Digital India by CII

Digital India www.telecomlive.com Over 600,000 villages are there in our country. 400,000 of them don't have financial access. Although a lot of things are being talked and will get done over time but there is a need to bring these things on an urgent basis. Over 180 mn bank accounts were opened under Jan Dhan Yojna but what happened is, these accounts don't transact. How can they transact because people don't have access. Who is building that access? There is no infrastructure that allows peopleinthelastmiletobeabletodotransaction. These days, it's not like an apple a day but it is about an app a day. Everyday an app is being created. It's a good thing but is that changing the lives of people, perhaps not. Building the last mile infrastructure is needed. Create a viable, cost effective, easy to use infrastructure in the last mile. When 600-700 mn people living in these 600,000 villages will be able to put their small savings in a bank account and take out money when they needed without having to travel 20-30 km to the nearest bank branch - that is when we will provide the opportunity which will touch thelivesofallordinarypeopleinthiscountry. Few 10-15 companies receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in investment and distributing free money to people to become their subscribers is not what is going to bring the change. What would bring the change is to make it afford- able for people to transact on e-commerce when hundreds of millions of rural people will be able to transact, not just 20-30 mn credit card and 100 mn debit card holders. Still, 95 pc of all transaction in this country are in cash. We need to see how we convert cash to digital. Not just digital to anotherformofdigital. I think call by the government and a great push from the Prime Minister for creating a digital revolution is great beginning. But it's all to all those who can come together to implementit,toexecutethatvisionintoalastmile. Towers should be declared as an “essential service” Arvind Bali, Videocon Telecommunications Ltd About 70 pc of total mobile users use their devices for entertainment purpose. Nearly 30 pc of India's population are students and we feel m-education is something that can really create a revolution. Same way m-health is going to be Rs 3,000 cr market in the next 2-3 years. There are apps today where professional are giving recommendations depending upon your location, budget and kind of treat- ment you need. Similarly m-commerce. By 2018 it is estimatedtoreachRs200,000crore. Then there is another vertical m-enterprise. All the solutions that are related to IT, security, surveillance etc., everything put together is the enterprise solution that is goingtobecomeabigandpromisingvertical. Till last year we used to have only 15 pc smartphone penetration which is expected to cross 60 pc in next 3 years. As it is happening, the real dream of convergence is that all our needs, requirements and desires should be met through a handheld device. So the revolution is coming from our desires, convenience and comfort. All the apps whichweareseeingtoday,itisallsomebody'sdesire. Why is important for us as a country to stay tuned to the world? Why we can't be left behind as far as the journey is concerned. I think the reason is simple. India has got almost 30 pc of population living in only 8,000 urban locations. Whereas 70 pc population still lives in 6.5 lacs villages. Every- where in the world, by compulsion they come to work in cities but they prefer to live in the rural areas. But in India, it is kind of compulsion to live in cities because you don't get health, proper education, entertainment, etc., so people are compelledtocometourbanareas. There are studies that say 58 top cities in our country are going to burst because the kind of inflow of rural population is coming to these towns is going to put a lot of pressures on water services, basic health services, waste manage- ment, etc. So what are the three basic things that we find when we compare ourselves with other partoftheworld? One is of course infrastructure. Second is communication. And the third is minimal economic barrier means everybody in the society is at some economic level. For taking this eco- nomic level of the people up, there are various things which help. But one big contributor is communication. The way it is moving, it is bringing GDP up and ensuring that the poorest of society getting connected with society and getting all those things that rich people are able to afford. And because of that there are studies that show that with10 pc increase in teledensity, there is a 0.6 pc growth in GDP. Similarly when broadband penetration increases by 10 pc, there is a growth of almost 1.38 pc in GDP. All this happens because it makes more efficient way of working. Communi- cation is something which improves our speed at whichwework. India as a country, we have always had phases when we were either moving with the world and 16TelecomLIVE October 2015

Digital India by CII

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