Reading this, you enjoy double subsidy

Dailypost India , Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Krishna Kumar

It is a fact universally acknowledged that children imbibe habits from their parents. My father rose every morning and looked for the news paper, the first thing he did each morning. I too have grown into the habit of reading the newspaper first thing each morn.

Over the past few years, I wondered if the Indian news papers will vanish due the ever increasing breaking news TV channels and online news content. It is however heartening that the newspaper Industry in India seems to be thriving.

I really only appreciated the value of Indian newspaper only when I started travelling across the world. Thanks to my work as a software engineer, I have had the opportunity to visit many countries and live in some places abroad.  There are parts of the world wherein finding an English-language newspaper can be hard. Not always I had an English newspaper delivered to my room while living abroad.

When I first started travelling the world, I would think to myself that the cost of just one newspaper in some countries would fetch me my newspaper back home for the whole month! In course of time, however, I dropped the currency-conversion habit and began to buy a paper.

I've found that in the West, many newspapers are heavy on local content. Even so m given that the world is now a 'global village', it is never hard to comprehend the news.

While abroad, I pose questions to my foreign colleagues to get a sense of whether i'm forming impressions that they share. I would ask my colleagues if they knew that India has more daily newspapers than any other country in the world. Twenty of the world's top hundred newspapers are printed in India.

My colleagues tell me that they are not surprised that such a large number of newspapers come out of India;after all it is such a populous country!

I have also sometimes compared the cost of a newspaper to a litre of petrol. In most countries, the cost of the newspaper is almost the same as a litre of petrol, even though there is no direct co-relation between the prices of these two items. Only in India is there such a vast difference.

 Come to think of it, in India, inflation or not, the price of the newspaper has remained stable. There were even a few years when newspapers were available for just one rupee, due to cut-throat competition.

I've wondered how Indian newspapers were priced so low. An editor of a leading newspaper recently mentioned that while printing a newspaper costs at least Rs 12, it is sold at a heavily subsidized price.

As an average Indian, I enjoy something of a 'double subsidy'. I get a subsidised newspaper, and when I sell my stack of raddi, I get nearly 30 percent of what I spent on my already subsidized newspaper right back! The low pricing is possible thanks to advertisements.

Indian newspapers are rich in content are attractively priced. But not so many Indian readers will appreciate that they are truly lucky, to have such attractive newspapers priced so low! Long live the Indian Newspaper!

Krishna Kumar is an IT professional based in Bangalore

Infrastructure and Literacy

Financial Express ,  FE Special

G Krishna Kumar | Updated: Oct 26 2011, 03:40 IST

Despite all the hype about information technology, India is ranked a lowly 116 among 152 countries in the ICT Development Index (IDI) as per ITU’s (International Telecommunications Union) 2011 report. In fact, India has just improved by one rank in the IDI between 2008 and 2010.
It is well established that broadband uptake plays an important role in a country’s ICT growth. Reports suggest that a 10% increase in broadband penetration results in close to a 1.4% increase in a country’s GDP. In fact, in China, every 10% increase in broadband penetration is seen as contributing an additional 2.5% to GDP growth.
Globally, the US, Korea and Japan are leaders in broadband penetration. There are plenty of examples of government initiatives yielding unprecedented growth in broadband— South Korea’s Korea 21, Australia’s National Broadband Network, the EU’s Digital Agenda, Singapore’s iN2015 Master Plan etc. For the technically inclined, broadband is defined as a connection that provides a minimum of 256kbps. While the US has recently tried to raise the minimum speed, the rest of the world, including ITU and OECD, still consider 256 kbps as broadband. In fact, this speed is quite adequate for a large majority of users.
The recent draft National Telecom policy (NTP) 2011 plans to achieve 175 million broadband connections by 2017. Considering that the previous broadband policy failed to meet the goals, how can we be sure that this time around the goals are realistically achievable? Should we simply depend on 3G for broadband uptake?
Why was the broadband uptake slow?
The 2004 broadband policy had set a goal of 20 million broadband users in India by 2010, but in reality only half of that was achieved. Why? The PSU telcos enjoyed a huge monopoly in the fixed-line segment, with over 80% connections. It is well known that the PSUs have challenges in adding broadband connections by themselves due to their antiquated procedures/policies. Also, due to the lack of regulation on unbundling of local loop (sharing the infrastructure among Internet service providers and competing operators), the ISPs were not able to utilise BSNL’s last mile infrastructure. Broadband tariff has not seen reduction akin to the mobile world. It is also observed that India’s fixed-line broadband speeds are far lower compared to the rest of the world, primarily due to lack of maintenance.
Although cable TV has picked up significantly in India, coaxial cable-based broadband did not witness similar uptake due to licensing requirements, quality of infrastructure, and lack of awareness in terms of cost and quality of connection. The lack of awareness among people concerning Internet usage and availability of simple plus meaningful local content acted as a dampener for broadband uptake. Another factor was the inadequate availability of affordable Internet-enabled devices together with high broadband connection costs. So, BSNL enjoyed no competition for two years in 3G deployment and still was not successful in increasing the wireless broadband user base.
Create infrastructure and ecosystem
After the 2010 spectrum auction, 3G and BWA trends indicate that mobile broadband is certain to witness significant addition over the next few years, especially with newer and lower-priced devices like tablets, laptops etc hitting the market. This, coupled with more attractive tariffs, will boost broadband adoption. Any government regulations to improve spectrum efficiency by allowing re-farming and spectrum-sharing among operators will certainly augur well for mobile broadband adoption.
However, due to the limitations of spectrum availability, infrastructure costs and the anticipated demand for huge bandwidth, an alternative long-term broadband solution is needed for India.
The government’s plan to create a pan-India, wired broadband infrastructure with USOF-funded National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) is certainly a step in the right direction. NOFN is expected to connect 2,500 village panchayats and would allow all the private operators’ broadband services to rural areas. India already has 7.5 lakh kilometres fibre laid out by private operators. Globally, there are several examples of optical fibre-based networks being successfully deployed and resulting in a huge uptake in broadband.
Once implemented, NFON will certainly give impetus for e-governance initiatives such as e-health, e-banking and e-education. However, given that a PSU telco has been tasked with implementing NFON, the moot question is whether the NOFN infrastructure will really be ready by 2014?
Availability of affordable tablets or PCs will certainly help in rapid broadband adoption. So the government’s initiative in launching the subsidised ultra-low-cost tablet device Aakash is a welcome move. The government’s plan in supporting semiconductor fabs will enable indigenous hardware development. This, coupled with encouragement for R&D and IPR creation, will provide the impetus for availability of affordable devices. Relevant local content and attractive tariffs are also needed for broadband uptake.
Literacy/e-literacy
India has seen unprecedented growth in mobile connections with teledensity reaching over 70%, and with rural teledensity growing at an impressive rate from 1.9% in 2005 to over 35% now. In spite of this phenomenal transformation in communication, India’s human development index stands at an appalling 119th rank of 169 countries.
The literacy level in India must be increased as it is well established that literacy translates into growth and economic development. The latest United Nations HDI trends indicate that countries like Russia, Brazil and China are way ahead compared to India in terms of youth literacy. All the three countries are far ahead of India in terms of broadband penetration as well.
Reports suggest that overall India has less than 10% computer literate population and only 32% of people living in cities are computer literate. Another important area for successful adoption of broadband is to improve e-awareness. This would enable users to understand and appreciate the value of technology and help increase the adoption rate. It is equally important to encourage meaningful/productive use of the Internet. The government could deploy USOF and embark on a mission to increase Internet/mobile broadband/computing awareness with an active collaboration amongst various stakeholders such as the government, telcos, learning content providers, universities, schools and local administration.
NTP 2011 aptly recognises the need for Right to Broadband. A strong broadband network can form the backbone of this country and hence the need to treat broadband
as an essential basic service. For enhancing positive network externalities, it is imperative that the government undertakes measures to improve infrastructure, support an indigenous ecosystem, and rapidly increases literacy/e-literacy across the country.
The author is director and delivery head for mobile devices, Teleca software solutions India.
Views are personal

