Practices Rules, 2011</a></li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Privacy</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is doing a project, ‘Privacy in Asia’. It is funded by Privacy International (PI), UK and the International Development Research Centre, Canada and is being administered in collaboration with the Society and Action Group, Gurgaon. The two-year project commenced on 24<sup>th</sup> March 2010 and will be completed as agreed to by the stakeholders. It was set up with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around challenges and violations of privacy in India. In furtherance of these goals it aims to draft and promote over-arching privacy legislation in India by drawing upon legal and academic resources and consultations with the public.</p>
<h3>Blog Entries by Elonnai Hickok</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Elonnai Hickok is a Programme Associate in the Privacy in Asia project. She has published a series of Open Letters to the Finance Committee regarding the UID:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/biometrics">Biometrics</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/finance-and-security">Finance and Security</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/uid-and-transactions">UID and Transactions</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/operational-design">Operational Design</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/uid-budget">UID Budget</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Other New Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/privacy-conferencebanglaore">Conference Report: 'Privacy Matters' Bangalore</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/privacy-uiddevaprasad">Analysing the Right to Privacy and Dignity with Respect to the UID</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Telecom</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. It is imperative to resolve these issues in the common interest of users and service providers. CIS campaigns to facilitate this:</p>
<h3>Column</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Shyam Ponappa is a Distinguished Fellow at CIS. He writes regularly on Telecom issues in the Business Standard and these articles are mirrored on the CIS website as well.</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/telecom/blog/jhatka-or-halal">Spectrum auctions - 'Jhatka' or 'Halal'?</a> [published in the Business Standard on February 3, 2011]<b><br /> </b></li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Forthcoming Events</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is holding some conferences/workshops in the month of March in Delhi and Bangalore:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/fostering-freedom-of-expression">Role of the Internet in Fostering Freedom of Expression and Strengthening Activism in India - A Workshop in Delhi</a> (March 4, 2011, Constitutional Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/global-freedom-expression">Global Challenges to Freedom of Expression</a> (March 4, 2011, Constitutional Club, Rafi Marg, New Delhi)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/electronication">Electronication: Ragas and the Future</a> (March 6, 2011 Jaaga, Bangalore)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/events/design-public">Design!publiC</a> (March 18, 2011, Taj Vivanta, New Delhi)</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Staff Update</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Deepti Bharthur</b></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Deepti Bhartur is a Research Intern at CIS. She did her BA (Hons) in Journalism from Lady Sriram College, University of Delhi and completed her Masters in Communication from Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad. Deepti joined the Accessibility team of CIS and is working on accessibility in telecom policy in India.</p>
<h2><b>News & Media Coverage</b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/growing-cyberspace-controls">Growing cyberspace controls, Internet filtering</a> (Hindu, February 20, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/copyright-amendment">2(m) or not 2(m)</a> (Business Standard, February 19, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/twitterati-change-world">Can the twitterati change the world?</a> (The Times of India, February 12, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/mouse-a-tool-of-revolution">Can the mouse be a tool of revolution in India?</a> (DNA, February 12, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/social-network-suicide">Social Network Suicide</a> (Bangalore Mirror, February 6, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/new-kids">New Kids on the Blog</a> (Indian Express, February 6, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/procuring-books">Procuring books in Indian libraries</a> (Hri Institute for Southasian Research and Exchange, February 4, 2011) </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/what-are-you-accused">What Are You Accused of? Find Out Online</a> (Wall Street Journal, February 1, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/one-wikipedian">One among the clan of Wikipedians</a> (Hindu, January 27, 2011)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/digital-wrongs">Digital Wrongs</a> (Forbes India, January 24, 2011)</li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india">Twitter</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Follow CIS on <a href="http://identi.ca/main/remote?nickname=cis">identi.ca</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28535315687">Facebook</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Visit us at <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/">www.cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Looking forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to write to us for any queries or details required. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please do write to us and we will unsubscribe your mail ID from the mailing list.<i><br /> CIS is grateful to Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/february-2011-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/february-2011-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-30T11:16:29ZPageSpectrum auctions - 'Jhatka' or 'Halal'?
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/jhatka-or-halal
<b>The choice is between sudden death and a slow one. The article by Shyam Ponappa appeared in the Business Standard on 3 February 2011.</b>
<p>Why do people advocate spectrum and licence auctions? Is it because they think auctions work? Is it the appeal of an ideology, like capitalism or socialism? Or is it because governments often collect large sums, and auctions seem fair (in a market-driven sense) and transparent? Theorists apparently cannot find better ways to allocate spectrum or licences, despite the alternative of technical and financial short-listing followed by a lottery. Yet, while desiring high government collections, people really want reasonably-priced good infrastructure, and continue to rail against government waste. Let’s review some so-called “successful” auctions and what followed.</p>
<p><strong>1994: The US spectrum auction</strong> Prior to 1994, the US used to allocate spectrum on demonstrated capacity and merit (“beauty contests”). The spectrum auction in 1994 netted record bids. The Federal Communications Commission chairman reportedly said: “Auctions have proven once again to be a success not only by awarding licences to those that value them most, but also by decreasing the national debt.” Then disaster struck, with a number of “successful” bidders declaring bankruptcy. As BusinessWeek put it in 2010 with the benefit of hindsight, “... over time, beauty contests have delivered fewer problems and higher value to society than have airwave auctions.”1</p>
<p><strong>1994: India telecom licences</strong> In 1994, India auctioned telecom licences. Chaos followed owing to overbidding and default. Thereafter, the sector struggled from one contention to the next, with the government and operators deadlocked by 1998. The New Telecom Policy of 1999 provided a breakthrough, tossing aside the auction bids in favour of shared revenues. After the percentage share was reduced to reasonable levels, and “Calling Party Pays” halved tariffs in 2003, mobile services grew exponentially to over 725 million subscribers by 2010. Interestingly, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India estimated that auction fee foregone till March 2007 was over Rs 19,000 crore, whereas actual revenue collections were double, at Rs 40,000 crore; by March 2010, the collections were 80,000 crore.</p>
<p><strong>2000: The UK 3G auctions</strong> The 3G auction in the UK was hailed as a spectacular success, reaping bids of about $35 billion.</p>
<p><strong>2000: The France and Germany 3G auctions</strong> Germany followed, netting $67 billion, and the finance minister quipped that the auction was for unexpected revenue to pay the national debt. France demanded a flat fee of $4.5 billion per licence.</p>
<p>The dotcom bubble burst in March 2000, followed by communications and technology companies a year later, and the bidders went into a tailspin. The collapse nearly bankrupted not only British Telecom owing to the enormous debt it incurred for the bids, but the entire industry worldwide. The economic slump that followed made it impossible for firms to pay off high debts, as their interest payments increased while their ratings fell.</p>
<p>A contrarian move in France is noteworthy for its prescience and insight. CEO Martin Bouygues (pronounced “Bweeg”) of the third mobile operator, Bouygues Telecom, refused the government’s demand of $4.5 billion as the fee for a 3G licence, making it the only mobile communications company in Europe with no investment in 3G. Mr Bouygues’ letter in May 2000 appeared on the front page of Le Monde, asking: “What should I tell my employees? … That we have a choice between a sudden death and a slow one?” While his opposition was ignored, by 2002, the French government dropped its asking price by more than 85 per cent to induce Bouygues to accept a 3G licence.</p>
