Digital India ! infinite Possibilites , Implementation will be the key

 

Bengaluru-based telecom professional G Krishna Kumar said while Digital India was a great initiative to bridge the digital divide between the cities and the rural hinterland, the government would need to embark on an e-literacy mission for training people and helping them understand the benefits of using e-governance platform.

"Even in cities, we need a strong work flow automation set-up to be established. For example, if I request for some document from the government office, I should know how long it will take for the document to be processed and also what is the current status. This removes anxiety among the citizens, an assured service level would mean better accountability and reduced corruption," he said.
Citing the example of property registration in Bengaluru, he said despite it being digitised, most processes were still done manually and required multiple visits to the local office.
"The assured services and timelines are rarely met. Even if we have the technology and platform, enforcing the system can be a challenge. A strong willingness from the government is much needed," he said.
According to him, Digital India and smart cities initiatives can be aligned and existing e-governance systems should be modified to be brought under it.
Krishna said public private partnership (PPP) model of executing the projects was the right approach. Under this model, private players will look for profits and so it would be important for the government to provide a clear roadmap and blueprint for the same.
He said one successful case of PPP project was the Passport Seva Kendra, where the government partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
"Maybe, the government should replicate the best practices (of the Passport Seva Kendra) so that it is a win-win for the stakeholders," he said.

30 June 2015 - 7:10am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition

Smart city challenge

PM Modi's vision of creating 100 smart cities has caught everyone's attention. The buzz is that the government will make a formal announcement about this pet project later this month and states are likely to be asked to compete ( using a Smart city challenge) to figure in the list of 100 smart cities.

While the government's effort to create a competitive environment must be applauded, constant improvement in the living conditions of all the towns and cities must be a priority- Not just the select 100 cities

Lets wait for the Smart city challenge!

Balanced Net Neutrality?

People sending 150,000 mails to India's Telecom regulator TRAI opposing any move to prevent Net neutrality is quite unprecedented and never heard before.

India's internet penetration is still very low compared to other countries in the world. So, assuming India to follow US may not be correct, at least for now. India is a very price sensitive market, ARPU of the operators is a fraction of other countries. Ditto for Spectrum held by the Telcos.   A report states Indian Telcos will need additional 40-50 Billion USD for improving the infrastructure. 

While on one side as subscribers we need free and predictable access to internet, on the other end we need dependable/competitive service providers.  Instead of  going over board on NN, India should take a mid-path , Perhaps a fine Balance!!!  
 

Need to redesign structure for skilling India

This article "Need to redesign structure for skilling India" I wrote appeared in The Financial Express FE-Reflect on 2nd Feb 2015.  The article tries to argue that there is a severe Demand-Supply mismatch and hence  need to align and rationalize existing skill development initiatives. NSDA should be responsible for this.

 

Skill development to be started at primary school level ( Adapt China’s implementation), OR we can learn from Germany’s DSVET

 

Provide both teachers and students with regular and mandatory industry exposure

 

Digitial India and Make In India can help in fast forwarding the skill development. However, Agriculture sector  should be given importance for promoting innovation and productivity improvements

Pl click on the link Need to redesign structure for skilling India OR Click/Right click on the image for print replica 

Net-Neutrality

While Net-neutrality has been hotly debated in the US with FCC receiving over a million comments on this topic, India's stand is not clear.

Just a quick history -  Net neutrality was coined by Prof Tim Wu of Columbia Law School in 2003. This idea is to ensure Telcos do not exercise control on internet traffic.

President Obama is a proponent on Net Neutrality. He has recently said "an entrepreneur's fledgling company should have the same chance to succeed as established corporations, and that access to a high school student's blog shouldn't be unfairly slowed down to make way for advertisers with more money"

In India Airtel wanted to create separate tariff for VOIP based OTT services - Over the Air services like Skype, Viber. Thankfully Airtel backed-off.

From a Telco's point of view, viewing all data traffic as "same" may not make business sense as they want to cash in on providing "fast lanes" for some customers.