For Telecom Sense Today

Econmic Times, 21st October 2011, Editorial Page

Draft Telecom Policy 2011 lacks an operational framework

The writers, V Sridhar & G Krishna Kumar are wireless professionals based in Bangalore. Views are personal
The recently-announced draft Telecommunications Policy, 2011, lacks an operational framework. It has a clause on spectrum sharing, but recent DoT action to scrutinise the 3G roaming pacts of certain operators raises a fundamental question as to whether the government should put a stop to the actions of the operators who, by sharing the infrastructure and scarce spectrum, try to improve the efficiency of providing wireless broadband services.

This is not to say that operators can violate rules and regulations. However, since telecom regulations and policies are found to be trailing technology and practice for most parts, is it time to rethink about being flexible in our policy formulation and implementation?
Given the constraints in spectrum, lower disposable income of the general populace and the glaring rural-urban divide, telecom operators in the country indeed have done a tremendous job in their innovative offerings- often referred to as frugal innovation - to increase the utility of their subscribers. This is evident in the improved telecom penetration levels, low prices and the increased contribution of the telecom sector to the country's GDP: more than 3.5% currently.
By cooperatively sharing the spectrum, much like the passive tower-sharing as being practised as a norm in the industry, the operators can potentially reduce costs, optimally use the allotted spectrum and enlarge coverage areas, leading to the birth of 'secondary spectrum market' in India. As long as it increases the social welfare - i.e., profit of the operators as well as subscriber utilities - government shall not stand in the way. However, the process should be transparent so that all stakeholders, including subscribers and the government, are aware of the sharing pacts. Hence, the need of the hour is guidelines for spectrum-sharing for operators to follow.
Some CDMA operators use 800 MHz spectrum to provide 3G EVDO service. Though 800 MHz was allotted for 2G services, it is better suited for 3G services. This method of use, referred to as spectrum refarming, is not allowed in the policy. However, nobody is complaining as both the operators as well as subscribers earn positive net utility out of this initiative. Though the draft policy reiterates delinking licence (for the provisioning of services) from spectrum, appropriate interpretation and implementation is required relating to the above context.
Similarly, the recent move to cancel the licences of one of the spectrum winners of broadband wireless access (BWA) service on what seem to be minor deviations in the application process, might throw a spanner in India experimenting with leading-edge technologies in wireless broadband service (reports suggest this move is now being withdrawn).
The licensing procedure should be simple enough as long as scarce resources such as spectrum for providing the required service are priced and paid for appropriately. In a very good move, the draft policy advocates unifying different licences to just two - network service operator and service delivery operator - that should simplify the licence maze.
It is not that the government and regulator didn't track technology and market activities earlier. On some occasions, the policies were modified in tune with the market conditions. In early 2003, the government imposed access deficit charge (ADC), a cross-subsidy initiative wherein private telecom operators were required to pay to fixedline providers, mainly BSNL, for sustaining its rural wireline network. However, taking cognisance of the fact that ADC created an unfair tax burden on mobile, national and international long-distance service, and also to stop grey market operations, the Trai abolished the ADC in April 2008.

Another example is the changes brought out in the applicability of Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). Though NTP 1999 envisioned reimbursement of the net cost of providing universal service in rural areas from the USOF only to basic telecom operators, realising the role of mobile services in providing affordable communication services, the government enabled support for mobile services as well from the USOF through Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2006.
To sum up, though the draft Telecom Policy, 2011, recognises convergence, technology evolution and market developments, the government and the regulator should interpret the broad policy initiatives within the context of improving social welfare and act accordingly. Thanks to the much publicised 2G scam, decisions in telecom are being stalled and postponed. Micromanaging by posing bureaucratic hurdles only will stall progress of telecom in the country and might turn the once golden goose of liberalisation to a dead horse!
 

IT.biz loses fizz

Bangalore, Oct 18, DHNS: Deccan Herald

 

BangaloreIT.biz, once considered the flagship event of the state’s growing IT industry, appears little more than a pale shadow of its past.

The event, inaugurated on Tuesday in the city by former President A P J Abdul Kalam, has been marked by steady decline in numbers and little interest from the industry it claims to represent.

The number of delegates has fallen from 6,000 at its peak to mere 1,000 this year. Though the 130 exhibitors may be numerically the same as last year, most of them are small and lesser known names.

It was a far cry from the event that kicked off in 1997 to provide a platform for a fledgling industry eager to showcase its potential. The initial editions also lured several onlookers who were mesmerised by the sudden spurt of the city’s high-tech industry.

G Krishna Kumar, director-engineering at the Bangalore branch of a multinational, said the industry has lost interest in IT.biz. “Not many of the 500 people in our Bangalore office wouldn’t even know that the event is starting today,” he said. Organisers have attempted to re-brand the event to make it more appealing for the business sector, rechristening it from Bangalore IT.in and later Bangalore IT.biz. A former official of I-flex said the major draw of the event in the past was conferences.

“We attended many editions as they drew senior officials of important banks, our target customers. But as the quality of conferences deteriorated and the participation thinned, we stopped attending IT.biz,” he said. Krishna said unlike Nasscom conferences which are organised around specific issues, IT.biz remains a generic event offering little value to participants.
A Nasscom event organiser speaking on the condition of anonymity said it was unfair to compare a state government event with Nasscom conferences. “Nasscom is a member-driven organisation. It works closely with members in deciding the conference themes, agenda and speakers. As members pay hefty fee, they have high expectations, which would have be met.”

