 |
| Sunday, July 16, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
|
STD sector to be opened up NEW DELHI, July 15 — The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, today announced the opening up of the national long distance telephony (NLDO) by August 15 without any ceiling on the number of private players, to end the state monopoly in this sector. Addressing the first national conference of Information Technology Ministers, Mr Vajpayee said “recognising the benefits of large-scale competition, the government has decided to fully deregulate the NLDO with no artificial restriction on the number of licences to be issued.” The licensees for long distance telephony would have to pay an entry fee and a share of their revenue, the Prime Minister said. He said internet service providers would be allowed to set up their own landing stations by opening up submarine cable connectivity. The ISPs would be allowed to set up landing stations anywhere in India in collaboration with international undersea bandwidth carriers, Mr Vajpayee said. He said Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited would be asked to make necessary changes in the exclusive arrangement with its international partner — flag — so that existing bandwidth available in India could be fully utilised. He also said the government would set up a task force on a long-term strategy for human resource development in IT comprising ministers of the HRD, IT and finance. The task force would draw up a plan to optimally use the existing infrastructure of IITs, regional engineering colleges and other educational institutions to double their student intake from the next academic year and triple it in the next two years, Mr Vajpayee said. According to an estimate, this sector would create over 20 lakh jobs by the end of the decade. “This demand cannot be met without vastly increasing educational facilities. We also need to improve teaching non-IT subjects by using computers and the Internet for all students,” he said.The Prime Minister said “wherever possible, educational institutions in the formal sector should join hands with those in the private sector in mutually beneficial ways.” Expressing concern at the elitist nature of the present development of IT in the country, Mr Vajpayee said efforts should be made to ensure that IT education did not become the preserve of the rich and the English educated. Mr Vajpayee said India must quickly build a world class telecom infrastructure without which India could not become a world leader in IT. Sharing the concerns of IT entrepreneurs and others about the slow pace of telecom reforms, he said “the government will speedily remove the bottlenecks that are slowing the development of India’s telecom infrastructure.” The Prime Minister said the high-level group on telecom and IT convergence headed by the Union Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha was in the process of finalising many “far-reaching” recommendations which would be implemented soon. He said IT must be used as an instrument for creating wealth and prosperity, helping the country to achieve the broad national objective of poverty eradication, removal of regional imbalances and promotion of social and gender justice. “Developed nations have come to recognise India as a software superpower in the making”, Mr Vajpayee said, adding the success of Indian IT professionals and entrepreneurs was a testimony to the country’s potential in the sector.
|
||||||
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 120 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