<p>In terms of results, the auction “failures” – the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, and “non-auction” countries like South Korea, Japan and Finland (until 2009) – have the best broadband services. 2</p>
<p>Kapil Sibal’s appointment as India’s telecom minister has brought hope, with prospects of radical improvements in infrastructure, especially broadband, with a clean hand. Mr Sibal’s recent pronouncements on a new telecom policy, however, raise the spectre of another deadlock. Here are two examples: (a) “Adequate spectrum will be provided to all service providers.”</p>
<p>This is feasible not through slivers of spectrum for many operators, but only if there is a common carrier access, that is, all operators can access spectrum for a reasonable fee. There is no indication of what “adequate” means, nor of pooling or sharing spectrum.</p>
<p>Let’s hope the domain experts have been heard and not shouted down on “adequacy”. For instance, the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers’ Association had recommended that two blocks of 50 MHz each in the 698-806 MHz band be allocated to facilitate the development of wireless equipment and services. Large blocks of contiguous spectrum offer far more efficient capacity than many narrow bands. For local innovation, to get low costs, we have to think of adequacy in these terms, and not slivers of 4.4 MHz or 6.2 MHz.</p>
<p>(b) “Spectrum henceforth will be awarded only on a market-based mechanism.”</p>
<p>If the criterion for success is high bids and not delivered services, in effect, this means auctions, and the result is likely to be dismal. Those enamoured with auctions focus on the success of bids, ignoring the purpose of spectrum/licence allocation, which is service delivery resulting in consumer surplus (societal benefits).</p>
<p>If the operators choose to roll over and accept authoritarian decrees, the conflict will be between government and the public interest, as spelt out below.</p>
<p>The government’s choices include:</p>
<ul><li>a genuine effort at developing comprehensive and integrated policies for reasonably priced services, while carrying along stakeholders;</li><li>a cosmetic effort, letting stakeholders vent, and then issuing arbitrary decrees that leaves a mess. For example, too many operators with fragmented spectrum; or</li><li>attempting a political or populist fix, seeking to make the United Progressive Alliance look good, the Opposition look bad, bleeding all operators to avoid accusations of a sell-out, and still leave a mess</li></ul>
<div>The first alternative is in the public interest; the second and third are not. The issues that need comprehensive transformation are spectrum and network sharing for service delivery at least cost. The government and Mr Sibal have the opportunity to choose an approach resulting in excellent delivery including broadband at reasonable prices.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Read the original in the Business Standard <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappa-spectrum-auctions-/jhatka/-or-/halal//423837/">here</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div><em>The Business Standard took an <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/rajapraja/423972/">editorial stand</a> in support of shared spectrum and comprehensive, systemic solutions advocated in the article</em>.</div>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/jhatka-or-halal'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/jhatka-or-halal</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T09:57:32ZBlog EntryJanuary 2011 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2011-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! It gives us immense pleasure to present regular updates on the progress of our research on the mainstream Internet media. In this issue of we bring our latest project updates, news and media coverage:</b>
<h2><b>Researchers@Work</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">RAW is a multidisciplinary research initiative. CIS believes that in order to understand the contemporary concerns in the field of Internet and society, it is necessary to produce local and contextual accounts of the interaction between the Internet and socio-cultural and geo-political structures. To build original research knowledge base, the RAW programme has been collaborating with different organisations and individuals to focus on its three year thematic of Histories of the Internets in India. Monographs finalised from these projects have been published on the CIS website for public review:</p>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h2><b>Digital Natives</b></h2>
<p>CIS has interest in developing Digital Identities as a core research area and looks at practices, policies and scholarships in the field to explore relationships between Internet, technology and identity.</p>
<h3>Column on Digital Natives</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A fortnightly column on ‘Digital Natives’ authored by Nishant Shah is featured in the Sunday Eye, the national edition of Indian Express, Delhi, from 19 September 2010 onwards. The following article was published in the Indian Express recently:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://bit.ly/h2E3Jd">Is That a Friend on Your Wall?</a> [published in the Indian Express on 9 January 2010]</li>
</ul>
<h3>Workshop</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The third and final workshop in the Digital Natives with a Cause? research project will take place in Santiago, Chile, from the 8 to 10 February. Open Call and FAQs for the workshop are online:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/emKslL">Digital Natives with a Cause? Workshop in Santiago – An Open Call</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eCu2it">Digital Natives with a Cause? Workshop in Santiago – Some FAQs</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Entry by Maesey Angelina</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Maesy Angelina is a MA candidate on International Development, specializing in Children and Youth Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University of Rotterdam. She is working on her research on the activism of digital natives under the Hivos-CIS Digital Natives Knowledge Programme. She spent a month at CIS, working on her dissertation, exploring the Blank Noise Project under the Digital Natives with a Cause framework. She writes a series of blog entries. The latest is:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/hjbzB0">The Digital Tipping Point</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Announcement</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/h92qtI">Rising Voices Seeks Micro-Grant Proposals for Citizen Media Outreach</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Accessibility</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3>New Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/fgOaHa">Accessibility in Telecommunications</a> </li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Intellectual Property</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Copyright, patents and trademarks are the most important components on the Internet. CIS believes that access to knowledge and culture is essential as it promotes creativity and innovation and bridges the gaps between the developed and developing world positively. Hence, the campaigns for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for print-impaired, advocating against PUPFIP Bill, calls for the WIPO Broadcast Treaty to be restricted to broadcast, questioning the demonization of 'pirates', and supporting endeavours that explore and question the current copyright regime. Our latest endeavour has resulted into these:</p>
<h3>New Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/igNQMW">New Release of IPR Chapter of India-EU Free Trade Agreement</a> </li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Internet Governance</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Although there may not be one centralised authority that rules the Internet, the Internet does not just run by its own volition: for it to operate in a stable and reliable manner, there needs to be in place infrastructure, a functional domain name system, ways to curtail cybercrime across borders, etc. The Tunis Agenda of the second World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), paragraph 34 defined Internet governance as “the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.” Within the larger field of Internet governance, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a multi-stakeholder policy dialogue forum that was instituted by the WSIS processes and that is their only formal outcome, has fast emerged as one of the key institutions. As the definition quoted above indicates, a unique feature of the field of Internet governance is that, unlike many other governance spheres, it does not only involve governments. Historically, not only governments but also the technical community and private players have played a crucial role in the development of the Internet. In the context of the IGF, that role is not only explicitly acknowledged but also institutionalised as the IGF formally brings together governments, private players and civil society actors from all areas of and organisations involved in Internet governance. Moreover, now that the open and egalitarian potential of the Internet is increasingly under attack, this unique nature of the IGF, in addition to its WSIS roots, has made it a prime venue to remind stakeholders in all areas of Internet governance of the commitment they have made earlier to building a “people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society” (WSIS Geneva Principles, Para 1). CIS involvement in the field of Internet governance has the following shape:</p>