“The event organisers should improve their act before IT.biz becomes a painful annual ritual. Bangalore is India’s biggest IT brand. The industry here deserves a better organised event than IT.biz,” he said.

Telecom Policy lags practice

Economic Times , Sep 7, 2011, 01.16am IST, Editorial Page

 

By: Vsridhar & G Krishna Kumar

The DoT panel looking at various issues for the forthcoming New Telecom Policy has recommended that the country be considered as a single region — instead of the current 22 circles — a move that will spare customers roaming fee while travelling.

Roaming fees for voice calls have dropped considerably in recent years thanks to intense competition. So, the proposal may not have a significant effect.
However, what is the effect of one-nation-one-market policy on 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) services? In the case of voice roaming, the Trai regulation implemented in 2007 ensured no rental or surcharges can be levied by operators.
Trai has also regulated the maximum permissible per-minute charges for roaming calls, irrespective of terminating network and tariff plan. Moreover, multi-SIM mobiles have reduced the relevance of roaming. A user who often roams typically has two SIMs, one from an operator in the home circle and another from an operator in the roaming circle to reduce roaming charges.
With no operator holding a pan-India licence for 3G and only one operator for BWA — and assuming that the operators had a rationale and business models for picking up circles of their choice and paying the huge spectrum fee for the same in last year's auction — combining the circles for data roaming could be tricky.
A recent report says that the country has over 25 million data subscribers and about 49% of Internet users use only mobile phone for accessing the Internet.
In the initial stages, it will be the high-Arpu, post-paid subscribers in metros and category-A circles who will be the innovator segment to adopt 3G/BWA, and it is likely that the subscribers will use data roaming to a large extent.
Without a regulatory oversight, the larger operators are likely to have better bargaining power in the roaming negotiations and, hence, the smaller operators might be disadvantaged, both for originating and terminating roaming data calls.
In BWA, it is worse. The smaller Internet service providers that got the BWA spectrum are at the receiving end of pan-India unified access service providers who can leverage on the scale of their operations. As of now, data roaming charges are not regulated across the world.
EU has drawn up a three-year plan for reducing roaming tariff for data. As per the new regulation, subscribers will have to pay a maximum of 90 cents per MB of data by July 2012. The charges will go down substantially to 50 cents by July 2014.
EU has also defined ceiling charges for wholesale rates, between two operators. Some mobile operators have launched 3G services in circles without having won the spectrum for the same in the auction. Though not likely, the operator could have refarmed the existing 2G spectrum in the 900 and 1,800 MHz to offer 3G services.

This is being practised by some CDMA operators to provide high-speed data services in the 800 MHz they received for 2G services. There is consensus that the industry needs to move towards spectrum allocation independent of technology, thereby bringing in efficiency of spectrum usage. For example, earlier this year, UK's regulator Ofcom allowed refarming of existing 2G spectrum for 3G service.
Though the unified access service licence allows the operator to use any technology to provide any service including data and multimedia, legacy indicates that spectrum is associated with a type of service: 2G or 3G. Spectrum refarming explicitly disassociates spectrum from technology or service.
Another possibility is cooperative sharing of spectrum between the operators who have spectrum and those who do not. If so, even though there is no policy on spectrum-sharing between network operators, it indicates the birth of secondary spectrum market in India.
This type of sharing can occur between two spectrum holders within the same circles too. The operator that does not have the radio access infrastructure in specific geographical areas within a circle can possibly use the spectrum and the associated infrastructure of an existing operator to provide coverage that again will lead to optimal utilisation of spectrum.
These arrangements can also be construed as roaming, though not precisely. What is notable in both the above cases is that the ministry of communications and IT is yet to take a policy decision on refarming and spectrum-sharing, though it is apparently in the works at DoT to be included in the New Telecom Policy.
Though credit shall be given to the operators for taking these initiatives, without policy directives, the user is not adequately informed and even misinformed.
It is time that the much-hyped telecom policy is announced soon, with the above incorporated.

 

Take charge & go-ahead! It is your career

 

Deccan Herald,  7th Sep 2011, DH Aveneue

 

G Krishna Kumar

Polish up
It is not a perfect world where everyone gets an opportunity that matches aspirations

Requirements management, User experience, Build and release Management, Triage management are some of the roles that were never heard in the Indian software Industry say 10 to 15 years back. However, over the past few years, these niche roles have emerged in the Indian Software landscape among both the services and product companies.

These, together with the standard roles in development, testing and project management, provide engineers with several options to pursue a career in the IT Industry. The myriad of options, often adds to the confusion especially among engineers in the less than 10 years experience range.

While there are a few engineers who are aware of the value they deliver currently and how they would enhance it in the future, a vast majority of them are not sure. Salary increase appears to be the sole parameter to measure growth.

Most IT organisations have developed career paths on technical and project Management ladders to help their employees. It is to be noted that the work content in software product and services companies is similar to a great extent and there is no dearth of opportunities in both technical and managerial ladders.

In general, managerial roles are more acceptable in the Indian society. However, technical skills are always at a premium, in high demand and provide immense potential to realise value both for the individual as well as for the organisation.

Although career plan is strictly a personal initiative, there is a popular perception that it is owned by the organisation as an HR initiative. How can we expect an organisation to own the career plan for each and every employee?

It is important to understand assuming that an individual has a fair idea on the future goals, let us look at the practical aspects in realising the goals.

Spend disciplined effort
It is not a perfect world where everyone gets an opportunity that matches both the individual’s aspiration as well as business needs. In reality, it is highly likely that the current job may cater to say 50 per cent of an individual’s aspirations. This means, the rest needs to be “earned”, by spending additional disciplined effort to strengthen the areas not covered by the present job.

For example, let’s take an individual aspiring to be a Software Test Architect, while the current job is that of a manual tester. The Individual could learn/enhance programming, scripting, creating Test benches etc. Another example could be that of a developer involved in maintenance of a software product.

It is very likely that the scope of work will be limited to a few modules. However, normally, the engineer would have access to a lot of product resources that could help the engineer in gaining deeper product knowledge. In general, understanding the overall purpose of the project and seeing the big picture always help engineers appreciate their current work.

The next logical question is to find out if this knowledge can be put to good use. It is safe to assume that opportunities are aplenty in any organisation. It is a matter of interest and commitment from an individual that would open newer opportunities.

Focus on Fundamentals
Over the past few years, the Indian engineers have learnt the need for soaking into a domain in order to gain expertise. All the Domains like Wireless Telecom, Finance, Health care etc offer hundreds of sub domains that can be specialised over many years. For example, a wireless telecom engineer can be an expert in a niche sub-domain like a layer in LTE protocol stack or multimedia framework etc.

