IN PERSPECTIVE
G Krishna Kumar,
Jul 15
2020, 23:08 ist | updated:
Jul 16 2020, 06:39 ist
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Indian techies and start-ups
to come up with innovative mobile applications as part of the Atmanirbhar
Bharat Innovation Challenge. This comes in the backdrop of the government
banning 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok and Helo, among others. These
apps have been extremely popular in the country and have helped thousands of
Indian entertainers and artists gather millions of followers and enjoy
celebrity status. A moot question for us to ponder over is, with over our four
million-strong IT workforce and being the ‘IT capital of the world’, why don’t
we have top class Indian apps in our own country and in other countries?
Another question: Is the ban on Chinese apps a precedent? Will we ban
Google, Facebook and others, should we have a rough relationship with the US in
the future? Banning apps by itself will not solve the larger challenges
faced by India’s digital ecosystem. Before we look at the areas for the
government to focus on, let us understand the impact of the ban on the Chinese
companies.
With India accounting for 70-90% of their global subscriber base, Chinese
companies that provide apps like ShareIt, UCBrowser, Camscanner, Likee and
TikTok are sure to be impacted. This will also impact thousands of their
employees in India, adding to the unemployment challenges in the country due to
the Covid-19 situation. As per the latest reports, the Chinese companies are
still hopeful that the Indian government will revoke the ban.
Alternative Apps
Social media is already abuzz with alternative “made in India” apps. The
key is for these apps to match the banned apps in terms of user experience.
Failing which, end-users will find alternative methods, like using Virtual
Private Networks (VPNs) to access the banned apps.
India could learn from countries like Russia and China when it comes to
encouraging a world-class app ecosystem. China has banned Google, WhatsApp,
Facebook, etc., and the Chinese government supported the local app ecosystem.
Baidu, Alibaba and WeChat are popular with over 80% subscribers in the
country. Russia also has been successful in developing an app ecosystem
that provides best-in-class social networking apps like VK (equivalent of
Facebook) and a search engine like Yandex (similar to Google).
The present situation provides a great opportunity for top-class apps from
India. Perhaps the government should come up with a 2025 vision of getting at
least five of the top 10 apps in the world to be from India? This is certainly
not an outrageous thought in a country that can develop Aadhaar and Aarogya
Setu, which demonstrate capability to deploy large-scale digital
implementations.
Beyond the present app challenge initiative, the government would do well
to task the top technology institutions based on the National Institutional
Ranking Framework (NIRF) to create world-class apps. As part of the Atmanirbhar
Bharat and the VocalForLocal movement, the government should earmark a budget
to encourage start-ups.
Internet infra
While a clear indigenous app ecosystem is the need of the hour, there are a
few areas that need immediate attention from the government. India’s
mobile data rates are pathetic. Sample this: As per the June 2020 Speedtest
global index report, India with about 12 Mbps data rate, stands at
129th position amongst 138 countries. It is interesting that countries
like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal fare better than India on this count. While
South Korea tops the list with 107 Mbps, China ranks No 3 with 103 Mbps average
speed.
Why is India lagging? It is mainly due to poor internet infrastructure.
Mindless bidding during past spectrum auctions meant that many of the telcos
soon filed for bankruptcy. If we recollect, just 10 years ago, there were 10-12
operators. Now, we are reduced to a handful. With the government-owned BSNL
fast losing its market share, we are at the mercy of the private telcos. The
overall debt in the telecom sector means that these telcos are not able to
upgrade their infrastructure. The government would do well to reduce the taxes
and regulatory levies imposed on the telcos. Presently, Indian telcos pay over
25% (including GST, licence fees, etc) of their gross revenue as tax, compared
to less than 10% in other countries.
Even on fixed line broadband, India fares very poorly compared with the
other countries. Broadband has largely remained an urban phenomenon. Our
progress in getting rural broadband infrastructure with BharatNet has been
pathetic. The target to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats has been constantly
delayed and is now expected to be completed by 2022. If we had all the villages
connected through fibre optic network by now, remote learning for the students
in the rural hinterland could have been smooth during the present pandemic.
Since India lacks a strong fibre optic backbone, our ability to rapidly
move into 5G technology will be a challenge.
Meanwhile, India needs a clear policy on data privacy and data storage.
While the data privacy issues raised over the Aarogya Setu app have subsided,
we need strong regulatory oversight and the Personal Data Protection (PDP) law
should be passed by Parliament soon. The government should provide a policy on
data processing and storage, specifying what data can be processed outside the
country, while strictly enforcing compliance.
Developing alternative apps to counter the banned Chinese apps only solves
a part of the overall challenges faced by India’s digital ecosystem. To address
the Indian consumers’ increasing digital demands, a strong internet
infrastructure and data storage and privacy policies are much needed.
(The writer is an ICT professional and columnist based in Bengaluru)