<h3>New Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/fOB4sL">Jurisdictional Issues in Cyberspace</a><b> </b></li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Privacy</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS has undertaken many new and exciting projects. One of these, "Privacy in Asia", is funded by Privacy International (PI), UK and is being completed in collaboration with Society and Action Group. "Privacy in Asia" is a two-year project that commenced on 24 March 2010 and will complete within two years from the commencement date, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties. The project was set up with the objective of raising awareness, sparking civil action and promoting democratic dialogue around privacy challenges and violations in India. In furtherance of these goals it aims to draft and promote an over-arching privacy legislation in India by drawing upon legal and academic resources and consultations with the public.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Apart from "Privacy in Asia" CIS is also participating in the " Privacy and Identity" project, which is funded by the Ford Foundation and managed by the Centre for Study of Culture and Society. The project is a research inquiry into the history of Privacy in India and how it shapes the contemporary debates around technology mediated identity projects like <i>Aadhaar</i>. The "Privacy and Identity" project started in August 2010.</p>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eWxry1">Privacy Matters — Conference Report</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/gocDqf">An Open Letter to the Finance Committee</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/igov/privacy-india/privacy-UIDdec17">Does the UID Reflect India?</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Staff Update</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Prashant Iyengar is a lawyer and legal scholar who has worked extensively on intellectual property issues particularly focusing on copyright reform and open access. He is a past recipient of an Open Society Institute fellowship for research into Open Information Policy, and has been affiliated with the Alternative Law Forum – a collective of lawyers in Bangalore engaged in human rights practice.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Prashant joined the Centre for Internet and Society as a lead researcher in the Privacy India project recently.</p>
<h2><b>Telecom</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. It is imperative to resolve these issues in the common interest of users and service providers. CIS campaigns to facilitate this.</p>
<h3>Column</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Shyam Ponappa is a Distinguished Fellow at CIS. He writes regularly on Telecom issues in the Business Standard and these articles are mirrored on the CIS website as well.</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://bit.ly/grwFzq">The policy langurs</a> [published on 6 January 2011]</li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h2><b>News & Media Coverage</b></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/hcNWgX">Civic hackers seek to find their feet in India</a> (Livemint, 24 January 2011) and (IndiaInfoline, January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/ihsya0">A Tweet and a poke from the CEO</a> (Livemint, 24 January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/g19Yrv">Clicktivism & a brave new world order</a> (Mail Today, 2 January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eiyWsT">Would it be a unique identity crisis</a>? (Bangalore Mirror, 2 January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/gnJNzc">Nel suk dei nativi digitali. Perché gli studenti 2.0 hanno bisogno di una bussola per orientarsi</a> (Il Sore24 ORE, 2 January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/fvn4Fw">A Refreshing Start!</a> (Verveonline, Volume 19, Issue 1, January, 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/glcDk1">Getting Connected</a> (Livemint, January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eN0Njz">Knowledge Warriors</a> (Il Sore24 ORE, January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/f5m3fg">Nishant Shah Quoted in Livemint 2011 Tweet-out</a> (Livemint, January 2011)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eti5N2">Digital Natives with a Cause? - Workshop in Chile seeks participants</a> (Bahama islands info, 30 December 2010)</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/h1YBgf">Mothers discuss kids, music, fashions, on Net</a> (The Hindu, 26 December 2010)</li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></h2>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Follow CIS on <a href="http://identi.ca/main/remote?nickname=cis">identi.ca</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28535315687">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/">www.cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Looking forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to write to us for any queries or details required. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please do write to us and we will unsubscribe your mail ID from the mailing list.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2011-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/january-2011-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomIntellectual Property RightsAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-30T11:25:44ZPageNishant 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 ItemThe policy langurs
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/policy-langurs
<b>The comforts of civilised living for all Indians require dedicated collective effort. The article by Shyam Ponappa was published in the Business Standard on 6 January 2011. </b>
<p>At this difficult point in our hapless trajectory as we thread our way through the divine comedy, there is a sudden burst of light, cutting through the gloom of the new year: an uncharacteristic but effective bipartisan effort by a group of parliamentarians in dealing with a practical problem. This is the saga of the hapless and troublesome monkeys of Raisina Hill and its environs, booted out by the Brits to build the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the Central Secretariat, and the parliamentarians who live on Mahadev Road nearby. Press reports say that BJP Spokesman Prakash Javadekar adopted a problem-solving approach by suggesting to six of his neighbours (five Congress MPs and one Independent) that they collectively hire a langur patrol to shoo away the monkeys that have been marauding in their gardens. Five of the six responded positively, and so they have a langur patrol, as do a number of government buildings there. And the monkeys stay away.</p>
<p>Why is this important? Because of how powerfully it illustrates the obvious: that collective, goal-oriented action can be very effective in achieving results. Now, if this could be extended to bipartisan initiatives (in the sense of government and the Opposition in the context of our fragmented politics), e.g. in building national assets like infrastructure, then constructive, forward-looking policies can be framed, and we can start building on what has gone before. This will take us past the blight of being in a perpetual stall. One example is resource-sharing for countrywide broadband and communications services. Another is our approach to energy production and supply. And so on.</p>
<h3>The bipartisan imperative</h3>
<p>I have written earlier on the rationale for spectrum- and network-sharing for broadband and telecommunications.</p>
<p>The framework for this kind of resource-sharing and organisation cannot be done without bipartisan efforts at the policy formulation stage for conceptualisation and during implementation, because various state and local governments will be involved, as will many central government ministries and departments. A bipartisan approach is also essential for devising supportive tax policies, including the development and execution of uniform, inexpensive rights-of-way charges at the state level. Not least will be the question of spectrum pricing, a matter muddied by so much contention and confused thinking regarding the economics and the technology, aggravated by opportunists seeking to make a killing, together with the well-intentioned but ill-informed flailing of strident advocates urging counterproductive measures like cancelling licences without due process and/or holding more auctions, all supposedly in the national interest, oblivious of the consequences.(Click for<a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/content/general_pdf/010611_03.pdf"> OPTIC FIBRE CABLE NETWORK</a>)</p>
<p>To appreciate the compelling logic, consider the network of an organisation like RailTel, with over 35,000 route km of optical fibre cable (OFC) network, or Gailtel with about 14,000 route km of OFC and planning close to 19,000 OFC in the next few years (interactive maps at: http://www.gailonline.com/gailnewsite/businesses/telecomnetwork.html).</p>
<p>BSNL has over 67,000 route km in the southern region alone, and other PSUs and private operators like Bharti Airtel and Reliance have their own extensive networks. Combining or integrating these will shift the focus to the tasks of last-mile access and spectrum deployment to achieve potential connectivity for most households and users.</p>
<p>Imagine the potential with some (three or four?) consortiums of wholesale service providers for the country having access to the combined networks of all or several such owners, including the collective capacity in terms of spectrum, access, aggregation and backhaul. These, in turn, could enable access to many retailers for local services to end users.</p>
<p>A second substantive aspect of such a bipartisan initiative is in structuring the national backbone facilities organisation, e.g. on the lines of Singapore’s OpenNet*. This may be an opportunity to capitalise on the BSNL and MTNL networks and revive them, perhaps as the anchor investors (possibly with other PSUs, such as RailTel, GAIL, and Powergrid). This anchor investor consortium could hold, for instance, 30 per cent of the equity in the venture. Other participants could include international companies like Axia, which design, build and operate next generation networks. Axia started out in Canada over 10 years ago and now has projects in France, Spain and Singapore, and has bid for a project in America. Other participants could be like Spectrum Bridge, a US company which runs centrally managed spectrum networks in America in the TV “white spaces”, the digital dividend from TV spectrum reallocated for telecom purposes. Their database-driven approach could be applied to the entire pooled spectrum of a large network with the participation of systems integrators like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, or IBM.</p>