An individual could identify and gain expertise on multiple sub-domains. Each of these domains is evolving and this, not only provide an opportunity for the individuals to be abreast with the latest changes in the domain, but also, potentially contribute to the standards.

The next important area for an individual to focus on is, programming language or scripting language as the case maybe. Best programmers are always in scarcity and are equally desirable for a pure software Development project or a maintenance project. Programming languages, akin to sub-domains are an evolving area and a new programming language emerges into the arena every few years.

Importance of Mentor
It is important that the engineers are fundamentally strong in programming and design so that they can seamlessly move into new programming languages without much effort. While parents and close relatives play an extremely important role during education and early part of the job career, it is important to identify a mentor who could either be from the current organisation or from any other organisation.

The mentor can guide the individual in taking key career decisions and could even guide the individual in handling inter-personnel challenges. It is important to realise that the mentor is not the decision maker. Softer aspect like communication skill is very critical and is often ignored. It is extremely important to be clear and articulate while communicating with stake holders including customers, immediate managers and other team members.

Thinking of a solution for a complex problem is just one part, clearly articulating and obtaining buy-in from the stake holders is immensely important. It is also important not to get into an “I-know-it-all” mindset, to remain humble and be a good team player. One more important factor is the longevity of the individual in any organisation. It is fairly established that, in a growing organisation, a good performer will always have plenty of opportunity to grow rapidly.

To sum up, it is the Individual’s career which is at stake and hence more than anyone, the Individual needs to “own” the career plan. Organisations can play a supportive role with framework and policies and a personal mentor can help in key decision making.

It is imperative that the individual focuses on enhancing technical skills and there-by adding value to self as well as the organisation. Sticking to an organisation longer certainly helps. Amidst all these, it is vital to focus on softer aspects and be a genuine team player to experience true career growth.

(The writer is Director and Head of Mobile Devices Delivery, Teleca software solutions India)
 

Will mobile apps sing new tune?

Hindu Business Line,  25th July 2011, eWorld

G Krishna Kumar

Not too far in the future, HTML5 could share platform space in the mobile apps market.

Remember the frenzy created by the mobile phone game “Angry Birds”, which was first launched on Apple's mobile operating system, iOS? Not only is the game available on leading mobile platforms now, thanks to its popularity, but also, the usage of words “Angry” or “Birds” in other application names has increased manifold over the past one year, states Distimo, a company that studies the mobile applications market.

In general, every time ‘a cool application' is available on Apple's application store, the immediate response from a non-Apple smartphone or tablet user is to check whether the same application is available with the Android Market Place, OVI store or Windows Market Place.

Wouldn't it be great to see an application on all platforms at once? But before we look for answers, let's first take a quick look at the global business opportunity for mobile applications.

Is the market Big enough?

According to Gartner, globally, mobile application store revenue is projected to surpass $15.1 billion in 2011, both from end-users buying applications, and applications themselves generating advertising revenue for their developers. By 2014, the revenue is expected to touch over $58 billion.

Worldwide, mobile application store downloads are forecast to reach 17.7 billion downloads in 2011 and by the end of 2014, Gartner forecasts that over 185 billion applications will have been downloaded from mobile application stores. Free downloads are forecast to account for 81 per cent of total mobile application store downloads in 2011.

A study by Zokem, provider of mobile analytics, reveals that in smartphones, the share of application usage is overwhelming — it achieves almost six times more face time than web browsing.

In tablets, however, the difference is not so significant with 39 per cent of face time allocated to web browser and 61 per cent to applications. Studies have revealed that two-thirds of smartphone usage go into non-voice call-related activities.

With tablets gaining momentum and device users willing to pay for high-quality applications, the applications market will remain upbeat over the foreseeable future. Due to the opportunity size, developers and application stores are under pressure to create the best user experience and to provide quickest time-to-market.

Native Applications route

As of now, the traditional approach to application development for smartphones and tablet devices is to use the native Application Development route. This means applications are developed separately for iPhone, or on Google's Android platform.

Such custom-built applications utilise all the functionalities and capabilities of the device and provide excellent user experience. However, the biggest drawback is the cost involved due to extremely low reusability of software code.

Just imagine trying to develop the same application from scratch for four different platforms.

Zokem's March 2011 report indicates that email, gaming and music content are consumed more using native applications.

There are quite a few cloud-based application builders or application-creators that enable developers to create applications on multiple platforms/devices at once.

However, these app-creators don't exploit the platform-specific functionalities and are unable to match the rich user experience as compared with the native applications.

The app creator/builder market is nascent with many more trying to tap this space. This generic ‘create-once and run anywhere' is not hugely successful as yet. Is this going to change dramatically with the advent of HTML5?

HTML5

HTML5 is the fifth generation of Hyper Text Markup Language, the popular web standard. Technology industry leaders such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, and hardware manufacturers support it. There is expectation that HTML5 will be the “true” multi-platform application development technology.

HTML5 would enable browser-based applications and also stand-alone applications, including off-line applications. It supports multimedia content through video and audio tag, location-based information using Geo Location APIs (application program interface) and can also access the native platform.

With browser being the core of HTML5, applications can work on “any” platform or device, including PC, smartphone or tablet, with minimal device-specific changes for stand-alone applications. That would mean a huge cost saving, compared with the native applications.

Currently, Flash is the undisputed leader for multimedia support on browsers. However, the HTML5 ecosystem is gaining momentum.

For example, WebM, an open source project, has been created to provide rich multimedia user experience on the Web. YouTube supports WebM in addition to its existing formats as part of its HTML5 experiment. Among other aspects, WebM is aimed at supporting low computational footprint to enable playback on hand-held devices.

HTML5 would be welcomed by publishing companies. Financial Times, for instance, recently announced an HTML5-based application to attract digital subscribers.

Though, there are not many mobile applications based on it as yet, HTML5 is an evolving technology. McKinsey estimates that more than 50 per cent of all mobile applications will switch to HTML5 within three to five years.

HTML5 would be a clear winner in the web/cloud intensive mobile application space, while native applications would lead the computation-intensive contexts. Essentially, HTML5 and native applications are poised to co-exist over the foreseeable future!

The author is Director – Engineering, Teleca Software Solutions India. Views are personal.

Mobile commerce awaits a rural destiny in India

Deccan Herald , 20th Jul 2011, Cyber Space

 

G Krishna Kumar

How do you like the idea of paying bus fare by just flashing your mobile phone before the Conductor? The mobile phone, using a technology called Near field communication (NFC), communicates with a device in the bus and the amount is debited from your bank account.

NFC is gaining popularity across the world and is set to revolutionise mobile commerce. Though NFC is in nascent stages in India, it may hold the key to make mobile commerce popular in the country.

Early this year Bharti Airtel launched prepaid cash cards in India, the Airtel Money service. The service, which allows customers to use their mobile phones to make payments, is now available in Gurgaon and Airtel plans to launch it across the country.

