JOIN USTwo major initiatives to be pursued by the NDA government are to increase broadband connectivity in the country, especially in villages, and to promote electronic manufacturing.
The ministry of communications and information technology has started discussions with the industry and other stakeholders in the matter.
The Union Budget has set up a national mission for this.
The programme, however, is not new. The UPA government had launched a plan to link the rural areas with broadband with a Rs 20,000 crore national optic fibre network project in 2011.
The progress has been slow.
The government had set a deadline of 2012, which was later extended to 2015. The present thinking is to restructure the programme and find new models of implementation.
New strategies are being worked out.
There is a proposal to involve the cable TV network which has a large reach in the country in broadband extension plans.
The aim is to increase the number of broadband users from the present 60 million to 600 million in the next five years.
Much of this increase has to come from rural areas by connecting all the 6.5 lakh villages with broadband. It is an ambitious project but has immense potential to promote welfare and development.
The broadband infrastructure is as important as physical infrastructure like roads and bridges.
Internet access can transform the rural economy by helping farmers with data on farming techniques, weather forecasts etc and can be a great facilitator of trade.
It will have a major impact on health and education sectors and can more efficiently take government programmes and services to the people.
Mobile telephony can also be leveraged to take IT services to villages.
A broadband revolution can empower the people more than many other modes communication of the past.
It is also appropriate that more attention will be given to backward areas like the Northeastern states and tribal regions.
Giving a boost to the manufacture of electronic hardware is also equally important.
Though India is considered to be a software superpower, it has not done well in hardware manufacture.
The country lags badly in the manufacturing sector as such, but the state of the electronics industry is much worse.
There is great scope to develop the industry as domestic consumption and requirements are themselves very high. Dependence on foreign companies has also raised issues relating to national security.
Developing a competitive industry is not easy but it will be rewarding in many ways.