<p>A third potential initiative is to encourage R&D and applications, perhaps seeking the development of local standards for wireless communications in the long term, even the Holy Grail of inexpensive “cognitive radio” (self-managing end-user equipment) with open spectrum. The size of our market offers the potential for such ambitious and potentially beneficial development. This will need policy support, especially for collaboration between defence and the private sector, with the creation of sustained support over a long period.</p>
<p>We know the apocryphal tales like that of the four bulls and the lion: the bulls are safe as long as they stay united, but when they squabble among themselves, the lion picks them off one by one. There is Aesop’s fable of the old man who shows his sons that while they can easily break one stick at a time, the same sticks bound together cannot be broken. Or the Mongolian story of the five siblings, the ancestors of the Mongolian clans, whose mother shows them that while each can easily break a single arrow, the five arrows tied together are unbreakable.</p>
<p>Despite this knowledge and evidence that the comforts of civilised living for all Indians require dedicated collective effort, we refuse to work to this truism of the need for collaborative effort. Suddenly, Mr Javadekar’s can-do Langur Initiative changes the game.</p>
<p>Even as the due process of law continues with regard to past wrongdoing, our parliamentarians should be grappling with substantive issues of nation-building such as those described above, instead of wasting time on tearing each other down.</p>
<p>Read the original in the Business Standard <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappapolicy-langurs/420804/">here</a><br /><br /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/policy-langurs'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/policy-langurs</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T10:15:17ZBlog EntryDecember 2010 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2010-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! It gives us immense pleasure to present regular updates on the progress of our research on the mainstream Internet media. In this issue of we bring our latest project updates, news and media coverage:</b>
<h2><b>Researchers@Work</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">RAW is a multidisciplinary research initiative. CIS believes that in order to understand the contemporary concerns in the field of Internet and society, it is necessary to produce local and contextual accounts of the interaction between the Internet and socio-cultural and geo-political structures. To build original research knowledge base, the RAW programme has been collaborating with different organisations and individuals to focus on its three year thematic of Histories of the Internets in India. Monographs arising from these projects are now online for public review:</p>
<p><b>Pornography & the Law</b><br />This monograph attempts to unravel the relations between pornography, technology and the law in the shifting context of the contemporary. Deadline for review expires on 15 Jan 2011.<a href="http://bit.ly/f1sQsi"><br />http://bit.ly/f1sQsi</a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Re:wiring Bodies<br /></b>Dr. Asha Achutan historicises the attitudes, imaginations and policies that have shaped the Science-Technology debates in India, to particularly address the ways in which emergence of Internet Technologies have shaped notions of gender and body in India. Deadline for review expires on 15 Jan 2011.<a href="http://bit.ly/gYCP1C"><br />http://bit.ly/gYCP1C</a></p>
<p><b>The Leap of Rhodes or, How India Dealt with the Last Mile Problem — An Inquiry into Technology and Governance</b><br />The project has fed into many different activities in teaching, in examining processes of governance and in looking at user behaviour. The deadline for peer review expires on 15 Jan 2011.<a href="http://bit.ly/iiYJp1"><br />http://bit.ly/iiYJp1</a></p>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<p><b>Internet, Society and Space in Indian Cities</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/h3lWzS">From the Stock Market to Neighbourhood Mohalla</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/hU6GTL">Transforming Urbanscapes: ATM in cities</a></li>
</ul>
<p><b>Queer Histories of the Internet</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/hqrjqc">A Detour: The Internet and Forms of Narration: A Short Note</a></li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h2><b>Digital Natives</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS has interest in developing Digital Identities as a core research area and looks at practices, policies and scholarships in the field to explore relationships between Internet, technology and identity.</p>
<h3>Columns on Digital Natives</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A fortnightly column on ‘Digital Natives’ authored by Nishant Shah is featured in the Sunday Eye, the national edition of Indian Express, Delhi, from 19 September 2010 onwards. The following articles were published in the Indian Express recently:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/ig08Dr">Make a Wish</a> [published on 19 December 2010]</li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/hRHUYu">Play Station</a> [published on 5 December 2010]</li>
</ul>
<h3>Workshop</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The third and final workshop in the Digital Natives with a Cause? research project will take place in Santiago, Chile, from the 8 to 10 February. Open Call and FAQs for the workshop are online:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/emKslL">Digital Natives with a Cause? Workshop in Santiago – An Open Call</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eCu2it">Digital Natives with a Cause? Workshop in Santiago – Some FAQs</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Publication</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Position papers from the Thinkathon conference held at Hague from 6 to 8 December have been published:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eVYR2h">Digital Natives with a Cause? Thinkathon: Position Papers</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Accessibility</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3><b>National Award</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Nirmita Narasimhan got a National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities from the Government of India on 3 December 2010. The award was presented by Smt. Pratibha Patil, President of India under the Role Model category. The event was telecast live on Doordarshan.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/fKG9MH">Nirmita Narasimhan wins National Award</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Conference Report</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">An international conference on Enabling Access to Education through ICT was held in New Delhi from 27 to 29 October 2010. The full report of the conference is published online:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eDHXyq">Enabling Access to Education through ICT - Conference Report</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://goo.gl/ddMBN">Accessibility at CIS – Looking back at 2010</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/igUi8H">G3ict-GW Global Policy Forum: "ICT Accessibility: A New Frontier for Disability Rights"</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Intellectual Property</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Copyright, patents and trademarks are the most important components on the Internet. CIS believes that access to knowledge and culture is essential as it promotes creativity and innovation and bridges the gaps between the developed and developing world positively. Hence, the campaigns for an international treaty on copyright exceptions for print-impaired, advocating against PUPFIP Bill, calls for the WIPO Broadcast Treaty to be restricted to broadcast, questioning the demonization of 'pirates', and supporting endeavours that explore and question the current copyright regime. Our latest endeavour has resulted into these:</p>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://bit.ly/glBYTS">Problems Remain with Standing Committee's Report on Copyright Amendments</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://bit.ly/hq9OZO">CIS Submission on Draft Patent Manual 2010</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Openness</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS believes that innovation and creativity should be fostered through openness and collaboration and is committed towards promotion of open standards, open access, and free/libre/open source software, its latest involvement have yielded these results:</p>
<h3>Reports</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/eKUKIY">Call for Comments for Report on the Online Video Environment in India</a></li>
<li><a href="http://goo.gl/wr8Td">Call for Comments for Report on Open Government Data in India</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Event</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/hQAUkg">Wikipedia Meetup in Bangalore, This time in TERI</a></li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Privacy</b></h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is doing a couple of projects, one Privacy in Asia which is supported by Privacy International, UK and the other on Privacy and Identity which is funded by Ford Foundation and managed by the Centre for Study of Culture and Society. The project is a research inquiry into the history of privacy in India and how it shapes the contemporary debates around technology mediated identity projects like <i>Aadhar</i>.</p>