Mobile commerce is quite popular in the West and research shows that 91 per cent of UK consumers use it. But in India it is yet to take off. Debit cards, which the mobile money can potentially replace, are easier to carry and help you draw cash. Mobile money providers typically charge transaction and subscription fee and face the challenging task of ensuring universal acceptability of their ‘money’. The law also limits the amount of money which can be transacted through mobiles.

A recent Forrester report expects global m-commerce to reach $31 billion by 2016. For that to happen rural areas may have to step in, in a big way.
Approximately 72 per cent of the world’s population is estimated to be “unbanked”. The mobile phone, which is becoming ubiquitous even in the developing countries, offers an excellent platform to take banking to them. Studies suggest that an increase in the banked population has a direct correlation to increased GDP and reduced poverty.

Kenya has emerged as a leader in mobile banking system with M-PESA, which was launched in 2007 by Safaricom, a mobile Operator. M-PESA is an SMS based, branch-less system that allows individuals to deposit, send and withdraw money using their mobile phone. M-PESA has over 14 Million customers, representing 60 per cent of the adult population.

Pakistan’s Easy Paisa, Bangladesh’s Grameen Bank’s Mobile money are among other initiatives trying to replicate M-PESA’s success.

In India, regulators like RBI and TRAI, several banks, mobile service providers and phone makers are joining hands to take m-commerce to the “unbanked” population.

Eko, a mobile banking technology provider, has tied up with SBI and ICICI banks. It helps people create a bank account and perform basic transactions at local Kirana shops.

Idea Cellular has a similar partnership with Axis Bank. Subscribers would be able to open ‘No-frills savings bank accounts’ at Idea’s retail outlets and avail basic banking services such as cash deposit, withdrawal and transfer. Idea is currently offering the remittance facility in the Dharavi-Allahabad corridor. There have been similar initiatives from Vodafone and Bharti Airtel as well.

Fifty-two per cent of India’s adult population does not have access to any form of formal financial services. With the rising tele-density there is good potential for business.

According to the latest BCG report, the projected fee-based revenue from mobile commerce could exceed $4.5 billion by 2015 in India. This revenue would be shared by banks, mobile service providers and device manufacturers.

A major bottle-neck in mobile commerce in rural areas lies in meeting the Know-your-customer (KYC) norms. Kenya’s National ID system, eliminated the need for KYC norms and played a key role in M-PESA’s success. That is precisely the role India’s Aadhar project is planning to play. If it succeeds, mobile commerce would get a big boost. But to really make it happen banks and telcos have to build awareness among people by promoting it aggressively.

(The writer is Director-Engineering at Teleca Software Solutions India.
Views expressed are personal)

Indian IT : Salary cost Vs Billing rate

Hindu Business Line, 31st May 2011, eWorld

Krishna Kumar

One factor that has perhaps not changed over the past 15 years is the excitement among fresh engineering graduates when they land a software job. And, why not? The Indian IT industry has had an unprecedented influence on Indian society, despite representing about 0.55 per cent of India's overall workforce and about 6 per cent of the organised sector.

The IT Industry has matured over three significant inflection points — the 1997/99 Y2K euphoria, followed by the dotcom bubble in 2001/02 and the global recession in 2008.

The sector being extremely people-dependent, industry salary cost accounts for over 50 per cent of the cost in any IT company. In spite of the fact that salaries were moderated post the dotcom era and the 2008 recession, salaries have gone up significantly over the past 15 years, but the billing rates have remained quite subdued in comparison.

Salary

From an employee perspective, the Indian IT/Software market has provided huge growth potential, both in terms of job opportunities as well as salary. The average salary of a fresh engineering graduate during 1996-98 was in the range of Rs 70,000-90,000 per annum. The fresh engineer salary jumped three-four times by 2005/06 and continues to remain at an average Rs 3-3.6 lakh per annum.

As one gains experience, the salary should ideally be linked to the “role” a person plays and just not to the years of experience. However, due to the lack of a credible alternative, years of experience (YOE) plays a critical role in deciding salaries.

The salary per year of experience was roughly Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 way back in 1996/97 and now this has jumped to anywhere between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh depending on the individual's skill level, performance and company. For example, a mid-size IT services company will have to pay a premium of 10-20 per cent as against a well-branded large company.

In the Indian context, the salary leaps by five to eight times within 10 years of experience. Compare this with Europe, where the salary, at best, goes up by 50-60 per cent at the end of 10 years. Such a phenomenal increase in India is possible thanks to the ever expanding market place where the demand/supply is still heavily tilted towards demand. Due to the uncertainty involved in perks such as ESOPs, potential employees look at salary as the single most important parameter.

Due to this rising salary market, the average cost of compensation (ACC) or salary cost from an employer perspective has gone up 2.5-3.5 times over the last 15 years. The ACC was around $300-400 per month during 1996/97. Add to this the cost of recruitment, which has also gone up quite significantly. A recent report from Aon Hewitt indicates a 12 per cent salary increase for the IT industry in 2011. Maintaining the ACC at current levels will be a huge challenge for the IT companies.

Billing rates and Revenue

In the case of small and mid-size companies involved in niche areas such as Telecom R&D outsourcing, the average billing rates have more or less remained stagnant or have gone down over the past 15 years. The average billing rate continues to remain roughly around $15 to $25 per hour depending on complexity. However, among both the mid-size and large-scale generic IT services companies, the billing rates have gone up from about $12-14 during 1996-97 to about $18-20 during 2010-11.

While over 80 per cent of the projects were T&M (time and material)-based projects until the late nineties, over the past few years, the number of fixed-price projects has increased and is about 50 per cent in the large IT companies.

While fixed-price projects carry more delivery risk and penalty clauses, they provide a great opportunity to continuously improve productivity and manage profitability by creating the right resource pyramid (the mix of engineers in the lowest band and higher bands). For example, a 500-member software maintenance project would typically be staffed with over 50 per cent of the engineers in less than three-years-experience range. Fresh engineers with appropriate training would form a large chunk of the junior engineers. The large IT services companies are adding 15,000- 20,000 fresh engineers on an average in 2011.

Large IT companies have witnessed over 50 times growth in revenue over the past 14-15 years. Also, almost all large IT companies have achieved Net margin at over 15 per cent during the past 15 years. However, the mid-segment IT companies have seen decline in profitability and were most affected during the recession period. This is primarily because the mid-segment companies were unable to leverage the resource mix and larger IT companies maintained over 50 per cent offshoring.

What next?

With the increasing salary costs in India and billing rates certainly not going up proportionally, coupled with effective tax rate going up, uncertainty over currency fluctuation, strong competition from low-cost eastern European countries and China, IT companies will be under tremendous pressure to maintain profit margins. Indian IT companies need new and innovative approaches in order to sustain profitability.