TRAI is expected to come-up with a document soon.  In a country like India Net neutrality is very crucial with millions of people accessing internet over mobile phones

Navigating Emerging India : Innovation, Market , Competition :: Zinnov Confluence, Tokyo

I was part of the panel discussion - Zinnov Confluence 2014, Tokyo. My co-panellists were Srinivas Prasad- CEO Philips India, Koka-san - Toshiba India MD, Tamura-San - Hitachi India MD and  Raman from L&T Japan.

The discussion revolved around the opportunities in India and the need for innovative solutions for the Indian market.
 
Indian market by itself is big for any Technology innovation and also Indian IT Industry can play a major in global technology innovation especially  Japan.  

The presentation I had created for this discussion is available in Slideshare

How to build 100 smart cities in India :: CeBIT India conference 14th Nov

I was invited to be part of an interesting discussion on creating 100 smart cities in India and an IT perspective on this. The Panel Moderator was  Dr Ganesh Natarajan,  CEO  Zensar Technologies.

My presentation is available in slideshare.
Also twitter was abuzz with tweets during the panel discussion.  The image shows a quick snap shot of some of the tweets on what I had mentioned during my presentation.  You tube Video link added below.

A smart way to create 100 smart cities

This article "A smart way to create 100 smart cities" I wrote appeared in the Financial Express- FE Reflect on 28th Oct 2014. This is a follow-up of my previous article.

We need to rationalize/integrate existing systems using ICT.  Need to expand on PPP initiatives. We also need an ecosystem - add specific courses in Engineering, allow public participation etc.

Please click on the link  A smart way to create 100 smart cities or click ( Right click) on the image for the print replica.

Smart Cities Need Right Policy

This article I wrote appeared in the Indian Express Editorial page. The move to build 100 smart cities is welcome.

However, we need improvement in existing infrastructure and smartness can be added later. Why cant we use existing broad-guage infrastructure  in Bangalore to provide local trains?  We need improved civic sense. Perhaps having more Modi-Students type interaction may help.

Please click on the link   Smart Cities Need Right Policy or please right click on the picture for Print replica.
 

Wake-up Call

This article I wrote appeared as a lead Editorial page article in the Daily Post on 18th September 2014. After Land of Gods last year, Land of paradise faced the flood fury this year. We are commemorating 10th anniversary of the 2004 Tsunami.
Even after 67 years of independence, it is embarrassing to see such a primitive disaster management set-up in the country.

We need concerted effort to minimise the impact of natural disasters. Both pre-disaster preparation and time-bound post-disaster re-building system should be accorded paramount importance.

It is imperative that the NDMA be strengthened with best-in-class technology and a state-of-the art weather monitoring and alerting system should be implemented.

Please click on the link Wake-up Call or right click on the image for print replica. 

Global Smartphone Market: 3 Chinese companies among Top 5

Xiaomi has emerged as the 5th largest Smartphone vendor in the world. This means between  Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi, they have about 18% market share of the global Smartphone market. 

It is also evident that all the three brands have aggressive plans to grow.  With Google's Android One and Android Silver initiatives providing further thrust for Android ecosystem, it is very likely that the Chinese OEMs will make further inroads into the Smartphone world.

It will not be a surprise if a Chinese Smartphone OEM becomes #1 soon,  much like Haier - A Chinese company, global # 1 in market share  for the past 5 years in the White Goods space ( Household Refrigerator, Washing Machines, A/c etc) !!!

We Need India-ready Engineers

This article authored by me appeared in today's New Indian Express Editorial page. India's entry into Washington Accord appears to be the right move.

More than creating more mobile engineers ( Engineers who can work abroad), we need engineers who have the right skills to work in India and more importantly we need a framework for the engineers to find the right type of jobs. 

MHRD should use the WA as a tool to overhaul Indian Engineering education.  There are over 3000 Tier-2 Engineering colleges and changing the system undoubtedly tough but not impossible.

Please click on the link We Need India-ready Engineers OR click(right click) on the image for print replica.