India - Govt has set up a committee of department secretares to devise a new action plan

[times of india] Troubled by low levels of broadband penetration in India, the government has constituted a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) to find a new route for increasing broadband access.

According to a DoT note, Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrashekar has directed that "a time-bound action plan for ensuring broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats in the country be drawn up".

He has also suggested that labour-intensive activities of the project could be taken up under NREGA, to complement the rural connectivity. Further, state governments should be engaged through proper linkages with the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY). The outlay to improve broadband access has been pegged at over Rs 18,000 crore.

It is learnt that the CoS is meeting on October 28 to discuss and outline the best way to achieve its broadband ambitions. A World Bank report says that a 10% increase in broadband penetration accounted for a 1.4% increase in per capita GDP growth in developed economies. This is much higher than the impact of mobile telephone growth on GDP.

However, India's telecom success story has bypassed the broadband sector. At July 2010-end , India had only 9.7 million broadband connections , against 20 million target set up by Broadband Policy, 2004. India's broadband penetration is less than 1% compared with its near 59% teledensity. This compares unfavourably not just with developed countries, but also with developing nations in Asia.

The irony is that 2010 is christened as the year of broadband, but performance has not improved even as the year comes to a close.

The CoS has identified many reasons for this failure, including lack of supporting infrastructure, nonavailability of back-haul connectivity, low penetration of fixed line, high cost of rollout and unviable business models. India currently has 11,50,000 km of optic fibre. Of this 6,46,000 km is owned by BSNL.

Trai is also concerned over the performance of broadband and had made a presentation to the Cabinet Secretariat nearly a year ago. Trai is now in the final stages of a consultation process on broadband with the industry and its next meeting is scheduled for October 19.

"A plan for broadband is in progress within the DoT. Trai is expected to send its recommendations by October-end, after which we will fine tune our report and announce a detailed programme," DoT secretary R Chandrashekhar told ToI. "The final blueprint has to combine several technical options. We need all capabilities," he added.

Govt sets up panel to push broadband