The “high value” Consulting Business could be a potential growth opportunity. Consulting business contributes to 3-5 per cent revenue of the large Indian IT companies. For Accenture, a global leader in Consulting, over 60 per cent revenue comes from the consulting business with an average billing rate at least 4 to 5 times higher than the current average billing rates among large Indian IT companies. Although consulting is a high revenue generating business, the key challenge is to get the right skilled resources. The consultants are subject matter experts who possess deep domain expertise.

To sum up, over the past 15 years, the impact of salary cost increase vis-à-vis billing rate and thus on profitability has been quite significant among mid-size IT companies, while larger IT companies have been able to handle the impact through effective pyramid management.

India's IT revenue is expected to grow three-fold by 2020 and thus demand for Indian IT professionals would be high. However, it looks increasingly likely that the Indian IT Industry will move towards single-digit net margin levels over the next decade.

The author is Director, Engineering, Teleca Software Systems India. Views are personal.

Can we get an Indian Huawei?

Financial Express

G Krishna Kumar | Updated: May 26 2011, 03:03 IST

Eight of the world’s top 10 most innovative companies of 2011 are in the ICT domain, reports a US based magazine Fast Company. Not surprisingly, all of these are product companies. While India is the largest exporter of ICT services, generating revenue of $76 billion from the IT sector, but products contribute to less than 2%. India’s contribution to technology innovation is negligible.
The product companies witness non-linear growth (not proportionate to the head count)—the revenue per employee or profit per employee of Google or Microsoft is over 20 times that of India’s top services companies. Also, these technology giants serve as a beacon and are the undisputed trendsetters on the world technology road map.
Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE are the world’s leading telecom equipment providers. A report states that 45 of the world’s top 50 telecom companies use Huawei products. What more recognition is needed? These companies have full backing from the Chinese government and the government also supports R&D initiatives—for example, the TD-SCDMA technology that competes with the global wireless 3G standards. Is there an Indian company that can compete with Huawei/ZTE? India has lagged behind China and Taiwan in the capital-intensive electronics hardware manufacturing industry also. But the recent policy push from the department of IT to encourage semiconductor wafer fabrication, electronics and telecom product manufacturing is a welcome move. Also, Trai recently made a recommendation for promoting domestic manufacturing of telecom products.
The loss-making PSU Indian Telephone Industries, once the flagship telecom switch and telephone maker in the country, failed miserably during the telecom boom due to lack of vision from the government. But the case is different with ISRO, whose success could be attributed to the autonomy it enjoys. Another example of a tech-savvy initiative is the UID programme Aadhar, which, though far from fully implemented, has proved that India can implement large-scale technological projects.
Although the domestic demand for IT products is increasing, most Indian product companies are yet to penetrate the market. The only exception is the banking software industry where India has emerged as a leader in core banking solutions offered by Infosys and Oracle-India. Yet Infosys’s products business generates only about 5% of the overall revenue. In general, Indian companies are risk averse and prefer to enjoy the safety of services business, hence have not been able to succeed in creating product offerings.
But some Indian IT companies are successful in the outsourced product development (OPD) model, a pseudo ownership model, wherein the independent software vendors (ISVs) are involved in end-to-end product development for the customer but the ISV does not ‘own’ the product. Cloud computing can be a cost-effective and disruptive technology for further growth in OPD and pure-play product development companies. Nasscom indicates that delivery model innovations such as SaaS and innovative revenue models could fuel IT product adoption in future.
BERD (business expenditure on R&D) and patents/IP management are key indicators of a country’s technology innovation capability. An EU commission report on ICT 2011 indicates that India lags behind China and other emerging economies in terms of BERD/GDP. While China has seen a 10-fold increase in the number of patent applications over the past decade, India’s contribution is insignificant. Generating IPs and protecting them is just one part of the story. Realising value from the IP is a different ball game. Appropriateness of the solution is the key.
It must be said that Indian education system lacks an environment that fosters active partnerships between industry and universities. In the advanced countries, research in universities is given high priority and is supported by industry in the form of grants. As per the recent Anil Kakodkar Committee report, India lags way behind China in terms of university research in engineering and technology. The report also emphasises the need for improvement needed in research infrastructure. An OECD report indicates that India has less than one researcher per thousand employed, much below the global average.
Availability of risk capital is a key constraint for product companies to flourish but Nasscom sees an improving trend. Venture capital/angel investor ecosystem has improved significantly. There are 38 incubation centres across the country aimed at encouraging product development initiatives. India has seen 30% CAGR in start-ups over the past 10 years. The product market in India is expected to touch over $15 billion by 2015. The government’s plan to invest R25,000 crore for setting up semiconductor fabs will provide an impetus for hardware-oriented product development.
The government can play a key role in helping start-ups and other companies engaged in software or hardware product development. There are many examples of how government intervention has yielded good results. Tax benefits for software export revolutionised IT industry in India. Israel supported companies working on networking technologies that helped Israel take a leading position in security. Taiwan supported electronic hardware that resulted in the emergence of the original design manufacturer market.
India has been a ‘follower’ in the ICT space and its product development capability has been patchy. It needs to move towards full-fledged product development in order to be a dominant player in the ICT arena. India’s domestic market by itself will offer sizeable opportunities. However, for made-in-India to be a reality, it is imperative that the government aggressively drives a clear road map for technology innovation, encourages product initiatives, supports hardware and semiconductor industry and, most importantly, inculcates ‘product culture’ right at the universities.

The author is director, engineering,
Teleca Software Solutions India.
These are his personal views

LTE route to 4G Migration

Hindu Business Line ,  24th March 2011, eWorld

G. Krishna Kumar

It is quite incredible that the 2G journey in India started 16 years ago and continues strong even today! While India has just started 3G launch, 4G is the buzz word in other parts of the world. India's regulatory authority TRAI is expected to come up with 4G recommendations later this year.

Where is the “True” 4G?

4G is perhaps the most misused term in the Wireless Industry. Basically, any technology that provides enhanced performance and capabilities compared with 3G is generally called 4G. In fact ITU (The International Telecommunication Union) recognises the lack of clarity in the term 4G and has determined LTE-Advanced and WirelessMAN-Advanced or WiMax 2 as “True” 4G. 4G technologies are expected to provide between 100Mbps and 1Gbps in stationary state. More action on 4G is expected over the next couple of years.

The popular LTE (Long term Evolution) and WiMax are way ahead of 3G in terms of data rates and would fit in as a 3.9G Technology. LTE, or more specifically LTE(FD), is a natural progression from 2G-GSM and 3G-WCDA and hence sure to be more popular compared with TD-LTE although TD-LTE is better in terms of spectral efficiency. TD-LTE is recognised by the ITU and is supported by China as an extension to its TDS-CDMA 3G technology.

