Google plays Santa in India

Thursday, 17 December 2015 - 7:35am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition

There is a strong business case in the announcements made on Wednesday by the US-based Internet search company CEO Sundar Pichai on his maiden visit to India after he took over as its head.

If free Wi-Fi at 100 Indian railways stations,Project Loon to provide Internet through balloons, Internet Sathi programme for training three lakh women in villages and other such plans of Google will help the government to push its Digital India initiative, it will also lift the revenues of the Santa Clara headquartered search company.

Here's how Google will commercially gain from what it plans to do in India.

G Krishna Kumar, Bangalore-based telecom executive, said the widening of internet user base in India will lead to Google improving its advertisement revenues, which currently constitutes over 90% of its total revenue.
"By enabling internet access to more people, Google's ad revenue can be strengthened," he said.

The Project Loon and Internet Sathi too will help in further penetration of internet in the country, which would translate into higher advertisement revenues for the company.

"Still over 50,000 villages in India don't have internet access and the Project Loon provides a sudden opportunity for enabling Internet access. How well Google is able to handle the operational problems that they would encounter will be critical," he said.

Krishna Kumar pointed that if the system developed by Google is robust enough then it will certainly help the government's Digital India. He said the business model between the search company and the telecom companies (telcos) would also be critical for its success.

In Indonesia, Google recently tied-up with telcos for offering Internet services through Project Loon.

"It will be interesting to see how this will play out and can provide learning for Google's plan to implement in other countries (like India)," he said.

Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said his ministry has given an in-principle nod for the Project Loon's pilot and a final decision would be taken after all the security aspects and clearances from aviation ministry were sorted out.

"In-principle, we are agreeable for a pilot project (Loon). Certain issues of security and the harmony with civil aviation ministry have to be done. We'll finalise that also, but surely we are quite open to the idea of the Project Loon being undertaken on a pilot basis," he said.

Prasad informed Google will partner with BSNL for the pilot.

Google's free Wi-Fi at 100 railway stations by 2016, beginning with Mumbai Central Station, would also bring in revenues from both advertisement and increased surfing with easy Internet accessibility at the stations, which would be cheaper than the roaming rates on regular mobile services.

"Most of these free Wi-Fi come with advertisements. Also, we have generally seen that people tend to continue surfing even after the free browsing time is over at stations and airports as they are cheaper than roaming charges," said Krishna Kumar.

Other announcements made by Pichai include hiring in Bangalore and Hyderabad, setting up new campus in Hyderabad, training two million developers along with the National Skill Development Council and bicycle for women (Internet Sathi) programme to help women get online.

The Google chief expects India's Android user base to surpass that of US by next year.

"We are excited to partner for Internet Sathi along with Community Service Centres (CSCs) and we are focused on bringing Google's products to many more Indian languages so that we can reach Indian villages," said Pichai after his meeting with Prasad.

Threat of fine to telecom operators brings down call drop rate

Thursday, 26 November 2015 - 8:25am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition

The latest data of the TERM Cell, the vigilance and resource monitoring arm of Department of Telecom (DoT), revealed that all major telecom operators had registered an improvement in their call drop rates in Delhi till October-end, and were now only marginally above the benchmark rate of 2%.

The latest improvement in the call drop situation in Delhi, which was amongst the worse areas, comes after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recently cracked its whip by coming out with a proposal for imposing a penalty of Re1 per call drop with a limit of three for one day

The TERM Cell numbers, put out on Wednesday, show most telecom companies (telcos) rates were moving closer to the benchmark rate of 2%, but telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said he would like it to see further improvement.

The call drop rates have improved also because 13,775 cell sites have been repaired. The last survey had shown 27,598 cell sites were defective. This left 13,823 more cell sites to be repaired.

Bangalore-based telecom executive G Krishna Kumar said Trai's ultimatum to the operators to improve services or pay fine seemed to be working well.


"I don't think the fine would be imposed. It was only meant to be a deterrent (for the telcos) and seems to be working fine with all of them (telcos) swinging into action," he said.
 

Putin's popularity still high

G Krishna Kumar Oct 13, 2015,

It is an achievement for any head of a state to enjoy such popularity even after 15 years at the helm.

Being an Indian, there is always nostalgia about Russia as the two countries have been friends for long. Who can forget President Gorbachev’s visit to India in 1986 and the splendid performances from Russian dancers as part of the cultural exchange programme? 

During my recent visit to Russia, I interacted with a few locals to get a perspective about their country. Before jumping into the findings, here are some facts. Russia is the largest country in the world in terms of surface area with over 17 million sq km. This means, Russia is six times bigger than India, with just 1/8th the population. 

Russia is among the largest oil exporters in the world and hence, the current fall in oil prices has severely impacted the economy. Over the past few quarters, Russia’s currency has been heavily devalued from Rub 25-30 per US dollar to about 70 per dollar.  

In terms of basic infrastructure, some roads are very well maintained, despite the tough weather conditions. In general, the road infrastructure is better than India, but not as good as advanced countries. Public transport system is very affordable. Petrol prices are 50 per cent cheaper compared to India. The super-fast trains speeding at 200 kmph are efficient and popular for inter-city travel.  Russia is the fourth largest producer of electricity globally and hence there are no power cuts. 

Most Russians are not English speaking but have no reservations about this. There is high public awareness in terms of current affairs, politics or history. This could be attributed to high adult literacy in the country. People seem very patriotic and knowledgeable about the October revolution that led to the formation of Soviet Russia. As they commemorate 70 years of World War II, most people remember their ancestors who lost their lives in the war.   

Many still feel that USSR should not have disintegrated and consider Gorbachev a great leader with the right intention, but his policies around Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) eventually led to the split in 1991. In terms of economy, most people track currency fluctuation and have an understanding that imported items become costlier. People keep a close watch on crude oil prices. Corruption is seen as a big problem in the country.

While people think accession of Crimea last year was correct, there were mixed reaction about Russia’s involvement in Ukraine and who was responsible for the Malaysian Airline MH17 crash. Reports suggest that Russia is in recession primarily due to western sanctions (due to Russia’s military action in Ukraine) and falling oil prices. Despite the rise in food prices, attributed to Russia’s tit-for-tat embargo on import of western food products, most people seemed supportive, perhaps nationalism at play.

Adorable man
While there were mixed opinions on many topics, it is unprecedented that everyone adores their current President Vladimir Putin. He is seen as a charismatic leader, saviour, cult figure and nothing short of a rock star. People love him because he brings a personal touch while communicating with fellow Russians. 

Merchandise using Putin’s name is a testimony for his popularity. T-shirts with the picture of the president and writings like “Putin is the kindest person in the world”, “Putin is the best”, “Russia is Putin” are common.  

Putin has been in power since 1999, after President Boris Yeltsin resigned. It is an achievement for any head of a state to enjoy such popularity even after 15 years at the helm. Is it because of the TINA (There is No other alternative) factor? A recent news report states 
that Putin’s popularity within the country is at an all-time high in 2015.

Putin has been rated the most powerful global leader by Forbes for the past two years. In fact, he figures among the top five ever since Forbes began publishing the annual list of global leaders. Under his regime, the Russian economy improved after some tumultuous period after the disintegration of USSR and until 2000.  