<h3>New Blog Entries</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/hYUmVK">The Privacy Rights of Whistleblowers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/hcP9lI">UID & Privacy - A Call for Papers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/esjtL7">Should Ratan Tata be Afforded the Right to Privacy?</a></li>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/h0Vdz3">DSCI Information Security Summit 2010 – A Report</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Telecom</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The growth in telecommunications in India has been impressive. While the potential for growth and returns exist, a range of issues need to be addressed for this potential to be realized. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the second aspect is a countrywide access to broadband which is low at about eight million subscriptions. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum. It is imperative to resolve these issues in the common interest of users and service providers. CIS campaigns to facilitate this.</p>
<h3>Articles by Shyam Ponappa</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Shyam Ponappa is a Distinguished Fellow at CIS. He writes regularly on Telecom issues in the Business Standard and these articles are mirrored on the CIS website as well.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/fNADQo">Take 'Model T' for Telecom</a></li>
</ul>
<p><b> </b></p>
<h2><b>News & Media Coverage</b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://bit.ly/h8TJwF">An online community platform for people with different needs</a> (Sify News, 12 December 2010)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/fF3Y6V">Self-regulation in media and society meet to gain legal perspectives</a> (Indiantelevision.com, 13 December 2010)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/e3gZGz">This Is All India Radia</a> (Outlook, 6 December 2010)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/gYrF7h">'Pakistan' hackers target India's top police agency</a> (Google News, 4 December 2010)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/gBMFzY">Intellectual Property Rights as seen in a graphic novel</a> (TimeOut Bengaluru, 1 December 2010)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/fa4qcy">The Niira Radia Tapes: Scrutinizing the Snoopers</a> (The Wall Street Journal, 29 November 2010)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/gWEkKw">Mobile banking set to get a boost from IMPS</a> (The Hindu, 28 November 2010)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://bit.ly/gjyNbF">UID elicits mixed response</a> (Deccan Herald, 23 November 2010)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://bit.ly/hcrAd2">Time to bury e-mail?</a> (DNA, 21 November 2010)</li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://twitter.com/cis_india">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Follow CIS on <a href="http://identi.ca/main/remote?nickname=cis">identi.ca</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28535315687">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="http://www.cis-india.org">www.cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Looking forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to write to us for any queries or details required. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please do write to us and we will unsubscribe your mail ID from the mailing list.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2010-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2010-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceCISRAWOpenness2012-08-07T11:28:02ZPageTake 'Model T' for Telecom
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/model-t-telecom
<b>We need an initiative coordinated by the PMO that optimises both services and government revenues, says Shyam Ponappa in his article published in the Business Standard on 2 December 2010.</b>
<p>The 2G spectrum troubles give India an opportunity for clear thinking and purposive action for a significant impact on people’s lives. We (all stakeholders: operators, central and state governments and agencies, the media, opposition parties, PSUs and private corporations, and citizens) need to recognise that there are two distinct aspects to the wrangle: legacy problems and the way forward. The 2G controversy has to do with the truth and consequences of legacy actions. The way forward concerns our fundamental purpose, i.e. the delivery of effective and efficient communications services. What then must we do?</p>
<p><strong>1. Past problems: Follow due process</strong><br />Many commentators and sections of the public take a shotgun approach, demanding the cancellation of licences and auctioning confiscated spectrum. This is outside the purview of the law and will destabilise the sector and the economy, as will any arbitrary government action.</p>
<p>In a democratic society, there is a proper way to address these problems: through the due process of law, not summary judgements ending in figurative lynchings. There are contracts with operators, and we have to learn to respect and enforce the law. Use harsh penalties by all means, but only after (a) going through due process in establishing the facts, (b) provided there is evidence of culpable wrongdoing, and (c) the law calls for harsh penalties. If the law calls for a slap on the wrist, we need to change our laws for serious crimes, not resort to mob violence in the guise of righteous outrage.</p>
<p><strong>2. Present and future needs: Approach needs with a sense of purpose</strong><br />A different aspect of the predicament relates to how we can achieve improved communications infrastructure and services in India. This includes broadband Internet, voice telephony, TV and radio. We need a constructive approach encompassing services, hardware and software, instead of being mired in outmoded practices based on exclusive spectrum allocation, for example. Our focus has to be on our purposes/needs: ubiquitous access at a reasonable price. We need broadband for every household. How do we get it? (<a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/content/general_pdf/120210_01.pdf">Click for graph</a>)</p>
<p><strong>Capitalising on the low-margin model</strong><br />The growth of mobile telephony provides a workable model. The graph above shows the rise in subscriptions with declining prices after the shift to revenue sharing in NTP ’99, together with reductions in revenue share percentages for licence and spectrum fees, and in the access deficit charge.</p>
<p>This is a good instance of Henry Ford’s low-margin, high-volume strategy for the Model T. To sustain low tariffs extending to broadband, we need to reduce extraneous levies. A Trai study of 2005 showed government levies on telecommunications in India were far in excess of China, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.*</p>
<p>The study also showed that licence fees from the original auctions would have amounted to Rs 19,314 crore through 2006-07. According to the CAG report, licence and spectrum fees with reduced levies actually amounted to Rs 40,169 crore by 2006-07, i.e. double the auctions; by March 2010, the figure was nearly Rs 80,000 crore.** Over a long period, reduced revenue share for licence and spectrum fees has resulted in explosive growth as well as higher government collections than auctions and high fees.</p>
<p>The study also showed that licence fees from the original auctions would have amounted to Rs 19,314 crore through 2006-07. According to the CAG report, licence and spectrum fees with reduced levies actually amounted to Rs 40,169 crore by 2006-07, i.e. double the auctions; by March 2010, the figure was nearly Rs 80,000 crore.** Over a long period, reduced revenue share for licence and spectrum fees has resulted in explosive growth as well as higher government collections than auctions and high fees.</p>
<p><strong>Initiative by ministry or PMO?</strong><br />Why can’t the communications ministry, the DoT and Trai effect this transformation? Recall the scope of NTP ’99 and the role of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for these reasons:</p>
<p>First, reduced short-term government revenues. In the long term, the revenue sharing in a vibrant sector far exceeds the auction take, as shown above. Recall that the primary motivation for the licence auctions of the 1990s and the spectrum auctions was collecting government revenues. Hence, the first criterion is the stance of the finance ministry and the government on revenue collection.</p>
<p>A second criterion at the state level is also financial, for rights of way charges.</p>
<p>Third is India’s approach to spectrum management. Spectrum use can be structured like road or rail networks, or oil pipelines, instead of being treated as exclusive property or usage rights. The difference in costs and benefits to society is staggering. It’s like the right to use daylight or the air we breathe. Visible light is a part of the same electromagnetic radiation, so if there is a charge for radio frequency spectrum, why not for visible light and/or the atmosphere? Rentiers might see this as an opportunity for revenues, but democracies surely must consider it against the public interest.</p>
<p>Existing networks of various government undertakings, including PSU operators BSNL and MTNL, PowerGrid, Gail as well as private operators, could be managed as national assets, as described above for spectrum on payment for usage. This need not mean government control and administration, as there could be a consortium with government participation. There are compelling economic reasons for public access to spectrum and networks because of the drastic reductions in investment, with higher asset utilisation, environmental benefits from less redundancy, and reduced radiation from towers, as in one highway network instead of many.</p>