Global LTE trends

The powerful GSMA (GSM Association), with over 800 telecom companies world-wide, is firmly backing LTE as the next major Mobile Broadband technology. LTE was first deployed by TeliaSonera in Sweden. There are 18 live LTE networks now including Verizon, NTT DoCoMo and further 184 deployments in the pipeline. Wireless Intelligence, a research firm, predicts that LTE, currently with over 3,50,000 connections, will cross 300 million connections world-wide by 2015. The Asia-Pacific region (excluding India) is expected to be leader in LTE connections with 24 per cent by 2015.

Global mobile trends indicate that minutes of usage for Internet access are twice as much as the talk time. A survey conducted by Comptel indicates that majority of mobile broadband users are willing to pay for a higher QoE (Quality of Experience). LTE is seen as an enabler of Mobile Cloud Computing (Cloud can be accessed by any Web-enabled device). Examples such as RCS (Rich Communication suite), multimedia streaming services such as TV, real-time high-resolution video conferencing can be achieved using LTE. LTE also supports inter-operability across 2G and 3G networks.

Voice over LTE (VoLTE), expected to hit the advanced countries some time in 2012, is an IP-based solution that ensures high-quality voice and video communication. US-based Verizon wireless successfully demonstrated a VoLTE call last month.

While LTE provides quite a few benefits, the deployment is heavily dependent on the availability of spectrum and regulatory framework. There are three possible spectrum scenarios for LTE deployment - 2.5 to 2.6GHz, the digital dividend spectrum in the 700Mhz and re-farming of existing spectrum. In fact, due to the spectral efficiency, LTE can pack in 1.5 to 5 times more subscribers compared with 3G in a cell for voice calls.

India's next generation Broadband options

Since 4G is far away right now, the only migration path for India is to take the LTE route. A recent McKinsey report states that only 1 per cent of India's subscribers are mobile-Internet users compared with 18 per cent in China. However, considering the demand for digital content, India's Internet users will increase fivefold by 2015 and more than 75 per cent of them will choose mobile access. Airtel adding over 5 lakh 3G subscribers in less than a month is certainly good news for 3G-based broadband access. However BWA WiMax uptake is still not clear.

BWA's guideline being technology-agnostic has helped Reliance-Infotel, which won pan-India licence to consider TD-LTE instead of the traditional WiMax route. This will intensify competition among the BWA providers in India.

But TD-LTE may take a couple of years to mature. With enormous support for TD-LTE from China, it is very likely that we could see TD-LTE based devices such as mobile phones, tablets, etc, rather than just data cards and USB dongles. Further, availability of dual-mode devices, TD-LTE and LTE/3G, would be key. TD-LTE could pose a threat to WiMax (BWA) and 3G.

For mobile broadband to pick up significantly, telecom companies/BWA operators need to come up with innovative pricing schemes to attract subscribers instead of the widely popular “sachet” pricing used for voice. Bundled devices with attractive contract terms through which the pre-paid segment can potentially be converted into post-paid.

The key challenge in India continues to be availability of a mobile-literate population that can make meaningful use of the Internet. It is not clear how the Government will handle the 700Mhz digital dividend spectrum, which is currently owned by Doordarshan. Interestingly, both I&B ministry and Telecom ministry are vying for this spectrum for Mobile TV and LTE, respectively. It is established that the 700MHz spectrum provides huge cost benefits compared with the 2.3 -2.5 GHz spectrum.

Among the Incumbent operators, whether it is allocation of new spectrum or re-farming of 2G spectrum, the Government should give preference to operators who, at a minimum, are a) efficient in their spectrum usage, b) provided over 90 per cent 3G/BWA coverage in all their operative circles and, most importantly, have demonstrated excellent quality of service to subscribers.

As we've seen, 4G certainly looks distant. However, India should rapidly increase mobile broadband customers using the current technologies in order to enable smooth transition to LTE over the next couple of years.

As pointed out, the key challenge is availability of affordable devices, relevant content, attractive data plans and mobile data “aware” population. It is imperative that the Government involves all the stake holders in propelling India's next generation mobile broadband journey.

The author is Director – Engineering, Teleca Software Solutions India. Views are personal

 

