Telegrap Act to be amended says Mahajan

The Indian Telegraph Act of 1985 is being amended to include Convergence as well. A Bill to the same effect has already been initiated in the Parliament and is expected to be cleared soon, Sumitra Mahajan, Union Minister of State for Communications and IT, informed at a media briefing on the occasion of the formal inauguration of the eleventh edition of Convergence India, currently being held in Delhi. 

Mahajan stated that though Convergence had been the buzzword for the past few years, roll-out of commercial ventures in the ICT space had not been happening as much.

"Delay in technology adoption or technology transfer costs crores," she said, adding that parallels could be drawn with the Convergence scenario in the country and the Industrial Revolution.

Others present on the occasion were Vinod Vaish, Secretary DoT and Chairman (TC), Prithipal Singh, Chairman and MD, VSNL and NK Goyal, VP, Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association
(TEMA). 

Speaking on the occasion, Vaish said that effective spectrum management is emerging as a pivotal issue in the wireless and mobile telephony space and that the government, up to the highest levels was taking convergence and convergence related policies very seriously. Voice connectivity apart, data communication is playing a significant role in the current Indian ICT context said Singh. He also mentioned that though there were some 36,000 telephone exchanges in the country teledensity was still dismal. But on a more hopeful note he concluded that at the current pace of growth teledensity ought to double every three to four years.

The latest version of the exhibition features France as the partner country, as also US and UK. In all there are 233 participants from 20 countries. The seminars organized as part of the event has 77 speakers from the ICT industry across different geographies.

Cyber News Service