<p><strong>The opportunity</strong><br />Even as the law takes its course on wrongdoings, we need a new “New Telecom Policy” on the lines of NTP ’99. This is essential for transformational changes in communications services, clearing up confused policies that are at cross-purposes, and extending to boundary domains in ICT. We should aim for “Model T” pricing with access for everyone. We need an across-the-board initiative to replicate the successful aspects of mobile telephony for broadband and other forms of communication (TV, radio). The PMO could orchestrate a workout with all stakeholders that builds in the benefits of shared network resources, including spectrum, with efficient, low-frequency spectrum for rural communications with much less capital investment.</p>
<p>* Study Paper on “Indicators for Telecom Growth”, Trai, 2005: http://www.trai.gov.in/trai/upload/StudyPapers/2/ir30june.pdf</p>
<p>** “Performance Audit Report on the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology”, http://saiindia.gov.in/cag/union-audit/report-no-19-performance-audit-issue-licences-and-allocation-2g-spectrum-department-tele</p>
<p>Read the original in Business Standard <a class="external-link" href="http://business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappa-take-%5Cmodel-t%5C-for-telecom/416770/">here</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/model-t-telecom'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/model-t-telecom</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T10:16:54ZBlog EntryMobile banking set to get a boost from IMPS
https://cis-india.org/news/mobile-banking
<b>Customers will now be able to transfer money from their accounts to any other account in the country using their cellphones, through the National Payment Corporation of India's Inter-bank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS). The facility allows transactions without the need for a computer or an Internet-enabled phone. </b>
<p>Experts say the service introduces a new form of customer-friendliness that a developing ICT nation like India requires. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India records more than 670 million registered mobile subscribers; with the penetration of Internet technologies through mobile phones being higher than the spread of the Internet through broadband connections, the service, they reckon, is expected to boost banking transactions better than Internet banking.</p>
<p>“Though the Internet banking services are user-friendly, they are actually restricted to a limited number of tech-savvy, English-speaking Internet users in the country. With the IMPS, the mobile phone, which is ubiquitous, becomes a handier device for the average user,” says Nishant Shah, director (research), Centre for Internet and Security.</p>
<p>The service provides an inter-operable infrastructure for banks to offer a real-time money transfer facility to customers through mobile phones in seven seconds, says A.P. Hota, CEO and Managing Director of the NPCI. The mobile fund transfers offered by banks and technology providers take 24 hours, and are allowed only if the sender and the receiver hold accounts in the same bank, a hiccup the IMPS seeks to overcome.</p>
<p>With mobile phone-based applications popular and more inclusive in their reach, Mr. Shah says, it might be not only more far-reaching to have banking services available through encrypted SMS systems, because it is a medium that people are familiar with, but also the application-based systems are going to benefit a lot of people, especially who live in areas with inadequate access to banking systems.</p>
<p>Citing South Africa and the Philippines where the IMPS has been successfully launched, experts say the banking and telecom sectors are equipped with the latest security measures for launching the service. With most banks now using a Java-based robust system which works on some kinds of phones and is supported by a limited number of Operating Systems, the system is said to have tried-and-tested security features with double layers of encryption. Hence, the responsibility of caution is more on the side of the user than on technology, experts say, citing cases of sharing of passwords, leaving phones unlocked and sharing of sensitive information with strangers as causes for financial crimes online.</p>
<p>Seven banks have already been offering the IMPS. Seven more are linking up through this network. Gradually, all 50 banks licensed by the RBI are expected to offer the service, which will be free of cost till March 31, 2011. </p>
<p>Read the original in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/article917955.ece">Hindu</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/mobile-banking'>https://cis-india.org/news/mobile-banking</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaTelecom2011-04-02T07:38:54ZNews ItemNovember 2010 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2010-bulletin
<b>Greetings from the Centre for Internet and Society! </b>
<h3><b>News Updates</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The internet’s new billion: New web users — in countries like Brazil and China — are changing the culture of the internet.<a href="http://bit.ly/hKUb5n" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/hKUb5n</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">‘Piracy is now a mainstream political phenomenon': “Piracy has become a mainstream political phenomenon,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society in the city. The piracy that he was referring to was not the piracy of the high seas but the piracy of intellectual property.<a href="http://bit.ly/gMC1Br" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/gMC1Br</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Open standards policy in India: A long, but successful journey: Last week, India became another major country to join the growing, global open standards movement. After three years of intense debate and discussion, India's Department of IT in India finalized its Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance, joining the ranks of emerging economies like Brazil, South Africa and others. This is a historic moment and India's Department of Information Technology (DIT) deserves congratulations for approving a policy that will ensure the long-term preservation of India's e-government data.<a href="http://bit.ly/dGo6Qo" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/dGo6Qo</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Information, the world's new capital - Digital Natives: Information is the new capital and currency of the world, Nishant Shah, of the India-based Digital Natives with a Cause, told Bizcommunity.com yesterday, 10 November 2010, as the three-day workshop on digital and internet technologies that brought together young delegates from nine African countries ended in Johannesburg, South Africa. "If the 20th century was the age of the industrial revolution, the 21st century is now actually the age of the knowledge information," Shah said.<a href="http://bit.ly/dpXIKY" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/dpXIKY</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">What it means to be a child today: They move seamlessly between reality and virtual reality. The digital landscape they inhabit comprises generations — not of family — but of technology such as Web 2.0, 3G, PS4 and iPhone5. Their world has moved beyond their neighbourhood, school and childhood friends to encompass a 500-channel television universe, the global gaming village, the endless internet. These are the children born in the last decade and half — possibly the first generation that has never known a world without hi-tech.<a href="http://bit.ly/cz3nBJ" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/cz3nBJ</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Report: Digitally Open: Innovation and Open Access Forum, 23 Oct 2010, Doha, Qatar: A summary of the event "Digitally Open: Innovation and Open Access Forum" held in Doha.<a href="http://bit.ly/catHoi" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/catHoi</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">DOC 2.0: A Resources Sharing Mela by NGO Documentation Centres: A Resource Sharing Mela and Meet of DCM (Document Centres Meet) at the Centre for Education & Documentation in Domlur, Bangalore.<a href="http://bit.ly/dnwQMf" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/dnwQMf</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Wi-Fi Direct promises range, bandwidth higher than Bluetooth: 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.<a href="http://bit.ly/aUul9f" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/aUul9f</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property: Access to Knowledge in the Age of Intellectual Property charts the rise of the access to knowledge movement, a movement in which Open Society Foundations have played a key role. It maps the vast terrain of legal, cultural, and technical issues that activists and thinkers aligned to the movement negotiate every day.<a href="http://bit.ly/9nkQFM" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/9nkQFM</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Social Mashup!: Save the Date Join us to meet India’s most passionate, innovative, and curious start-up social entrepreneurs for two groundbreaking days of conversations, connections and inspiration. This event will be held on 2-3 December 2010 at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.<a href="http://bit.ly/bKKcar" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/bKKcar</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "> Digitally Open: Innovation and Open Access Forum: Promoting Openness in Today's Digital World<a href="http://bit.ly/961Ieg" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/961Ieg</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Crisis for identity or identity crisis?: The hurry with which the government is pushing its most ambitious project to assign a number (UID) to every citizen without any feasibility study or public debate has raised many questions. <a href="http://bit.ly/8Zt9mf" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/8Zt9mf</a></li>