A report says that economic output per person has almost doubled during Putin’s regime. The middle class population has prospered under Putin and poverty has reduced from 30 per cent to about 11 per cent over the past 15 years. While foreign media has tried to question Putin’s popularity by arguing that he controls the media, the fact remains that Russians, at least now, are firmly behind the President.

The trust in the president is so high that people are confident that he can get the country out of recession. Notwithstanding the controversy around World Cup 2018 to be hosted by Russia, Putin has started the 1,000-day countdown. 

The people hope this event to bring in huge infrastructure development and help revive the economy. They expect their country to scale greater heights under Putin’s leadership. Can he deliver all over again?

(The writer is adviser, Centre for Educational and Social Studies, Bengaluru)

Cybersecurity Conundrum and the Right to Privacy

By G Krishna Kumar

Published: 03rd October 2015 06:00 AM

 

Not long ago, IT and Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was the happiest person after getting the spectrum auction right, which resulted in the government earning over ` one lakh crore. Ever since, the government had to go through a lot of embarrassment over the net-neutrality debate, call drop issue and now, the encryption conundrum. While we are seeing some action from the government, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the telcos on the call drop issue, the draft net-neutrality policy is still being re-worked. Why is there a hullabaloo over the encryption draft policy? Is encryption problem specific to India alone? Before we go into how other countries are handling this, let us get a basic understanding of encryption.
Encryption is a mechanism used to ensure that any content (e-mail or any message sent over the internet) is securely transmitted from the sender to the receiver. Essentially, the content is scrambled using some encryption key or some random number), so that only the intended receiver can read it through a process called decryption (opposite of encryption). It is safe to assume that all the content exchanged on the internet is encrypted and there are any many different ways of encryption used by different companies. WhatsApp or Facebook or any other service provider would use different encryption mechanisms. In fact, all the internet banking and e-commerce sites too use encryption for secure communication.
Why is this an issue? Countries, including India, see a threat to national security as there can be communication between possible criminals. Hence, governments want to define encryption methods to be used. This means, the government can read (sniff) the data being exchanged and assess any security threat. The draft National Encryption Policy wants the government to access all forms of online communication between government, citizens and corporates. So, does the government want to control everything?
There is no doubt that cyber surveillance is needed and even if we assume that the intention behind the encryption policy is only to ensure safety and prevent any compromise on national security, it is important that privacy is not breached. That’s the tricky part. It is not surprising to see such an uproar over the encryption draft policy that was released recently. The bizarre provision asking people to store all messages, like WhatsApp messages and call logs on their mobile phones for 90 days, created a lot of  confusion. The telecom minister clarified that  individuals need not store and that the policy was not applicable to the social media. But again, it is not entirely clear why would the government allow social media, especially services like WhatsApp or Viber, to be removed from the purview as these are easy communication applications and could be misused. In any case, the government has salvaged the situation revoking the draft policy, which is expected be re-drafted.
As with the net neutrality issue, the encryption issue is also a hotly debated subject across the globe, including in countries like the UK and USA, and rest of Europe. In the US, government security agencies have been fighting for access to encrypted data arguing that if access is denied, it could result in their inability to get some potentially life-saving information. The government wants the communication systems to be designed in such a way that full access is provided to the law enforcement agencies. In fact, a recent news report suggests that the Information Technology Industry Association, representing technology companies like Google,Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and IBM have asked the Obama administration not to push for access to data from smartphones and other digital devices.
Another report states that a group of influential computer scientists in the US have dismissed the move by the government to access data as unprincipled and unworkable. The report argues that if the law enforcement agencies are provided guaranteed access to everything, an attacker or hacker who gains access to the very agencies can create unprecedented havoc. The UK government faced a huge embarrassment after there was a proposal to completely ban all types of encryption. As expected, there was a huge uproar and Prime Minister David Cameron had to clarify that the government would look for alternate solutions for handling the encryption issue. The government’s U-turn was seen as a victory by UK’s internet users. Security experts, governments and regulators across the globe are still debating if governments could have avoided 9/11 in the US or the attack in France earlier in January this year. Also, questions are being raised about how many more such attacks are required for some stringent action to be taken. It may be recalled that post the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the Indian government had a long dispute with Blackberry for over access to mails, chats and internet browsing history. Eventually, Blackberry agreed to provide lawful access to the government. Hopefully, the government and the telecom department have learnt something from that experience.
But then, the moot question remains: how much of access must the government get? Can the government work with application service providers like WhatsApp to provide back-end access to data on need-basis? Can the government get the telcos to provide access to the data? Will the technology companies, most of them based outside India agree to provide access? Will Indian telcos agree? The legal aspects must be thoroughly examined before proceeding with the proposal.
Also, it is important to note that the recommendations in the US or Europe may not be directly relevant in India as our internet market is not as mature. This means, we will need an India-specific solution and a huge opportunity for India’s premier technology institutions like IITs and IISC to make a mark.
Looking at the complexity of the issue and larger implications due to multiple stakeholders, it is better to have some in-depth deliberation by creating a “select group” with an extensive representation from across the board before making the policy available for public comments. It is also imperative that the new draft considers a phased approach for implementation. The government could have avoided the embarrassment without having to rush, considering that the draft National Encryption Policy was in the works for six years or so.
In order to avoid future fiascos, Ravi Shankar Prasad has now asked for better coordination amongst the different departments in his ministry and has asked for a clear process/procedure to be created. In fact, such a process would be relevant for other ministries as well. The government has all the rights to implement policies since national security is paramount, without compromising on citizens’ privacy. Can the government get the balancing act right?
 (Views expressed are personal)


The author is an ICT professional and columnist. E-mail: krishnak1@outlook.com

 

India’s dropped calls conundrum

(This article was published on September 24, 2015)

G KRISHNA KUMAR

Thanks to the sustained effort from the various television news channels and the print media, highlighting the issue of phone call drops plaguing the country, and there by get the stakeholders to act.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had instructed the telcos to provide a solution for the call drops within 15 days. The time frame is quite ambitious, but subscribers seem happy about the sudden seriousness the issue has found.

In fact, the situation is quite intriguing as the government and telcos are blaming each other for the crisis.

Earlier this week, India’s largest telecom service provider by revenues, Airtel, has announced that all the pre-paid subscribers will be moved from per-minute billing to a per-second billing. This means subscribers just pay for the seconds they have actually consumed.

For example, in the case of per-minute billing, if a person talks for 35 seconds and then the call drops, he/she will be charged for the entire minute, while the person will only be charged for 35 seconds in the per-second billing.

Good move, but why not include post-paid subscribers as well, who give over four times the average revenue per user (ARPU) compared to pre-paid subscribers?

In any case, Airtel’s move is aimed at silencing the critics who argue that the telcos create call drops and earn 10-40 per cent additional revenues thanks to the per-minute billing.

Acquiring and retaining customers is a huge challenge in any business and, in this backdrop, it is hard to believe any telco would purposely ‘engineer’ call-drops, annoy its subscribers and try to increase revenues.

Subscribers can easily switch to any other telecom service provider through the simple and inexpensive network portability process. However, as the quality of service with most telcos being similar, and with lack of differentiation, customers stay with the incumbent service provider.

