CHINA AS A TELECOM SERVICE PROVIDER IS A THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY

Our biggest challenge today, is to protect our hard earned freedom that is at stake in this “New world economic order”. Our second biggest problem is to bridge the divide between the urban elite & the rural poor. There is a great divide that exists between “the haves & the have nots”.

ICT is generally considered as a great provider, a great leveler that harbingers “Inclusive Growth”.

In India, on the contrary, ICT penetration is the perpetrator of the great divide and is putting our sovereignty at stake in this “new world economic order”. Our Government is doing little and all its efforts are increasing our dependence on foreign companies to own and control ICT highways that are life line of any economy in this new era.  Our Freedom is at sake! More, than ever before and Swadeshi Jagran Manch has taken upon itself to initiate debates to address this grave concern.

In India, IT and Telecom have created the biggest divide between those who have it and those who are deprived of it. Government has further perpetrated this divide without considering involvement of greater part of our population. Government initiates in the last few years have actually de-alienated small medium size players and the networks along with the associated wealth creation opportunities have been concentrated in the hands of the chosen few.

“Auction of spectrum” has not only created the biggest scams in history of Independent India but has also taken the prices of owning these networks so high that average Indian cannot even think of owning ICT networks. Our politicians may have fought with one another, they may have made some money but the worse they have pledged our independence in the hands of Multinationals.

Foreign institutions have systematically killed Indian manufacturing of ICT equipments. They have acquired majority commercial interests in ownership of ICT networks. MNC s made sure that Import prices of finished Telecom equipment is gradually lowered while prices of raw material and component supply has been steadily rising. This was a systematic method to kill our manufacturing and production facilities. 

We were told that our strength is “Software” and we must focus in that direction. Yet again we played, in there hands and the best of the Indian brains carried out development of software for creation and strengthening of IPRs and brands that they would own eventually.

Our discussions on R&D and manufacturing were hijacked to talk about infrastructure building, port creations, cluster development, creations of centres of Excellence in PPP models and building the semiconductor furnace. These took us further away from development of real products and today after ten years we have “No” Indian branded Telecom equipment in the market.

  

These diversions over the last decade stymied our R&D initiatives to an extent that we are totally dependent on foreign vendors for maintenance, control and up-gradation of these ICT highways. They made sure that PPP models are funded and applauded from time to time but no deliverables take place in reality.   

We have played in their hands and it is yet another advent of the “East India Company” in a new avtar.

Are we going to be caught sleeping or do we wake up to this new invader in a different garb to whose fancy our new kings and princes seem to be playing. They will continue to play as long as they receive handsome “privy purses”.

If control of ICT highways that are the lifeline of any economy resides with foreign institutions, then can we proudly continue to laud ourselves as independent ?

Government strategies have killed small entrepreneurial networks like DID operators, POC operators and small mid size ISPs. They may, have just lost their jobs or businesses but India has lost the opportunity of Indians owning control of these ICT networks. Today commercial interests and funds deployed in most networks are from foreigners or by MNC companies. So ICT instead of being a great leveler has become the champion of the biggest polarization.

Government initiatives have systematically killed Indian Telecom design houses.

While in 1995, we were meeting 70% of our telecom hardware needs from local manufacturers today 80% is imported. Indian companies don’t even own any telecom technologies and the gap in technology ownership is increasing every day that will be very difficult to bridge. India imports Rs 50,000 Crores of Telecom equipment and at the present pace of growth, in three years time Import bill of telecom equipment will exceed the petroleum import bill.

This surly puts our sovereignty at stake and our politicians like our princely states seem to play in the hands of the Company commanders.

Government today expects Indian designer’s to compete in price, features and quality, with foreign vendors, who have dozens of years of extra experience. They have economies of scale and low cost funds to provide them advantage over Indian designers. They are a part of the state sponsored invasion program so they will offer prices that no one will ever be able to match.

We seem to be playing in there hands and every extra day they gain, we make additional compromise with our independence.

If we are sincere about creating Indain products and brands then serious efforts are required to mitigate these disabilities. We need to act on a war footing to create Indian expertise in developing products and ownership of ICT networks. We need our masses to own these networks and not just a few Indian players who prefer to sing by the tune of their masters.

Half baked efforts and fancy reports will only take Bharat away from the stated objectives. Talks about “very long term” strategies, and ecosystem creation, may once again be a ploy to divert attention. We need real action on the ground in areas and technologies relevant today.

We need involvement of large number of small and medium size companies that represent our “Bharat”. They should be involved in development and manufacture of technologies and ownership of Telecom networks.

Otherwise expecting new fledgling Indian companies to compete with large multinationals is not a “level playing field” but a recipe to provide an eye wash. It is a systematic approach to handover ICT networks and ICT hardware supplies to foreign vendors in consideration of favors that we all know off.

At this pace, In this ICT world the word “Swadeshi” may actually become Extinct.

Strategic networks that carry vital communication, including the one’s of national strategic importance will be owned and controlled by foreign companies. Technology of the switches that carry all our voice and data calls resides with foreign companies and they would be privy to all the information that flows between various offices on India.

This is neo colonialism and a direct hit on our independence. Swadeshi jagarn Manch will not let that happen and we want to take immediate steps on a war-footing to prevent any further misadventures. 

Lets deliberate -----------------