I-ways to development

India has taken impressive strides in the adoption of mobile telephony, including Internet access through telephones, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pitched aggressively his pet “Digital India” initiative in the Silicon Valley. At his well-attended events, plans were announced to enable WiFi access at over 500 railway stations and provide more mobile-based governance to Indians. A virtual ‘who’s who’ of top IT professionals, many of them of Indian origin, endorsed the vision of a Digital India which would give a great platform for  products of the companies that they head.

India is now seen as the world's most important digital market, China having taken a back seat, both because of economic reasons and also the “Great Firewall” that denies what digital users take for granted — freedom of expression. Modi, however, said: “As our economy and our lives get more wired, we are also giving the highest importance to data privacy and security, intellectual property rights and cyber security.” This is a welcome statement from the Prime Minister, even as it comes in the wake of the hurried withdrawal of a draft of the National Encryption Policy, following online outrage at its intrusive clauses. The frequent blocking of Internet facilities, planning interception of email messages, etc, all hit at the fundamental nature of digital access.

E-governance, indeed, has the potential to “transform governance, making it more transparent, accountable, accessible and participative,” and technology can be the tool that empowers people, but all this needs massive infrastructure. The basic building blocks are in place, but they need to be scaled up, since what we have is barely adequate and many Indian users complain about lack of speed and reliability of telephony and Internet access. The National Optical Fibre Network has found minimal support among telecom companies, and frequent call drops and Internet blackouts experience by mobile phone users provide an uncomfortable realty check to a grand vision of Digital India. It is time the Prime Minister devoted more energy to these fundamentals.