Focus on quality

The dropped call rate (DCR) is an important measure for voice calls and anyone who has travelled abroad would know that the calls drop even there, but rarely.

For example, in the US and Europe dropped call rate is less than 1 per cent of total calls. In fact, some of the telcos in Europe are aiming at getting the DCR close to zero.

Although the benchmark set by TRAI is <2 per cent, recent audit reports reveal that the call drop rate was an average of 12 per cent to 17 per cent in the country.

The call drop issue may have suddenly gained prominence, but subscribers have been experiencing the problem for many years and it has been taken for granted by most of them.

Why did this happen? One of the reasons is that TRAI’s reporting on call drops have been irregular and incorrect. It is difficult to believe that the DCR was much better than benchmark, say, one or two years ago.

Thankfully, TRAI has realised the magnitude of the issue and one hopes the regulator would publish DCR every fortnight till we see some improvement.

We also need more granular data about call drops or other quality-of-service parameters per operator and per location. For example, it will be interesting to see who is the best telco in Mysore or Nagpur, rather than data at circle level.

In-building solutions

Can we expect the call drops issue to be completely fixed in a couple weeks? That’s quite unlikely, but some action from telcos in fine tuning the infrastructure would help. More importantly, if the towers that were shut down are restarted, they can provide some relief.

Adding towers will certainly help and may be the government should audit and assure the residents that the radiation effects are well under limits and publish quarterly results.

Lack of signal coverage resulting in call drops inside large concrete buildings such as apartments or office parks can be addressed by in-building solutions. Basically, there are efficient plug-and-play signal enhancers that the telcos could deploy for reducing dropped call rates.

More spectrum and M&A

Lack of spectrum is a constant complaint from the telcos. Indian telcos own roughly 1/5th of the spectrum compared to their peers in other countries. Also, a recent report states that in India, there is only 0.1 MHz of spectrum available for one million subscribers, compared to 3-6 MHz in Europe.

Indian telcos are stretching their infrastructure, shows another report. In metros, Indian telcos handle 8 times more voice calls per MHz per tower and 15 times more data per MHz per tower.

The mobile data consumption per month in India is just 1/10th that of the US and other advanced countries. We will soon see hyper growth in data consumption, and lack of spectrum will become a challenge then.

Specifics on spectrum sharing and trading are expected to be announced shortly. This can certainly help in bringing the call drops down.

India’s mobile telecom market is highly fragmented with 10-12 telcos operating in each circle, compared to the global average of 3-5 telcos. Consolidation in the industry could be the next big wave for improving efficiencies and it is imperative that the government announces a mergers and acquisition policy soon.

Another tricky topic is on the regulatory fees. The fees in India is nearly 20 per cent of the revenues earned by the telcos, compared to 3-4 per cent in China and other countries.

Shouldn’t there be a revisit on this and at the same time push the telcos hard to meet the prescribed quality of service.

We may not see close to zero dropped call rate in India, but some sustained actions from the telcos, TRAI and the government can certainly help in improving the situation.

The writer is a Bengaluru-based ICT professional. The views are personal

Will Digital India be a Dividend or Dilemma?

By G Krishna Kumar  Published: 13th August 2015 06:00 AM

New Indian Express , Editorial Page.

 

Recently, India celebrated 20 years of mobile telephony in the country. Back in 1995, the first mobile telephone call was made between the then chief minister of West Bengal and the union minister of Telecommunications in New Delhi. Over the past two decades, we have managed to successfully get away from the highly restricted landline system imposed by the government-owned companies into the dynamic world of mobile communication. Remember the OYT (Own Your Telephone) and N-OYT schemes by the telephone department and the wait for seven to 10 years to get a landline connection? While we must laud the dramatic transformation of telecommunication set-up in the country, India is still ranked lowest among the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Development Index or the IDI published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).  IDI is the globally accepted indicator for a country’s ICT penetration.

Sample this: India’s IDI ranking is 129, while Russia, Brazil, China and South Africa are ranked 42, 65, 86 and 90 respectively. As a comparison, India’s absolute score is 2.83, while the top 5 countries have a score of over 8.5. Interestingly, eight out of the top 10 countries with best IDI score are in the Europe. Among Asian countries, South Korea is ranked second, followed by Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore at ninth, eleventh and sixteenth positions respectively.

India’s digital journey started picking pace over the past 10-12 years. With the current government’s Digital India initiative, let us hope that India catapults into top ranking over the next decade.
But what needs to be done? The government should take a holistic view and tackle some of the immediate issues plaguing the telecom sector, both in wireless and wireline broadband segments. The call drop issue has been making headlines for the past few months. Surprisingly, India’s telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report shows that call drop rates are much better than the benchmark in most of the states, including Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh for both 2G and 3G services. Looking at the inconsistency between what subscribers experience and what is reported by the network operators/auditors, the TRAI should definitely consider collecting customer perception or “quality of experience”.

Realising the magnitude of the issue, Telecom Minster Ravi Shankar Prasad has asked for a special audit. We hope to see the results soon, however, it depends on how well the operators respond to the results and take corrective actions. The telecos claim that there are not enough mobile towers in the country. India has over 4,00,000 mobile towers and it is estimated that another 5,00,000 towers will be required to solve the call drops problem. The issue with adding towers is tricky, as there is a growing fear of health hazard due to mobile towers.

A recent report suggests that a parliamentary panel has observed that Indians are more “vulnerable and prone” to electromagnetic radiation and hence there is a need for a detailed study of health risk. Indian telecom operators are starved for spectrum.  The Indian telcos receive only 15 per cent of the spectrum compared to their peers in other countries.
It is important that the government provides more spectrum to the operators. This will also mean that the government earns more money through auction of spectrum and will keep the subscribers happy with fewer call drops.
Most importantly, considering the huge uptake in data usage (people using mobile phone for accessing internet), we need strict parameters for measuring the Quality of service or QOS for data. Are the Indian subscribers really getting 3G and 4G data rates? The TRAI should proactively drive this issue as well as seek corrective actions from the telcos. Otherwise, we could witness an uproar similar to the call drops issue.
The other issue on net neutrality has been overplayed. The Internet ecosystem is quite complex with so many stakeholders like platform providers, search engine providers, content providers, mobile phone makers and platform providers, all competing for their share. Considering that India’s internet usage has just started growing, we need a mature and a balanced approach in this regard. In fact, the world over, net neutrality is still hotly debated and it will take a while for any sort of direction to emerge.
For creating a digitally literate society in India, we need content to be made available in local languages and more importantly, we need applications and content to address the semi-literate and illiterate population. Most of our cities have some form of e-governance system already working. It may be a good idea to strengthen the existing system and create transparency. Can we get India’s Information and Technology industry to own some of these initiatives as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)?

The other big issue is related to cashless transactions that can bring in transparency and accountability. Why can’t we encourage cashless transactions?  Today, despite the ruling by the RBI, credit card payments and online payment often attract additional charges.
Most of the shops, clinics/ hospitals among other institutions discourage customers from using credit cards citing a two per cent additional charge. It is actually the same when making any payment using the internet.  Shouldn’t the merchants be held responsible for misguiding and for not following the rules?