Getting new caller tunes for BSNL

Financial Express, Column

G Krishna Kumar, V Sridhar | Updated: Mar 09 2011, 23:48 IST


It is to be applauded that on the first day of Apple’s iPad launch in India, BSNL announced a special data plan to support iPad users. Such promptness by the state-owned operator was never heard of before. However, BSNL is facing stiff competition, especially with the famous ‘paisafication’ of tariff started by the new generation private operators. BSNL, currently the 4th largest operator, could soon see itself dropping a few positions with the private operators starting 3G services and with mobile number portability kicking in. BSNL incurred a loss of over R1,800 crore during 2010. The recent CAG probe into BSNL’s WiMax franchisee arrangements is the proverbial last straw on, this time, the withering elephant’s back. What has gone wrong with BSNL and what needs to be done to revive the sagging telco?
BSNL (as well as MTNL) was allotted spectrum for 3G and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) services in early 2009 and had an absolute lead of 2 years over the other telcos. While the private telcos, owing to an intense price war, could not bid in both 3G and BWA auctions for a pan-India presence, BSNL had the privilege of pan-India presence (barring Delhi and Mumbai, which are the territories of MTNL). It is quite unfortunate that BSNL has not been able to make a major impact in wireless broadband services, thus far. Over the past almost 2 years, BSNL has managed to add only about 2 million 3G subscribers.
BSNL entered into 2G services with very aggressive pricing in 2002. Within 1 year of its launch, it amassed a subscriber base of 4 million—a performance never heard of before from a state-owned telco. Currently, the CAGR of its 2G subscribers is far less than that of its competitors.
The same strategy, based on price, was followed for the 3G launch as well. However, to its dismay, history could not be repeated, even during the first couple of years of the launch. Apart from low prices, did BSNL create market awareness about its 3G service? Definitely, yes. By roping in some of biggest Bollywood stars and notable athletes of the current generation as its brand ambassadors, BSNL caught the attention of most of the potential 3G adopters. But this potential could not be converted into reality, thanks to its perceived brand image of ‘poor service quality’, especially among urban customers who were likely to be the potential early adopters of 3G. Similar to the other major telcos, two-thirds of BSNL’s subscriber base belongs to the urban segment. To a large extent, the youth and the working class urban population are mobile data ‘aware’. But BSNL has not been able to provide enough simple, meaningful and user-friendly India-specific applications. Early adopters of 3G were obviously looking for a better user experience, customer service and wider array of service offerings rather than plain wireless Internet services. In the early evolution of a technology or a service, network effect is more than the price effect. Early adopters are relatively price-inelastic and would like to get more network value. An example of this is if a user wants to use video calling, she would like to have her partner also use 3G and an appropriate handset. What BSNL failed to do in the early stages is to create the critical mass required for the network effect to spiral growth. We outline below a three-pronged strategy for the revival of BSNL.
In today’s intensely competitive mobile services space in India, it is not only the price that matters! Also important is the alacrity with which the operator makes decisions about purchasing equipment, deploying networks and improving perceptions about a customer-centric operator. No to mention the flexibility to participate in co-operative (collaborative and yet competitive) agreements with other operators and firms to use assets optimally.
BSNL has a perpetual problem in improving its infrastructure, thanks to a tedious tendering and contracting process. BSNL’s recent guideline of allowing only equipment vendors willing to submit their source code to be eligible for bidding has further complicated the bidding process and added delays. The infamous 93-million-line GSM tender was cancelled due to excessive restrictions in the bidding process, and incessant political and bureaucratic intervention. Competitors of BSNL are way ahead in vendor management practices, incorporating fully outsourced models and technology derisking. BSNL should implement best practices in the industry for vendor management to survive in the market.
Although the latest Trai report on performance indicators shows BSNL above the benchmark (on both network quality of service and customer-related parameters) in almost all the circles barring a few such as Madhya Pradesh and the Northeast, BSNL should strive to improve the perception of customer-centricity among urban customers. Large-scale training in customer relationship management to the marketing, sales and service support staff is the need of the hour.
BSNL has been using various business models to better market its 3G and BWA services. The revenue-sharing franchisee model adopted for its BWA services was the first step by BSNL toward this effort. But BSNL’s offer to share its network for inter-circle roaming arrangements with private telcos received a cold response as it was found to be an expensive revenue-sharing proposition and hence unattractive. If the price is right, BSNL’s similar offers on passive infrastructure and tower sharing, or wired local loop sharing using the ‘collaborate and compete’ philosophy, might yield positive results.
BSNL’s difficulties in reaching 3G to the rural subscribers, despite low price plans, is due to lack of m-awareness of consumers and unavailability of subsidised phones. BSNL should embark on a mission to rapidly increase m-awareness among the rural populace. Bundled handsets with attractive contract terms are one of the ways by which the huge pre-paid segment can potentially be converted into a post-paid segment in rural areas.
Kapil Sibal can also help by freeing up the bureaucratic hurdles and giving appropriate powers to the top management of BSNL to make quick decisions so that the elephant can dance to the tunes of the market. This is imperative, especially when the minister is thinking of making the elephant bigger by merging it with MTNL! It is imperative that the ministry appoints a permanent CMD for BSNL soon so that strategic directives can be implemented.

The authors are telecom professionals based in Bangalore.
Views are personal

mHealth : Short Messages to Healthcare

Financial Chronicle , FC KNOW

By G Krishna Kumar Jan 10 2011

Studies on health-related uses of mobile phones indicate that they are improving access to emergency and routine services

Mobile telephony has sneaked into every sphere of life in such a way that it has become a veritable wireless organ of your body. But does the ubiquitous talk machine have the ability to help us in our health requirements? Yes, it does.

“Mobile technologies are tools that ought to be applied in ways to achieve local, national and regional health objectives as well as contribute to improving the lives of individuals”, states a World Health Orga­nisation (WHO) report.

Empirical studies on health-related uses of mobile phones in low and middle income countries indicate that mobile phones are improving access to and coordination of both emergency and routine health services as well as contributing to overall family well-being.

mHealth (mobile phone based healthcare solutions) is just not limited to normal

users, it can help healthcare professionals like doctors, pharmacists, nurses and volunteers. mHealth can be delivered to the end user through voice, SMS or other applications.

Text-based solutions

Text messaging or SMS-based mHealth solutions are both simple and popular. Examples abound on the use of SMS-based mHealth solutions. A pilot scheme in Nigeria uses unique scratch codes on medicine bottles and packets of pills. When the code is sent as an SMS to a free phone number, a return message will reveal whether the drug is genuine. The results have been encouraging and would be a great step forward in thwarting counterfeit medicines.

A group called Text to Change operating in Uganda sends text messages to the population to improve awareness of Aids treatment and prevention. They encourage participation in a quiz to raise awareness. This has resulted in 40 per cent increase in those going in for HIV tests.

In South Africa, SIM pill is a sensor-equipped pill bottle with a SIM card that informs doctors whether patients are taking their tuberculosis medicine.

The Kerala government has recen-­tly introduced a free SMS service for providing contact details of the nearest health facility/specialty centre. An SMS is sent along with a pin code. The reply SMS will have the immediate contact details of requested facility and specialty centre.

Multimedia applications

Researchers from University of California, Berkeley, conducted a pilot programme using videos on mobile phones to persuade pregnant women to utilise health services in rural India. The programme used NRHM’s (National Rural Health Mission) accredited social health activists (Ashas) to educate pregnant women with short persuasive videos. The programme also provided testimonial videos on mobile phones intended to motivate Ashas. The results have been encouraging and could be deployed across the rural landscape of India.

Smartphone applications will enable the mHealth industry to successfully reach out to 500 million of a total 1.4 billion smartphone users in 2015, says a global mobile health market report 2010-2015 by research2guidance. There are already over 17,000 healthcare-related applications in the various Apps stores. These applications cater to doctors, medical students and normal users. Epocrates Rx is a mobile drug reference application popular among doctors. This application is available on all the top smartphone platforms. There are plenty of applications for diet, exercise and yoga. Pedometer app provides accurate count of strolling, walking and running as well as provides interesting statistics. A Harvard Health publication report of November 2010 states that applications for diabetes management, high blood pressure, stress reduction, first aid, hearing and vision assist are highest-rated and most widely used apps for common health problems

A millennium villages project report talks about an innovative use of iPods and other MP3 devices to teach medical students how to identify various types of murmurs by an American university. A cardiovascular surgeon at the Arizona Heart Institute is using iPods to educate his patients about diet, exercise, basic anatomy and surgical procedures.

Doctor-on-call services

Doctor-on-call is a useful service, which helps a patient decide the immediate course of action to be taken based on a doctor’s advice. For example, in Mexico, MedicallHome provides healthcare advice using the phone and caters to over one million subscribers and their families for a cost that is far less than a visit to a physician. Voice-based approach, in fact, would immensely help areas with low literacy population. In India, the 108 service that provides critical emergency care in nine states is a huge success. Recently, Tata Indicom has launched an anytime, anywhere doctor-on-call pan-India service supporting all regional languages.

Although mHealth solutions have been successful, there are not many solutions that have been replicated across regions ensuring comprehensive coverage. mHealth solutions certainly provide immense opportunity in helping the common man but there is need for concerted efforts in bringing all the key stakeholders, including the government, in the mHealth ecosystem.

The writer is director, engineering, Teleca Software