Information Society Watch

December 26, 2007,Indiatimes Infotech

This news article reports that the DoT has decided to fund innovations in communication technologies developed by small companies, entrepreneurs, universities or NGOs. The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), where currently over Rs 10,000 crore lie unutilised, will be used for this purpose.

Decmber 26, 2007, The Hindu Business Line

Discussing 'spectrum wars' (the wireless spectrum required for connection from the user to the last network element viz., the radio base station), T. H. Chowdary, Director, Centre for Telecom Management & Studies, Hyderabad, notes that the mindset of the Indian telecommunications administrators is still ruled by the 'permit-license-quota' approach. An example given is the decision in the early nineties to allow licensees of mobile telephony to use only GSM and not any other technology.

January 4, 2008, Business Line

This bureau report is about the dismissal by the Supreme Court of India of the petition by Star, a major Indian broadcaster, challenging the amendment to the TRAI act that aims at regulating the broadcasting sector. The provision introduced in the act after the amendment says that the Centre can bring other services within the ambit of Telecom Act and the Government has issued the notification for regulating broadcasting services by TRAI.

December 24, 2007, Deccan Herald

As telecom revolution extends to rural India, telecom operators are realising that the infrastructure sharing may be the best way option. To meet national teledensity goals and reach out to rural markets, three companies have merged their infrastructure assets to form Indus Towers, a subsidiary company that aims to provide passive infrastructure services in the form of 70,000 telecom towers to all operators on a non-discriminatory basis.

November 28, 2007, Times News Network

This interview with Nandu Pradhan, President and Managing Director of Red Hat India, discusses the future of open source software and the company's new strategies for increasing its market share in enterprise servers to 50%. Pradhan envisions an open source future where users can work freely on any platform, and all platforms are interoperable and not locked to any particular file format.

October 2007, Ayesha Zainuddin and Anu Samarajiva, I4donline

The article takes a look at the prevalent situation with respect to the impact of ICT, and specifically mobile phone technology on most marginalised groups in society today. A recent survey conducted in some countries in the sub-continent and South-East Asia throws up stark contrasts in usage of mobile phones with respect to gender, and shows a distinct male bias with regard to access to such technologies.

November 6, 2007, Rahul Gupta, I-Government.in

The article focusses on the current disparity in tele-density between urban and rural India with regard to mobile penetration and how low cost handsets can contribute to bridging this gap. The author notes that the primary barrier in the spreading of mobile services to the rural population is the prohibitive price of the handset. However, the scenario is now changing with the service providers as well as the handset vendors keen to tap this market.

September 19, 2007, Business Standard

This news piece goes to show how technological advancement, and especially convergence, throw up new challenges for policy makers in enacting legislations. In a move that was long overdue, telecommunications regulator TRAI has drawn up proposals to allow mobile service providers to provide mobile television through their networks. This means that telecommunications operators who have a unified license can automatically provide television while others which include traditional broadcasting organisations will have to apply for separate licences to broadcast the same over mobile.

September 11, 2007, Telecom Magazine

India's telecommunications regulatory body, TRAI has released policy recommendations on ways to improve connectivity. These include using the Universal Service Obligation Funds to subsidise satellite backhaul charges by up to 40 percent when providing broadband links to rural areas. To boost broadband connectivity in urban areas, TRAI recommends that state telecommunications players like MTNL and BSNL appoint franchisees to supplement their broadband services.

Gurshaminder Singh Bajwa

This paper tries to bring out the role of Indian state as an actor in responding to the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) policy with special reference to the two task force reports highlighted in for carrying out this study. Response is here understood as the ‘role’ played by the Indian state towards putting policy statements into practice. The underlying intent of the theories is the belief that information would be the prime mover in information or knowledge societies.