The incessantly delayed plan of connecting 2,50,000 village panchayats through the National optical fibre network (NOFN) is a cause of worry. A report states that 67 per cent of the NOFN points are not functional. Although the government has rechristened the NOFN as Bharatnet and the budget for this is expected to be increased threefold to over `70,000 crore, the e-governance programmes cannot be realised until the fibre optic backbone is functional.
Maybe the government should prioritise and get 10 per cent of the village panchayats fully working first. On the line of the Smart City challenge, the government should encourage states to compete for faster completion.
Clearly, all the hype around Digital India will vanish if we do not get the priorities right. Unless we have bi-yearly measurable targets published, closely monitor the progress, punish delays and reward on-time completion, the much-anticipated Digital India dividend could turn into dilemma.

The writer is adviser, Centre for Educational and Social Studies, Bengaluru.
 Email: krishnak1@outlook.com

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Cases in Business Marketing

Just found - I am quoted in this book titled "Cases in Business Marketing", Published by Tata McGraw Hill 2013 Chapter 6 page 103 . "Indian OPD Industry orbiting its way to the core"

This has been taken from my column "Can we get an Indian Huawei?" published in FE 2011

Quoting G Krishna Kumar, Financial Express 2011 -
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.

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. 

Getting set for the app economy

By: G Krishna Kumar and V Sridhar| Financial Express | FE-Reflect | July 23, 2015 11:49 pm

With increased adoption of smartphones and deployment of 3G/4G networks, the country is poised for the take-off of an app economy, a new term coined to describe the economic aspects of mobile applications and content.
With 3-5 million signing up for mobile broadband and 25 million smartphone shipments every quarter, the app economy is here to stay.
Alibaba, the Chinese top e-tailer made headlines for clocking about $9 Billion in just a day during the Singles’ day in November 2014. Not surprisingly a significant chunk was from mobile devices.  A latest KPMG report says that e-commerce (through traditional websites on PCs/laptops) will be overtaken by mobile based m-commerce very soon.
It is a trend that is gaining traction with all  e-tailers providing great user experience on mobile devices. Most recently, India’s leading e-tailer, Flipkart, offered special discounts for purchases made using mobile apps instead of their website. In fact, some of the e-tailers are gearing-up to do away with websites and take a “mobile app” alone route.
In general, the mobile app market has grown significantly over the past five years.  Google’s Play Store  and  Apple’s iStore, both boast of over 1.4 million apps. Is there a real market for app developers in India? How does the app economy work?
The apps market in India is likely to grow by more than four times to $626.23 million (around Rs 3,800 crore) by 2016, with paid apps contributing over 50%. Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) estimates the total worth of Indian app economy at $150 million currently (about Rs 900 crore), with immense potential to grow further.
An average of 17 apps were downloaded in a year in India per user, out of which 4 were paid apps, compared to a global average of 26 apps, of which 5 were paid apps. India is among the top three countries by the number of app downloads
Interestingly, 80% of apps being downloaded in India are global apps. This may be due to the lack of India-specific apps. Unlike countries like China, Korea, or even Japan, where country-specific Apps are a smash hit like Weibo or KaKaoTalk, India cannot boast of many India specific app with millions of users. Bharti Softbank’s Hike messenger has about 25 million users.
A recent report states that there are over 3 lakh mobile app developers in the country. Over the past few years, quite a few Indian companies specialising in app development have emerged and are successful in developing apps for both B2B and B2C markets. InMobi has just released an engaging mobile advertisement delivery platform competing with Facebook and Google. Some companies have created a niche for themselves by focusing on iOS apps.
UK-based mobile app research company Vision Mobile has some interesting statistics about the Indian market from a developer stand point.  Android has emerged as the primary app development platform with over 56% developers using Android, while 20%  of the developers use iOS.  In terms of revenue model, advertising contributes to about 40% , followed by the ‘pay per download’ of 21% and contract work  and commissioned apps coming in with 20%.
What could be the niche areas for Indian apps? Diversity of languages is a unique trait for India. Firms such as Reverie Technologies have developed platforms for Indian language processing; mobile app developers, especially those related to media could look at creating apps that meet the needs of language diverse demographies of India.
Newshunt, the multilingual news feed platform for example has seen good traction amongst non-English speaking users.
Another area is the development of apps for improving day-to-day life of Indians. Congestion in roads, call drops on telecom networks, overflowing sewage, water shortages are some of the common infrastructural and public utility bottlenecks that we face day in and day out. How about a simple India specific weather forecasting application in local language? This could also be used for emergency alerts regarding floods/earthquakes,etc.
The Singapore government has made significant progress in enabling mobile  app based service delivery.
Singapore’s OneService provides a platform for residents to give feedback to the authorities on all the municipal issues. The ActiveSG app lets the public book sporting facilities and sign up for sports programmes. myENV allows the user to check  weather and related information.
India could adopt mobile app based governance systems. For example, the government had recently shortlisted 20 app ideas from over 9,000 entries with over 50,000 ideas in the PMO app contest—certainly a great initiative to spur innovation among the youth. Let us hope to see millions of downloads and active usage enabling a digital society.
The e-commerce companies are basically trying to provide some smoothness to the unorganised sector through digital intervention.  Similarly, apps can bridge the gap between citizens and the governments at various levels to improve public services.

Kumar is vice-president, Symphony Teleca and Sridhar is professor, IIIT Bangalore. Views are personal
First Published on July 24, 2015 12:25 am
 

Improve, innovate, implement: Smart cities' mantra

G Krishna Kumar, July 20, 2015, Deccan Herald/OpEd/Panorama

Rains in Gurgaon and Delhi have embarrassingly exposed the fragile infrastructure in these cities. This just proves that a downpour would leave our cities, old and new alike, in absolute disarray.   The civic administration, urban planners and politicians have miserably failed in planning and implementing basic infrastructure, be it drainage or pothole free roads in our cities.
Despite the current infrastructure woes in cities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the laudable initiative of “100 smart cities” mission. Indeed, the right strategy considering India’s urban population is expected to grow to over 50 per cent in the next 15 years, contributing to over 75 per cent of the GDP.

Smart cities are expected to make the life of the general public better by using Information and communication technology (ICT), and bringing in efficiency and accountability. ICT can assist in efficient delivery of physical services to the public. The recently launched Digital India project would help in building-in transparency and creating an “ICT aware” society. 

It is estimated that an astounding Rs 40 lakh crore is required to build 100 smart cities. Will the existing cities be able to self-finance and manage the scale? May be the government should look at a complete overhaul of the archaic administrative set-up. 

The government plans to spend Rs 1 lakh crore over five years for the 100 smart cities project and 500 cities under the AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation). The AMRUT is aimed at improving the infrastructure of cities with over one lakh population.

It is an excellent idea as it aims at improving the quality of life and providing a clean and sustainable environment to the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and towns including the much needed tourist spots. This will also help decongest metropolitan cities.

The government is planning for a two-stage ‘City Challenge’ competition that would allow states to compete with each other for funding. Among other parameters, past track record in implementing sanctioned projects, self-financing, city’s vision and strategy, innovation, scalability and cost effectiveness of the smart city plan will be part of the evaluation criteria.