</ul>
<h3><b>Upcoming Event</b></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Identity, Identification and Media Representation in Video Game Play: An Audience Reception Study: Adrienne Shaw from the Annenberg School of communications, who is a visiting fellow at MICA is giving a public talk on research on representation in video games on 27 November 2010 at the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore.<a href="http://bit.ly/909xkU" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/909xkU</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Research</b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">My Bubble, My Space, My Voice Workshop - Perspective and Future<br />The second workshop for the “Digital Natives with a Cause?” research project named “My Bubble, My Space, My Voice” took place at the Link Center of Wits University, in Johannesburg, South Africa from 6 November 2010 to 9 November 2010. Samuel Tettner, Digital Natives Co-cordinator shares his perspective on the workshop.<a href="http://bit.ly/bPX6Xd" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/bPX6Xd</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Archive and Access: Call for Review<br />The Archive and Access research project by Rochelle Pinto, Aparna Balachandran and Abhijit Bhattacharya is a part of the Researchers @ Work Programme at the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore. The project that attempts to look at the ways in which the notion of the archive, the role of the archivist and the relationship between the state and private archives that has undergone a transition with the emergence of Internet technologies in India has been put up for public review. <a href="http://bit.ly/d4o809" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/d4o809</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Just Where We Like It<br />The micro space for status updates might become the new public space for discussion. Nishant Shah's column on Digital Natives was published in the Sunday Eye of the Indian Express on 21 November 2010.<a href="http://bit.ly/96cK8q" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/96cK8q</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Taking It to the Streets<br />The previous posts in the Beyond the Digital series have discussed the distinct ways in which young people today are thinking about their activism. The fourth post elaborates further on how this is translated into practice by sharing the experience of a Blank Noise street intervention: Y ARE U LOOKING AT ME?<a href="http://bit.ly/ciyiiR" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/ciyiiR</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Talking Back without "Talking Back"<br />The activism of digital natives is often considered different from previous generations because of the methods and tools they use. However, reflecting on my conversations with The Blank Noise Project and my experience in the ‘Digital Natives Talking Back’ workshop in Taipei, the difference goes beyond the method and can be spotted at the analytical level – how young people today are thinking about their activism.<a href="http://bit.ly/bHAvDE" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/bHAvDE</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">The 'Beyond the Digital' Directory<br />For the past few months, Maesy Angelina has been sharing the insights gained from her research with Blank Noise on the activism of digital natives. The ‘Beyond the Digital’ directory offers a list of the posts on the research based on the order of its publication.<a href="http://bit.ly/b3TK3C" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/b3TK3C</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">First Thing First<br />Studies often focus on how digital natives do their activism in identifying the characteristics of youth digital activism and dedicate little attention to what the activism is about. The second blog post in the Beyond the Digital series reverses this trend and explores how the Blank Noise Project articulates the issue it addresses: street sexual harassment. <a href="http://bit.ly/cM1HFf" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/cM1HFf</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Change has come to all of us<br />The general focus on a digital generational divide makes us believe that generations are separated by the digital axis, and that the gap is widening. There is a growing anxiety voiced by an older generation that the digital natives they encounter — in their homes, schools and universities and at workplaces — are a new breed with an entirely different set of vocabularies and lifestyles which are unintelligible and inaccessible. It is time we started pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a digital native.<a href="http://bit.ly/9J82YY" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/9J82YY</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Accessibility</b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities<br />The Centre for Internet and Society is proud to announce the launch of its first publication, the “e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities" in collaboration with the G3ict (Global Initiative for Inclusive Information Communication Technologies) and ITU (International Telecommunications Union), and sponsored by the Hans Foundation. The handbook is compiled and edited by Nirmita Narasimhan. Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union has written the preface, Dr. Sami Al-Basheer, Director, ITU-D has written the introduction and Axel Leblois, Executive Director, G3ict has written the foreword.<a href="http://bit.ly/gfKNYO" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/gfKNYO</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Intellectual Property</b></h2>
<ul>
<li>Statement of CIS on the Work of the Committee in the 21st SCCR<br />The twenty-first session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights was held in Geneva from 8 to 12 November 2010. Nirmita Narasimhan attended the conference and represented the Centre for Internet and Society.<a href="http://bit.ly/fJVNPI" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/fJVNPI</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We’ve All Got Some Baggage<br />America’s newest trade agreement is not going to kill only iPods. The article appeared in the Tehelka Magazine Vol 7, Issue 45, Dated November 13, 2010 <a href="http://bit.ly/cVrpWd" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/cVrpWd</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Internet Governance</b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Consumer Privacy - How to Enforce an Effective Protective Regime?<br />In a typical sense, when people think of themselves as consumers, they just think about what they purchase, how they purchase and how they use their purchase. But while doing this exercise we are always exchanging personally identifiable information, and thus our privacy is always at risk. In this blog post, Elonnai Hickok and Prashant Iyengar through a series of questions look through the whole concept of consumer privacy at the national and international levels. By placing a special emphasis on Indian context, this post details the potential avenues of consumer privacy in India and states the important elements that should be kept in mind when trying to find at an effective protective regime for consumer privacy.<a href="http://bit.ly/eEs5Qx" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/eEs5Qx</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">CIS Responds to Privacy Approach Paper<br />A group of officers was created to develop a framework for a privacy legislation that would balance the need for privacy protection, security, sectoral interests, and respond to the domain legislation on the subject. Shri Rahul Matthan of Tri Legal Services prepared an approach paper for the legal framework for a proposed legislation on privacy. The approach paper is now being circulated for seeking opinions of the group of officers and is also being placed on the website of the Department of Personnel and Training for seeking public views on the subject. The Privacy India team at CIS responded to the approach paper and has called for the need for a more detailed study of statutory enforcement models and mechanisms in the creation of privacy legislation.<a href="http://bit.ly/eVTwVC" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/eVTwVC</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Privacy and Banking: Do Indian Banking Standards Provide Enough Privacy Protection<br />Banking is one of the most risky sectors as far as privacy is concerned due to the highly sensitive and personal nature of information which is often exchanged, recorded and retained. Although India has RBI guidelines and legislations to protect data, this blog post looks at the extent of those protections, and what are the areas that still need to be addressed.<a href="http://bit.ly/flq09V" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/flq09V</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Privacy and Telecommunications: Do We Have the Safeguards?<br />All of you often come across unsolicited and annoying telemarketing calls/ SMS's, prank calls, pestering calls for payment, etc. Do we have any safeguards against them? This blog post takes a look at the various rules and regulations under Indian law to guard our privacy and confidentiality.<a href="http://bit.ly/hnTwKp" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/hnTwKp</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Privacy, Free/Open Source, and the Cloud<br />A look into the questions that arise in concern to privacy and cloud computing, and how open source plays into the picture.<a href="http://bit.ly/awpCyF" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/awpCyF</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Privacy Concerns in Whole Body Imaging: A Few Questions<br />Security versus Privacy...it is a question that the world is facing today when it comes to using the Whole Body Imaging technology to screen a traveller visually in airports and other places. By giving real life examples from different parts of the world Elonnai Hickok points out that even if the Government of India eventually decides to advocate the tight security measures with some restrictions then such measures need to balanced against concerns raised for personal freedom. She further argues that privacy is not just data protection but something which must be viewed holistically and contextually when assessing new policies.<a href="http://bit.ly/9rvQPt" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/9rvQPt</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">American Bar Association Online Privacy Conference: A Report<br />On 10 November 2010, I attended an American Bar Association online conference on 'Regulating Privacy Across Borders in the Digital Age: An Emerging Global Consensus or Vive la Difference'. The panelists addressed many important global privacy challenges and spoke about the changes the EU directive is looking to take. <a href="http://bit.ly/dy41zc" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/dy41zc</a></li>
