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.

e-Modi's Win!!!

Pic source: OrissaDairy.com

About 15 months back, most Opinion makers in India who tried to speak against Narendra Modi received quite a bashing from India's internet loving public  ( more often called netizens). Most Editors brushed it as a phenomenon limited to  e-literate crowd in the country and the ground realities were different. 

The man WON and how - Modi's Awe and Wow effect!! From no modi-wave to Modi TsuNaMo, we have seen it all.

Modi has over 40 Lakh followers on Twitter. The e-campaign including 3D, Social media, email etc has certainly made a mark with Millions of Indians using Mobile for Internet, I am sure this has made a positive impact for Modi's campaign.  Many congratulations to Modi and his e-team for a superlative and first of its kind campaign.

India has < 10% broadband users and the overall ineternt users about 25% , much lower than other countries. This is only expected to grow and Idea's catchy "No Ullu Banawing" type Ads will only help in faster adoption. Hope the new goverment provides necessary flexibility in spectrum allocation, maybe relook at some of the taxes and help in attaining the Broadband targets mentioned in NTP-2012

Other political parties too will "learn" from e-Modi and the e-campaign will only get bigger and better. Definite business opportunities in the offing!! 

Create jobs where the job-seekers are

This article I wrote appeared as a Lead Editorial page article in the Hindu Business Line on 16th April 2014. 

The article tries to look at the grim employment scenario and the severe Demand-Supply mismatch.

 For India to spur job creation, India needs focus on Agro-Industrial sectors as well as the Skill Development.

 Pl click on the link Create jobs where the job-seekers are  or click on the image for print replica