Planning for the smart cities mission is strategic and long term in nature. Hence, there must be a “short term” focussed effort in handling initiatives that can provide immediate respite to the citizens. As a first step, we need better coordination between the government organisations within the city and thereby reduce costs. Why can’t the departments handling a city’s road repairs/ asphalting, sewerage/ water, work coherently?

Each city will have different priorities and civic groups must be involved in identifying key issues that can be implemented using the existing ICT system.  For example, a simple and effective parking solution during weekends and holidays could be created by using all the vacant parking slots available in government and private offices in the central part of any city.

Similarly, installing skywalks/escalators on roads with dense vehicle movement, providing bus arrival information system in all the bus stops can be some of the simple yet high-impact measures that the citizens would appreciate. Most cities have established e-governance systems that people use for paying utility bills, taxes etc. 

Can we improve the grievance redressal systems, provide time-bound response and establish a clear work-flow automation? This will greatly help in providing the exact status to the citizens availing any service. This can also reduce corruption to a great extent.

Sensing an immense opportunity, many countries and global companies are offering funding and technology solutions towards India’s smart cities mission.  We need “India-specific” and affordable solutions and hence copying from other countries may only result in significant cost with no meaningful impact to the citizens.  

For example, some European cities have implemented an underground pneumatic garbage disposal system. Basically, the moment garbage is dumped into the bin on the street, it gets immediately sucked into the underground system. Sounds impressive, isn’t it? But, do we need such expensive systems in India?

In fact, a research report suggests that an efficient traditional garbage collection system would just cost only 10-15 per cent of such sophisticated underground systems.

Innovate and implement
The smart cities initiative is a great platform to spur innovation. Using the ‘Mera Shahar Mera Sapna’ contest, Modi has made the right move by asking people for innovative ideas. Ideas should be bottom-up, while the planning would require a top-down approach. The government must create a platform to appreciate “engaged citizens” contributing ideas.

While large multinational technology companies are eager to participate in the smart cities’ journey, the government should create the right checks and balances to avoid monopoly. For sustained innovation, the start-up ecosystem must be encouraged along with a strong push for participation from smaller companies.

Synergies between the smart cities and the Digital India initiative can spur inno-vation and help in creating ICT jobs. The recently launched Skill India mission can act as a stimulus for encouraging entrepreneurship around smart cities. The government should consider creating specific

skill development programmes around ICT/smart cities by involving other stake holders.
As with any infrastructure project, implementation is the key. The government should publish measurable targets, accountability and a quarterly progress report. An Independent Evaluation Office to monitor the progress would greatly benefit.

Finally, only government’s willingness and a “make it happen” attitude will decide if the dream of smart cities can become a reality.  In the short term, will the urban bodies take a cue from the PM’s message and implement simple, yet high impact initiatives, create visible positive changes in our cities and gain the citizens’ trust?

(The writer is Adviser, Centre for Educational and Social Studies, Bengaluru)

DoT report rekindles fire over Net Neutrality

Monday, 20 July 2015 - 8:04am IST | Agency: dna | From the print edition

Reactions to the government panel's report on Net Neutrality range from stunned to amused, and most are wondering whether it has given in to the pressure from the telecom giants.
Nikhil Pahwa, a volunteer of savetheinternet.com and editor of MediaNama, said that while the department of telecom (DoT) committee has taken a middle path, it has deviated from the main objective of coming out with a regulation for saving the Net Neutrality to saving telecom companies' (telcos) revenues.
"What was supposed to be a regulation for protection of Net Neutrality has turned out to be more a regulation for protection of telcos' revenues. Curiously, the panel even states it so in the report and we are opposed to any such move," he said.

G Krishna Kumar, a Bengaluru-based telecom executive, is also quite amused by the submission of the panel to the telcos' demand.
"It is quite amusing that even after the uproar created due to Airtel Zero, it has been given an okay by DoT panel stating that Trai (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) would take a decision on a case-by-case basis," he quipped.
Airtel Zero is a platform developed by Bharti Airtel that will charge app developers for data while consumers will get free access to it. Many believe it goes against the tenet of Net Neutrality as it will discriminate between apps.
At the same time, both Pahwa and Krishna Kumar believe that the panel's suggestions have some positives too. One of them being no licence required by over the top players (OTTs) for instant messaging services in the domestic market.
Pahwa, however, feels that institution of carriage fee for internet usage under Airtel Zero-like platform would be a disadvantage for start-ups and could compel them to set up their businesses elsewhere in the world.
 Krishna Kumar is of the view that pure Net Neutrality was just a wishful thinking.
"Telcos will need flexibility on cost and priority of data. While differentiation based on broad category of applications like VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), streaming, etc., is okay, we don't want specific content providers' data to be given different priority. For example VoIP apps should be given higher priority, but within the group Viber and WhatsApp should not be differentiated," he said.
Even Mahesh Uppal, director, Com First India Pvt Ltd, said Net Neutrality of the kind in the West was a non-starter in India. He feels something like Airtel Zero was necessary to help telcos to come up with innovative pricing to subsidise people to come on to the internet. Today, internet penetration is as low as 20%. Given the low internet access, Uppal believes the debate on Net Neutrality, at this stage, was more like the 'if you can't eat bread, eat cake' argument. "Net neutrality cannot be treated as a priority, given India's level of internet usage and access," he said.
Many also cannot decipher the discrimination between Airtel Zero and Internet.org as they are not very different from each other. The government expert committee believes that the content and application providers like Internet.org should not be permitted to act as a "gatekeeper".
Internet.org, although criticised by DoT, has over 80 million subscribers in the world and over eight lakh users in India.
A Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (BoA-ML) report on the issue said that government committee's stance seems "mildly positive for telcos" as it would reduce voice revenue cannibalisation from VoIP.
BoA-ML analysts Sachin Salgaonkar and Karan Parmanandka wrote if the suggestions were accepted by the government, new telcos like Relaince Jio (RJio) could look at acquiring VoIP licence.
"Given RJio's lack of traditional voice offering and considering that its Vo-LTE offering may not be mature immediately, we see possibility that Jio may look to acquire a VoIP license," they say in the report.
According to them, if such a scenario were to play out, then there would be no free VoIP call offers and this would be positive for all telcos as it will reduce cannibalisation of voice revenues from VoIP uptake. Their international revenues, however, would remain under pressure as that traffic would continue to move to VoIP.
 

