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Steering Committee for Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007). Communications and Informations
SUMMARY
RECORD: The first meeting of Steering Committee on Communication & Information was held on 20.02.2001 in Yojana Bhavan, New Delhi under Chairmanship of Shri M.S. Ahluwalia, Member, Planning Commission. The list of participants of the meeting is given in the Annexure. Welcoming the participants, the Chairman explained the background of setting up this Committee. Rapid technological and institutional changes taking place the world-over were increasingly leading to convergence of services and markets. India could not stand aloof and needed to take quick measures to take full advantage of the developments. The Committee had to take a holistic view of the entire scenario and make recommendations to the Government on the fresh initiatives or policy changes that needed to be made in the Tenth Plan to ensure optimum growth of the concerned sectors i.e. Information Technology (IT), Telecom, Posts and Information & Broadcasting. In this regard he urged that the members outside the Govt. must provide the inputs they thought were vital for formulating policy for the Tenth Five Year Plan. Initiating the discussions, Principal Adviser (C&I), Shri R.P. Sinha observed that the basic objective of the Committee would be to draw a road-map of policy initiatives and government supported programmes in the Tenth Plan with a view to achieving the goals of generating employment, making India an IT super power, convergence of services and taking the benefits of IT and growth in related sectors to the common people. Regarding the methodology to be adopted, he said that for specific areas like IT, Telecommunications, Information & Broadcasting and the Postal Sector, Working Groups could be set up to go into details of programmes which will provide input for the Tenth Plan. These Working Groups should submit their reports as early as possible so that the Steering Committee can finalise its report in time. After these initial observations, the Chairman invited the members to make their observations. Shri P.K. Sandell of ASSOCHAM made a presentation on the various issues concerning the sector. He emphasised that instead of ad-hoc and piece-meal liberalisation followed so far in telecom sector, a holistic approach needed to be adopted to ensure single licence regime, convergence of services and provision of services on least cost basis. Level playing field has to be ensured to all operators in every respect. From the observations made by members, it emerged that with a view to making IT a mass movement, special thrust would need to be given in the Tenth Plan to ensure easy and affordable accessibility of Internet and telecom services to rural areas. In this regard, the major points that emerged were :
It was observed that at present 90% of all the computers in the country were concentrated in just 15 cities. One of important implications of this phenomenon was that special steps might have to be taken to ensure widespread penetration of computer throughout the country. The question of affordability seemed equally important in this regard along with the issue of ensuring easy accessibility to IT services. The issue of digital divide had to be tackled on various fronts so that the disadvantaged groups do not slide further down the ladder of socio-economic development. Besides the rural urban divide, the other aspect that had to be kept in view in this regard was to ensure equal accessibility to socially backward classes. Discussing the various issues relevant for growth of telecom sector, it was observed that building of a world class telecom infrastructure was a prerequisite to achieve the goal of making India an IT superpower. Govt. need not put large investment exposing public money to undue risks. In the face of fast technological changes, the investments in telecommunications needed to be protected. Permitting free flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) was one of the viable options. So because the funds available with the multinational companies were large and the risk taking capacity would be widely spread due to their global operations. Keeping this in view, it was observed that the various restrictions on FDI including financial cap of 49% on equity participation needed to be reviewed. In this context, it was observed that some restructuring of the domestic financial markets was also needed to ensure availability of credit at affordable price to Indian companies. While appreciating the reforms carried out in the telecom & IT sectors so far, the Committee felt that in the second phase the reforms need to be benchmarked with the state of developments and institutional framework in other countries both developed as well as developing. Industry associations i.e. NASSCOM, ASSOCHAM, CII, FICCI, MAIT etc. were requested to make available information / inputs in this regard. Individual participants were also welcome to send relevant papers or make presentation to the Committee in the future on this issue. Discussing e-governance, it was observed that the relevant Working Group should endeavour to identify at least 15 items for E-Governance to set the agenda for various Govt. bodies. There was consensus in the Committee that the objective of E-Governance has to be empowering citizens along with empowerment of Govt. To make the beginning in this regard, it was agreed that the minutes of the Committee may be put on the web and the important issues being discussed by various Working Groups should also be constantly posted on the web so that all interested individuals / organizations can interact and offer their suggestions. Department of Posts has a very efficient countrywide network of post offices which could be used as the central point for building an efficient delivery mechanism of public services. E-services could be an important part of the package of services. To begin with, E-mail could be introduced throughout the country by appropriately strengthening the postal network. It was observed that the Indian Postal Act, 1898 needed to be suitably amended to take care of the emerging scenario. Regarding the procedure to be followed and its style of functioning, the Steering Committee decided the following :
The Steering Committee decided to set up the following Working Groups :
The composition and terms of reference of the Working Groups would be notified by C&I Division of the Planning Commission in consultation with the Chairmen of the Working Groups. The Chairmen of the Working Groups were authorised to co-opt other members on the Groups in consultation with Planning Commission. The Working Groups were requested to submit the report by 30th June, 2001. The Committee decided to co-opt a representative each from FICCI, IDFC, MAIT and Shri J. Bhagwati from Ministry of Finance as members of the Steering Committee. The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair. List of Participants Shri M.S. Ahluwalia, Member, Planning Commission- In the Chair. e-mail: montek@yojana.nic.in
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