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Manas Chakravarty
Author: Dr TH Chowdhary
Publisher: A CTMS Publication
Pages: 161
Price: Rs 100
This book is a collection of short essays written by Hanuman Chowdhury for Computers Today, articles which cover the interesting period since 1994 when telecom liberalisation began to gather pace. The articles are a remarkable record of the author's commitment to opening up the telecom sector and his grasp of the issues involved. More importantly, they convey vividly the excitement of the far-reaching changes occurring in the sector.
Chowdhary is no stranger to telecom. He has been in telecom all his life. Starting with All India Radio, he went up the ladder to become chairman and MD of VSNL. He has worked as a deputy director general in DoT, as governor of INTELSAT, and executive councillor of IMMARSAT. He is currently information technology advisor to--who else--the government of Andhra Pradesh, and director of the Center for Telecom Management & Studies. His credentials are impeccable.
So is his logic. Heinsists on calling the liberalisation process "de-monopolisation" in spite of the ugliness of the word. That's because he says: "Since the government's property in telecommunications is not sold to the public, calling the reforms privatisation is to distort the meaning and to send wrong and provocative signals to the addicts of socialism, the unions, government officers and officials. What is being done in India is de-monopolisation." Chowdhary calls his views the "assault of thought on the unthinking", and goes on to tear apart the inefficiencies and hypocrisies of the telecom establishment in the country. All this is strong stuff, which, besides being very informative, is also hugely enjoyable. Some of the flavour of what awaits the reader is given in the chapter headings. Consider the following sample: The evil of high licence fees; DoT as predator and saboteur of NTP; Unfairness unlimited unfolds, and many more in the same vein.
So what is it that raises Chowdhary's hackles, what injustices leave himfoaming at the mouth? Reading the essays makes one realise the passion that the author puts into his writing, but it also opens one's eyes to the importance of telecom. Telecom has killed distance. It can offset the myriad shortcomings of the country's infrastructure, helping boost software exports, services exports and R&D. It can result in integrating India into the global production system as a centre for back-up operations and transaction processing. And it's galling to realise that these opportunities are being denied because of the vested interests of the telecom establishment. DoT's attempts to put a spoke in the wheel of telecom liberalisation is documented meticulously by Chowdhury. He writes about how the interest of operators who are also the licensors and government policy makers comes in the way of consumer welfare and choice. On the government's decision to make Internet telephony illegal, Chowdhury writes that we will find out 10 years later that we have sabotaged the hope for India to capturethe IP telephone market throughout the world. By killing the incentive for R&D on IP telephony, our companies will become sitting ducks ready to be slaughtered 10 years later by American aggressors. Chowdhary points to the huge steps taken by international telecom companies and laments that our monopolies, such as MTNL and VSNL have not ventured beyond our borders, when even Pakistan Telecom has established a beachhead in Kazakhstan.
Chowdhary's broadsides are not opinions alone--they have a solid basis of facts and figures. He has grasped the dizzying pace at which telecom technology and regulation is evolving in the developed world, and points out that India will be left behind in the race if the power of vested interests is not opposed. He has a clear vision of a world of converging technologies, and is immensely excited by the possibilities that these new developments raise for India's leapfrogging into the information age. The convergence of telecom, the Internet, television and the computer iscreating a whole new world, and reading Chowdhary's book will open the reader's eyes to the almost limitless opportunities in riding this wave of change. But first, we'll have to get rid of DoT.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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