Government gives telecom companies a ring on rising call drops

Wednesday, 8 July 2015 - 6:50am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition

Inundated with complaints on rising rate of call drops, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday talked tough with telecom companies (telcos) and announced a slew of measures the government would take to rein in the menace.
These included directing telecom service providers (TSPs) to optimise radio frequency network, a special audit of service quality by department of telecom (DoT), enabling in-building solution (IBS), modification of building by-laws to include a provision for telecom infrastructure and exploding myths on health hazards of radiation from mobiles towers.
Interestingly, even as grievances relating to call drops have shot up across all circles lately, as per the latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) report the parameter call drop rate has shown improvement during December 2014 quarter, compared with the previous quarter.
The permissible limit of call drops set by Trai is anything less than 2%. Trai's findings for the December quarter last year shows the call drop rate improved to 2.7% from 3.28% in September quarter.
G Krishna Kumar, a Bangalore-based telecom professional, said, with a "disparity" in the findings of various agencies on call drops and the actual reality on the ground, the government should look at taking direct feedback from consumers to get the real picture.
"Looking at the disparity between what subscribers experience and what is reported by the network operators/auditors and Trai, the government should actively consider collecting customer perception or quality of experience," he said.
Krishna Kumar also called for strict parameters for measuring the quality of service for data to study whether consumers were really getting 3G and 4G data service for the rates they were paying for. "The special audit suggested by the minister is most welcome. But it all depends on how well the operators will respond to the results," he said
One of the major reasons for call drops is the resistance of local people against installation of mobile towers in their vicinity because of the propaganda about its health risk.
The minister said such beliefs were aggravating the problem of call drops. "Talk of call drop and campaign for removal of BTS (base tower station) cannot go together. We need telecom infrastructure and BTS to improve service," he said.

Digital India faces NoFN delay,hurdles

Tuesday, 30 June 2015 - 7:10am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition
Viable revenue model, work flow automation, proper eco-system and host of other things crucial for success of government's ambitious Rs 1.3 lakh crore project, say experts

As the government makes a fresh bid to push the Digital India programme, which has been snagged with delays in the National Optic Fibre Network (NoFN) and other hurdles, experts said various issues like working out the revenue model, work flow automation, creating an ecosystem for it and others would have to be addressed to make it successful.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Rs 1.3 lakh crore programme that intends to create infrastructure to digitally deliver government services to citizens.

Bengaluru-based telecom professional G Krishna Kumar said while Digital India was a great initiative to bridge the digital divide between the cities and the rural hinterland, the government would need to embark on an e-literacy mission for training people and helping them understand the benefits of using e-governance platform.
"Even in cities, we need a strong work flow automation set-up to be established. For example, if I request for some document from the government office, I should know how long it will take for the document to be processed and also what is the current status. This removes anxiety among the citizens, an assured service level would mean better accountability and reduced corruption," he said.
Citing the example of property registration in Bengaluru, he said despite it being digitised, most processes were still done manually and required multiple visits to the local office.
"The assured services and timelines are rarely met. Even if we have the technology and platform, enforcing the system can be a challenge. A strong willingness from the government is much needed," he said.
According to him, Digital India and smart cities initiatives can be aligned and existing e-governance systems should be modified to be brought under it.
Krishna said public private partnership (PPP) model of executing the projects was the right approach. Under this model, private players will look for profits and so it would be important for the government to provide a clear roadmap and blueprint for the same.
He said one successful case of PPP project was the Passport Seva Kendra, where the government partnered with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
"Maybe, the government should replicate the best practices (of the Passport Seva Kendra) so that it is a win-win for the stakeholders," he said.

Deloitte senior director Arindam Guha said the Passport Seva Kendra was commercially viable because of the service charges collected by the government for it.
He, therefore, said it was crucial for the government work out a revenue model that could entice private partners to bring in investments.
 

It's a free world: Netizens win Neutrality battle

 

Wednesday, 15 April 2015 - 7:45am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition

 

Many times in the past, Netizens have brought the mightiest of the mighty to knees. They did it again on Tuesday. The uproar over the disruption of Net Neutrality, which means non-discriminatory access to all Internet users, forced leading e-commerce firm Flipkart to backtrack from entering into a deal with the largest telecom firm, Bharti Airtel, that would have given the former an edge over its competitors.
The e-commerce company was the first to jump on to Airtel Zero, an open marketing platform that will provide its users mobile apps for free, while recovering the cost from a revenue-sharing deal with app providers.
Airtel also rushed to extend its full support to a non-discriminatory Internet and clearing misconceptions on its marketing platform. "Airtel fully supports the concept of Net Neutrality. There have been some misconceptions about our toll-free data platform – Airtel Zero. It is a not a tariff proposition but an open marketing platform," it said.
It further added that Flipkart's decision not to offer toll-free data service to its customers was consistent with theirs that Airtel Zero was not a tariff proposition.
There was a similar occurrence last year, too, when Airtel had to retrace its step after announcing that it would start charging for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services like Skype, Line and Viber.
It did so because of the backlash from Internet users. From the whiff of the ongoing debate, India's stand on the issue could well be shadowing the US', where a majority of the Net users favour 100% open Internet.
Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, while announcing the formation of a six-member panel for Net Neutrality, displayed his inclination towards an unfettered Internet.

Bengaluru-based telecom consultant G Krishna Kumar believes India may go in for a selective Net Neutrality approach or a middle path with adequate checks in place.
"Net Neutrality or not, the hyper competitive landscape in our country will ensure quality will prevail over free access," he said. 

Committee to look into Net Neutrality debate

Tuesday, 14 April 2015 - 7:00am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition

Praveena Sharma and Krishna Bahirwani

Net Neutrality, which means non-discrimination in providing Net access, has captured the imagination of internet users. And anyone violating it is incurring a backlash so severe that it is putting him on the backfoot.

Despite a few misadventures, telcos including Bharti Airtel, Uninor and Reliance Communications are testing the waters by entering into tie-ups with e-commerce and social networking partners to provide free apps that could prove to be discriminating against other online players and restrict choices for internet consumers.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has also initiated the process of putting in place guidelines for the Net Neutrality in India after there was a resounding protest against Airtel’s attempt to smother it a month back. It has put a consultation paper on its website and invited public comments and feedback by April 24.
Interestingly, Rajan Mathews, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said in the absence of best global practices, there widespread confusion on the issue.
He, however, said that the representative body of GSM players was all for non-discriminatory use of internet.
G Krishna Kumar, a Bangalore-based telecom professional, had a somewhat different view on the issue. He said India should look at a balanced approach and not blindly imitate the US.
“India certainly needs a clear Net-Neutrality framework, but we need a balanced approach and cannot copy from the US. Even if differential pricing or zero pricing is allowed for certain content, a guaranteed quality of service for accessing internet must be ensured,” he said.
While the US plans a strong Net Neutrality framework, Europe appears to have a contrasting view allowing for preferential treatment.
Krishna Kumar said India had to go for a different model as its market was different with operators getting just one-fifth of the spectrum compared to other countries and was price sensitive. Even in terms of average revenue per user (Arpu), it is less than 10% of the Arpu earned by operators in advanced countries.
Even Sajai Singh of law firm J. Sagar Associates (JSA) believes that the policy makers should not rush into coming out with guidelines without thinking it through.
“Net Neutrality should be thought through before being applied because, in addition to ethical issues, there are basic economic issues involved for the ISP (internet service providers) and any policy or regulation on it should address every interests and aspirations of all stakeholders,” said Sajai Singh of law firm  J. Sagar Associates (JSA).
 

