The Mobile revolution in India is no more a dream but a reality - the benefits of which we are already reaping everyday.
« Image Source: blog.ThematicMapping.org
India emerged as the hottest mobile market in the world during 2006 [1], overtaking China to claim the top spot by adding more than 73 million new mobile customers in 2006 [2], a 97 percent increase, to reach 149.5 million in total.
But what makes Indian Mobile market more attractive is that it has the world's lowest service charges and huge future potential for further growth.
Apart from the growth factor - Telecommunications industry is significant from another perspective to India. This is one industry where India is leading the pack in technology adoption. While we might not lead the pack in premium services (VAS etc) but in terms of ubiquity of connectivity and introduction of innovative services using this ubiquity is something India is actually ahead of even some developed nations.
I personally have an example to illustrate. I read this blog post by a Google employee made in May. It seems Brad discovered surfing on the move (in a bus) only this year. But I myself have been using my Tata Indicom card in a bus since the past 1.5 year now. I bought this card in Jan 2007 and since then, whenever I take the bus to office, I spend my 1 hour in it either reading the newspaper or surfing the net or doing both.
There might be several more compelling case studies like stock traders sitting in remote corners of the country making money or the milk man quadrupling his business after acquiring a mobile phone - but the message is clear - India is bypassing and overcoming several constraints imposed by the lack of physical infrastructure by using the telecom infrastructure.
Alvin Toffler in his ground breaking trilogy of Future Shock, Third Wave and Powershift has predicted how developing countries might skip the industrial revolution by relying on Information and Communication Technologies. When I read these books in my college days, I used to imagine sitting in a secluded but beautiful farmhouse connected to the world doing some high-tech research. But as the scenario in India unfolds, the image is no more of a beautiful farmhouse, but a that of a dirty bylane in one of the smaller towns of the country with a soiled PC kept in a shack.
The question I debate is - does this mean we will never come around to making our cities as well organized, neat, clean and hygienic like the ones of the industrialized west? Does successful ICT infrastructure mean that we will continue to battle bad physical infrastructure and yet continue competing in the globalized world as a contender for being the lowest cost destination?
If that is true - I really doubt if we will at the end of our lives be living in a country about which we wrote in our school essays - 'India of my Dreams' / मेरे सपनों का भारत ?
.
« Image Source: blog.ThematicMapping.orgIndia emerged as the hottest mobile market in the world during 2006 [1], overtaking China to claim the top spot by adding more than 73 million new mobile customers in 2006 [2], a 97 percent increase, to reach 149.5 million in total.
But what makes Indian Mobile market more attractive is that it has the world's lowest service charges and huge future potential for further growth.
Apart from the growth factor - Telecommunications industry is significant from another perspective to India. This is one industry where India is leading the pack in technology adoption. While we might not lead the pack in premium services (VAS etc) but in terms of ubiquity of connectivity and introduction of innovative services using this ubiquity is something India is actually ahead of even some developed nations.
I personally have an example to illustrate. I read this blog post by a Google employee made in May. It seems Brad discovered surfing on the move (in a bus) only this year. But I myself have been using my Tata Indicom card in a bus since the past 1.5 year now. I bought this card in Jan 2007 and since then, whenever I take the bus to office, I spend my 1 hour in it either reading the newspaper or surfing the net or doing both.
There might be several more compelling case studies like stock traders sitting in remote corners of the country making money or the milk man quadrupling his business after acquiring a mobile phone - but the message is clear - India is bypassing and overcoming several constraints imposed by the lack of physical infrastructure by using the telecom infrastructure.
Alvin Toffler in his ground breaking trilogy of Future Shock, Third Wave and Powershift has predicted how developing countries might skip the industrial revolution by relying on Information and Communication Technologies. When I read these books in my college days, I used to imagine sitting in a secluded but beautiful farmhouse connected to the world doing some high-tech research. But as the scenario in India unfolds, the image is no more of a beautiful farmhouse, but a that of a dirty bylane in one of the smaller towns of the country with a soiled PC kept in a shack.
The question I debate is - does this mean we will never come around to making our cities as well organized, neat, clean and hygienic like the ones of the industrialized west? Does successful ICT infrastructure mean that we will continue to battle bad physical infrastructure and yet continue competing in the globalized world as a contender for being the lowest cost destination?
If that is true - I really doubt if we will at the end of our lives be living in a country about which we wrote in our school essays - 'India of my Dreams' / मेरे सपनों का भारत ?
.
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