</ul>
<h2><b>Telecom</b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">3G Life<br />You can video chat, stream music and watch TV on your phone. Offering high-speed internet access, 3G would change the world of mobile computing. Nishant Shah's article was published in the Indian Express on 14 November 2010.<a href="http://bit.ly/gyxaW2" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/gyxaW2</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Ideology and ICT Policies<br />For better policies, decision-makers need to know their own and others’ biases, and consider what others are doing, writes Shyam Ponappa in an article published in the Business Standard on 4 November 2010. <a href="http://bit.ly/dbl3Ai" target="_blank"><br />http://bit.ly/dbl3Ai</a></li>
</ul>
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For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2010-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2010-bulletin</a>
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No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceCISRAW2012-08-07T11:46:10ZPageIdeology and ICT Policies
https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/ideology-and-ict
<b>For better policies, decision-makers need to know their own and others’ biases, and consider what others are doing, writes Shyam Ponappa in an article published in the Business Standard on 4 November 2010.</b>
<p>Why do the same facts regarding people’s needs for ICT infrastructure give rise to different policies? Apart from problematic motivation such as malicious intent and opportunism, even well-intentioned policy-makers may prescribe entirely divergent solutions for a given situation. This is evident if one compares India’s broadband policies with those of most countries. There are at least two reasons for this: differing perceptions of the facts, and differences in underlying beliefs and assumptions, i.e. ideology, as distinct from objective data.</p>
<p>Consider the facts of India’s ICT space. In one sense, there has been spectacular success in the communications sector. One statistic cited as evidence is the phenomenal increase in mobile phone subscriptions (over 12 million in September 2010). Equally, to those who focus on aspects like the shortfall in services outside the big cities and towns, or the meagre broadband coverage and its inaccessibility in rural areas (i.e. in much of the country), the communications sector falls tragically short of its potential, and requires policy change.</p>
<p>In this time of India Rising interrupted by the Great Recession, there is a stark contrast between the orientation of our ICT policies and that of most other countries. One area is the extent of government intervention and spending on broadband development. Governments of most advanced economies have stepped in to dramatically improve their broadband networks and policies for user access. This is not only in the EU where, historically, the approach is that government acts to extend consumer welfare, but also in America, the UK and Australia, which are considered much more free-market-oriented in their approach, and in many countries in Asia, including China. Unlike in America since Reagan, regulatory intervention in Europe is part of more supportive policies at the national and local levels. But this time around, even America has embarked on a comprehensive Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, with the goals of providing access to users in unserved areas, improving access in underserved areas, supporting public interest schemes for broadband access, improving broadband use by public safety agencies, and stimulating demand for broadband, economic growth and jobs; there is also a separate Rural Utilities Service.*(Click for <a class="external-link" href="http://www.business-standard.com/content/general_pdf/110410_02.pdf">graph</a>)</p>
<p>With regard to underlying assumptions and beliefs, an analysis on how economic doctrines affect policies by Robert D Atkinson of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation offers a way to think through alternatives for better decisions.** His analysis is on ICT, although it can be applied to all sectors. To quote from his conclusion, for advocates and policy-makers, “differences over doctrine cause partisans to view facts differently and to focus on small segments of complex debates, leading to a breakdown of constructive dialog and much ‘talking past each other’.”</p>
<p>He summarises four ideologies or economic doctrines:</p>
<ul><li>Conservative Neoclassical (CNC)</li><li>Liberal Neoclassical (LNC) </li><li>Neo-Keynesian (NK) <br /></li></ul>
<p>Innovation Economics, also called structuralist-evolutionary, neo-Schumpeterian, or evolutionary economics (IE)</p>
<p>While he describes differences in nuanced detail, the simplified abstractions rendered as a logic tree in the accompanying diagram (above) show how economic beliefs affect network policies.</p>
<p>CNCs are characterised as being less concerned with fairness, and less likely to expect market failures. Therefore, network and broadband markets in which governments do not intervene are considered to be competitive, and require no unbundling or price prescriptions. Their bias is for pure competition.</p>
<p>LNCs are more concerned with fairness, as are NKs and IEs. They accept that telecommunication markets are not competitive, and that there may be market failures. LNCs and NKs would use policy to increase competition in different ways. LNCs expect more competition to lead to increased consumer surpluses. LNCs favour regulated competition, viewing more competition as better. NKs want more competition through directed government subsidies, e.g. for municipal broadband or to small companies (which they consider less rapacious than large corporations).</p>
<p>IEs believe broadband markets have economies of scale, and that increased competition could result in excessive and redundant investments. They consider duplication of existing, expensive infrastructure as inefficient investment. IEs view communications infrastructure as a “general purpose technology” that drives economic activity, innovation and productivity. Therefore, they advocate policies that invest in higher-speed broadband, and in extending network services to more people, favouring a national broadband policy. The US National Broadband Plan defines broadband as a “Transformative General Purpose Technology”, and most countries practise IE. Irrespective of their economic philosophies, most countries have embarked on an aggressive broadband plan.</p>
<p>In comparison, India’s approach does not fit any of these categories. There are no policy incentives for broadband, and actions like the spectrum auctions this year indicate a focus on collecting government revenues rather than on facilitating communication services. Whereas the OECD countries and other Asian economies are working on network resource-sharing schemes, India seems to have previous-generation preoccupations: revenue-collection-for-the-government, increasing competition per se, or abstruse technology considerations, such as loading the most traffic on every unit of commercially available spectrum, instead of maximising the economic benefits from it. Costs and benefits in the public interest are apparently ignored.</p>
<p>BSNL, MTNL and DD have networks that, if they could be channelled with the right mix of policies and private enterprise, could be part of the overall backbone infrastructure for open network operations, as is being done by a consortium in Singapore. If our policy-makers understand their biases as well as those of others, they could adapt beneficial policies from other countries, as demonstrated by many countries with different philosophies converging on improving broadband.</p>
<p class="discreet">* “Broadband Stimulus Policy in Europe and the US: A Comparative Review”, Dariusz Adamski, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.nyls.edu/user_files/1/3/4/30/84/187/245/Adamski,%20SPRING%202009,%2018%20MEDIA%20L.%20&%20POL%E2%80%99Y.pdf">http://www.nyls.edu/user_files/1/3/4/30/84/187/245/Adamski,%20SPRING%202009,%2018%20MEDIA%20L.%20&%20POL%E2%80%99Y.pdf</a></p>
<p class="discreet">** “Network Policy & Economic Doctrines”, Robert D Atkinson, The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, October 2010: <a class="external-link" href="http://www.itif.org/files/2010-network-policy.pdf">http://www.itif.org/files/2010-network-policy.pdf</a></p>
<p>Read the original in <a class="external-link" href="http://business-standard.com/india/news/shyam-ponappa-ideologyict-policies/413676/">Business Standard</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/ideology-and-ict'>https://cis-india.org/telecom/blog/ideology-and-ict</a>
</p>
No publisherShyam PonappaTelecom2012-05-10T10:21:49ZBlog EntryWi-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>
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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 Item