Day 9: Total spectrum bid value remain at over Rs 1 lakh crore

Saturday, 14 March 2015 - 6:30am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition

On the ninth day of the spectrum auction, the total bid value remained over Rs 1 lakh crore as telecom companies (telcos) went after airwaves in the 800 Mega Hertz (MHz) band as they look to cash in from data consumption explosion projected by internet survey firms.
After 55 rounds of bidding, the government's provisional revenue earning on Friday on allocation of 86% of the 465 MHz spectrum in four bands put on the block was over Rs 1 lakh crore. This figure is very close to the record revenue of Rs 1.06 lakh crore earned by it in 2010.
The auction continued to see furious action in the 800 MHz band for the third day in a row. The demand for airwaves in this band in Andhra Pradesh (AP) circle on Friday saw a huge jump of 15% to Rs 541 crore per block from Rs 471 crore per block a day earlier.
G Krishna Kumar, Bangalore-based telecom consultant, said fierce bidding for airwaves in AP circle could be because it is one to the top five states in the country in terms of GDP and also one of the IT capitals.
Curiously, even Odisha and Madhya Pradesh (MP) saw some intense bidding on Friday with the price per block shooting up by 19% and 10% respectively. In Odisha, it moved up to Rs 22.32 crore per block from Rs 18.75 crore per block and in MP to Rs 266.50 crore per block from Rs 243.90 crore per block.
Spectrum price in Delhi also jumped by around 1% from Rs 885.95 crore per block to Rs 903.74 crore per block. Beside these circles, prices in the rest of 800 MHz band circles seems to have stabilised.
Prices of 900 MHz band spectrum has, more or less, stabilised with marginal price rise in a few circles like Assam, Maharashtra, Northeast and West Bengal circles.
Friday also saw demand for 1,800 MHz with upward price movement in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kolkata and Odisha.
In the 2,100 MHz band, there were no bidder in Mumbai, Delhi and AP circles due to prohibitive reserve price per block in these circles, which was as high as Rs 3,315 crore (Delhi) per block and Rs 3,245 crore (Mumbai) per block. In this band, there was a nominal price rise in Assam, Northeast, Rajasthan and UP (west).
Krishna Kumar said the lacklustre demand for 2,100 MHz could be because only one slot had been put up for sale at very high reserve price. He believes this band could see some spectrum left unsold at the end of the auction. He expects the auction to conclude in a few days.
The auction has eight participants including Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Uninor, Aircel, Tata Tele, Reliance Communication and Reliance Jio. The government said since there was still some more spectrum left to be sold, the bidding will continue today.
 

Spectrum bidding set to top Rs 1 lakh crore

Monday, 9 March 2015 - 6:30am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna

Bidding for spectrum by the telecom operators reached Rs 86,000 crore on the fourth day of the auction, surpassing the government's revenue expectation of Rs 82,000 crore, the rate at which the reserve price was fixed in the four bands.
By Saturday, the auction, that began on Wednesday, completed 24 bidding rounds with spectrum in 900 MHz band being most sought after by the telecom companies. In this band, Madhya Pradesh saw aggressive bidding with an increase of 15% from Day 3 to Day 4. Similarly, UP (East) saw the price per block go up from Rs 77 crore to Rs 88 crore, an increase of 17% at the end of the clock round 24.
After three days of lukewarm response in the 800 MHz band, action picked up on Day 4 with some bidders jumping into the fray for blocks in circles like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and others. Apparently, bidding in the 800 MHz band was keenly contested. For example, in Mumbai, from Day 3 to Day 4, the price per block went up from Rs 576 crore to Rs 691 crore.
Even in the 1800 MHz band, bidding commenced for blocks in Kolkata and Northeast circles even as demand for 2,100 MHz remained subdued for the fourth day with bidding seen only by three bidders in three circles of Assam, Northeast and Rajasthan. There were no takers for the 1800 MHz in both UP (East) and UP (West).
Analysts believe aggressive bidding by telcos is likely to see their debt levels shoot up considerably. Standard & Poor's (S&P) expects it to jump 18-20% from the current levels. G Krishna Kumar, a Bangalore-based telecom professional estimates the auction to push up the debts of the operators by 30-40%.
He believes Idea could have bid more aggressively as the spectrum that contributes around 70% to its revenues will expire later this year. He feels both Airtel and Vodafone too could fiercely bid for airwaves as roughly 50% of their revenues are tied to the spectrum that are expiring this year.
According to him, the average revenue per minute (ARPM) in India is roughly 35 paisa. "This means after the current auction, the operators will ask subscribers to pay at least 15% more," estimates Krishna Kumar.
He said India had to do lot of catching up in the data service segment, where huge potential still remains untapped. "Data usage per customer in India is roughly 60 megabytes (MB) per month while it is 700MB in the US. It is expected to touch 2 gigabyte (GB) by 2017, thanks to 4G. There is a big catch-up to be done in India," he said.
The government has put up 465 MHz of airwaves on the block for sale in four bands including 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz and 2,100 MHz. In all, eight telcos are taking part in the bidding constituting Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Tata Tele, Uninor, Reliance Jio, Reliance Communication and Aircel.
A large quantum of spectrum put up for auction are currently being held by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Telecom. While their licences are set to expire in 2015-16, Idea's nine, Airtel's six and seven each of Vodafone and Reliance Telecom are coming up for renewal. The government had raked in Rs 62,162 crore from the last spectrum auction held in February 2014.

Spectrum auction kicks off with a bang; bidding tops Rs 60,000 crore

Thursday, 5 March 2015 - 6:10am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition

The latest round of spectrum auction in four bands kicked off with a bang on Wednesday with the first day bidding crossing a whopping Rs 60,000 crore. Aggressive bidding was seen in the 900 megahertz (MHz) band.
"Going by the quotations on the first day the response was better than expected," telecom secretary, Rakesh Garg said.
"It (the first day of the auction) went off well with the bidding already reaching Rs 60,000 crore. There was aggressive bidding in the 900 MHz band, which is fast spreading to 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz. The bidding for 800 MHz airwaves was also good," he said.
The auction saw eight companies participating in the bidding with 385.75 megahertz (MHz) of telecom spectrum in four bands put on the block. These were Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, Tata Tele, Reliance Communications, Reliance Jio and Telewings, who have deposited a total of Rs 20,435 crore earnest money.
The high collection of earnest deposit was itself an indication of aggressive bidding. The total airwaves up for bidding include 103.75 MHz in the 800 MHz band, 177.8 MHz in 900 MHz band, 99.2 MHz in 1,800 MHz band and 5 MHz in 2,100 MHz band.
G Krishna Kumar, a telecom professional from Bangalore, said aggressive bidding for airwaves will further hit the already stretched balance sheets of telecom companies and will push up tariff as increased costs will be passed on to the consumers.
He said that with subscriber base for most telcos' voice services already having topped, they will chase subscribers for data services, where a huge potential still remained untapped.
"Going forward, data is going to be their priority. They will have to be clever in providing their data-plans in a way that there is growth in the segment," he said.
The initial estimates of revenues, based on the reserve prices set by the government, to be earned by the government from selling the airwaves in different bands have been pegged at Rs 80,000 crore to Rs 1 lakh crore.
This is the highest ever revenue collected in any auction till now and will help the current government to easily meet its fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of the GDP in this fiscal. In the last auction, which was held in February last year, the government raked in Rs 62,162 crore.
The auction is expected to carry on for several weeks, including Thursday, which is a public holiday. In the past too, bidding for spectrum has lasted for longs hours for weeks.
At the outset, the latest round of the auction was expected to be of fierce bidding with incumbents Bharti and Vodafone trying to garner as much spectrum as possible to keep their lead in the voice services market and expand the data services segment. Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Communications, which is yet to launch its services, is expected to up the competitive heat by going aggressively after more airwaves to take on established players.
Many of the telcos' licences will be coming up for renewal in 2015-16. These include nine of Idea, six of Airtel and seven each of Vodafone and Reliance.
Abiding the court order, this time the government will not be releasing information on individual companies or the winners of spectrum until the end of the auction.

Eight telcos to bid for spectrum, Videocon, Sistema opts out

Eight telcos to bid for spectrum, Videocon, Sistema opts out
Tuesday, 17 February 2015 - 6:20am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition

• The spectrum of March 4 envinced active interest with eight of the 10 private telecom operators having submitted their applications on Monday, the last date for expressing intent.

  The spectrum of March 4 envinced active interest with eight of the 10 private telecom operators having submitted their applications on Monday, the last date for expressing intent.
  The auction will generate revenues close to around Rs 80,000 crore for the government which will help meeting its fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of the GDP.
  All major players including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, Reliance Jio, Uninor, Aircel and Tata Teleservices have submitted their forms. Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL) and Videocon, however, have decided to opt out of it.
  The combined market share of the two players would be less than 2% of the total mobile services market.
  G Krishna Kumar, telecom professional based in Bangalore, said their absence in the auction would not be of much consequence.
  "While, ideally, we would expect all the existing providers to participate in the auction process, it is perfectly fine for a few to drop out. In the current scenario, Videocon and Sistema together account for only about 1.5% of the wireless subscribers in the country," he said,
  SSTL, which operates its services in the 800 megahertz (MHz) band, has decided to keep out of bidding because of steep reserve price fixed and its pending complaint against Department of Telecom (DoT) with the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) for making the spectrum allocated to it in the 2013 auction contiguous.
  "SSTL has consistently maintained that the pricing of 800 MHz spectrum at Rs 3646 crore per MHz, is way out of line and does not merit a strong business case for buying additional spectrum. The company continues to maintain that such pricing does not take into account the realities of the prevailing ecosystem within the band," said the statement issued by the company.
  The company currently holds 3.75 MHz spectrum in nine circles including Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (west), West Bengal and Kolkata. A company spokesperson said the company was waiting for the issue of non-contiguous spectrum to be resolved in TDSAT, whose next hearing was on February 18.
  In the auction held in 2013, SSTL was the only bidder for the CDMA spectrum.
  "Since SSTL was the sole bidder during the said (2013) auction and there is no other successful operator for rearrangement of frequencies, it is incumbent upon DoT to rearrange/reassign the frequency to make the spectrum allotted to SSTL contiguous," it noted in its statement.
  The government is offering 385.75 MHz spectrum in four bands including 800, 900, 1800 and 2100.
  Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Telecom, whose licenses will be expiring in the current fiscal, are expected to be aggressively bidding for spectrum to win it back

Need to redesign structure for skilling India

 February 2, 2015 12:36 am Financial Express FE-Reflect FE Columnist

The union minister of state (independent charge) for skill development, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, recently said that India’s skilled workforce is 2%, compared to over 75% in all major economies. In this backdrop, the government us working on a new skill development policy to address shortcomings of the existing policy. Although skill development can improve “employment-readiness”, a sustainable job creation platform is urgently needed.

The job market is a factor of demand and supply. Demand-supply mismatch here is one of the biggest challenges India faces. A report indicates that there is demand in the job market, but unavailability of the right talent is costing the economy R53,000 crore.
Although India produces lakhs of graduates, the National Employability Report 2014 states that employability is a challenge with only 18.09% of this pool getting jobs. People taking up jobs for which they are overqualified amplifies the demand-supply mismatch.
The lack of skilled people is an overarching challenge, prevalent across industries, be it manufacturing or IT. We need a three-pronged approach to address the demand-supply challenge.
We need a strong vocational education and training system, the foundation of which must be set at the primary school level. We should, perhaps, adopt the German Duales Ausbildungssystem or dual system of vocational education and training (DSVET). In fact, China too has developed its own vocational education is introduced at the primary school with students in the age group of 12-14 years. In India, in addition to specific skills, communication, logical reasoning and, most importantly, cognitive skills must be taught to the students.
The prime minister’s idea of using railway stations for imparting skill development training in rural areas must be lauded. Perhaps, this should be extended and existing infrastructure in government offices like post offices, BSNL, and even colleges and schools should be used for vocational training. The Digital India campaign can help in using ICT as an enabler for skill development, evaluation and monitoring of students. With advancement in ICT, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform can be used effectively to impart vocational training.
Vocational school teachers in China are mandated to spend one month in the industry every year. This is an excellent mechanism to ensure the teachers are up-to-speed in terms of industry and technology. Can we implement this in India across disciplines/courses? This can be achieved only if we have a strong industry-academia relationship. How about getting experienced professionals from different sectors to train the teachers? Perhaps, the companies can utilise their CSR spend to provide experienced manpower for training .
Also, industry bodies should drive the syllabus (both theory and practical training). The government could invite experienced and retired professionals to contribute in developing and updating the syllabus. Introducing mandatory industrial training as part of curriculum will certainly help students’ employability prospects.
The government’s plan to start an university for skilling can wait. There are quite a few disparate skill development efforts carried out in the country. We already have thousands of ITIs, engineering and diploma colleges. In addition, we have the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and the National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework (NVEQF) addressing some of the skill gaps. There are quite a few NGOs and private players offering skill development/ entrepreneurship training. Instead of creating new organisations/systems, it makes sense to streamline and rationalise existing systems. The autonomous body NSDA (National Skill Development Authority) in the Skill Development ministry should embark on rationalisation drive.
Finally, the government should work with the Industry bodies and identify top 5 sectors and provide the necessary push for implementation. Based on the outcome of these skill development programs, additional sectors can be added. Can the government publish quarterly data on the exact number of people reskilled, job positions filled and a view of the demand for at least 12-18 months?
An AICTE report has identified about 30 different skill areas and possible requirement by 2022. This can be a good starting point to prioritise the areas/sectors where the government’s attention is needed. As per the report, automotive, healthcare, organised retail and IT/electronics are expected to generate millions of jobs.
How about focusing on agriculture for skill development, productivity improvements and innovation? President Obama during his speech in New Delhi highlighted the importance of agricultural productivity and the cascading positive effect on India’s economy.
It is intriguing that 60% of India’s population depends of agriculture, but accounts for only 14% of the GDP. India’s premier technical institutions should be accountable for providing solutions to this sector.
Although prime minister’s Make-in-India initiative can certainly spur new jobs and also in reskilling, we need a balanced approach between manufacturing and agriculture. We don’t want all our farmers to take up non-farm jobs.
Summing up, the success of skill development will be measured based on jobs created. Prioritising sectors for skill development and rationalising existing systems to create a robust demand-supply matching and monitoring system is urgently needed. Although the new skill development policy is welcome, implementation will hold the key.
By G Krishna Kumar
The author is adviser, Centre for Educational and Social Studies, Bangalore. Views are personal