It and Cyber

8/2/2019 It and Cyber

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3 January 2012

Is 2012 the year for India's internet?

Rajini Vaidyanathan reports on the efforts in getting more of India's 1.2 billion people online

It's estimated as many as 121 million Indians are logged onto the internet.

It is a sizeable number, but still a relatively small proportion of the country's 1.2 billionpopulation.

Predictions suggest the ways Indians use the internet for business and pleasure will change evenfurther in the next year.

"Soon, there'll be more mobile phones than people in India," jokes Ankur Agarwal, the editor ofthe Indian gadget blog onlygizmo.com.

In his cramped office in a Mumbai suburb, he is surrounded by boxes filled with the latesttechnology ready to be reviewed and tested.

Many of the boxes contain the latest smartphones, waiting to be launched onto the Indianconsumer.

Mr Agarwal's assertions about the Indian phone population might seem outlandish when youthink there are 1.2bn people living in the country, but with mobile phone use rocketing, it's aprediction that could come true in the not too distant future.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India estimates that there will be an additional 200 million

new mobile subscribers in the coming year.

According to research aggregated by wearesocial.net, there are more than 898 million mobilesubscribers in India, 292 million of these living in rural areas.

The same data showed that 346 million Indian mobile users had subscribed to data packages,with more than half of all internet users in the country accessing the web via their mobile phone.

India's internet

2% - Number of rural Indians using the internet 25% - Growth in Indian internet users in India over the past 12 months. 59% - Number of Indians who only access the internet via mobile devices.

Source: wearesocial.sg

"The mobile phone will drive internet use in India in 2012," says Mr Agarwal. "Computingbegins with the mobile and its growth is fast in India."


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He believes that the increase in smartphone and internet capable phones, selling below Rs5,000(61; $94)and built by Indian manufacturers, is making it easier and more affordable to own suchdevices.The increase in uptake of 3G and 2G services in India will also help get more peopleonline. However, there are still issues getting this kind of connectivity into remote areas.

Even when it is available, the cost is prohibitive to many.Almost half of India's internet usersaccess the web through their mobiles

$50 tabletOther portable devices could also make an impact when it comes to Indians accessingthe internet. The government plans to roll out its low-cost tablet device, known as Aakash, intoschools nationwide in 2012. Costing around $50, it has been hailed as a huge innovation forIndia and the way the web can be accessed in schools.

Mr Agarwal says it will allow more children to watch videos, carry course information withoutthe need to have a teacher around, and will put pupils at the forefront of new technology.

But the devices are still very basic, compared with other tablets on the market, and rely on goodwi-fi connections and electricity supply, prerequisites which are not always available in moreremote parts of India.In fact, one of the biggest challenges in the year ahead is increasing internetpenetration in these areas. Only 2% of rural India has access to the web, according to the Internetand Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). That's a small percentage when you think that morethan 70% of the population lives outside an urban conurbation.

Indian politician Kapil Sibal with the new $50 Aakash tablet

"Even if you give them the technology, what you also need to do is generate awareness abouthow to use it and create a sense of access for the people of the community," says P Niranjana

from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai.

Being able to use new technology requires certain skills like literacy and computer literacy, shesays, and more work needs to be done in this area so villagers understand how computers areenriching their lives.

The other issue, says Ms Niranjana, is ensuring the computers in the villages are placed in anarea where all members of the community - including lower-caste Dalits - have the chance to usethem. Currently, around 18% of India's rural internet users have to walk more than 10km (sixmiles) to access the web.

Social networking

Aside from access and reach, the other big change when it comes to India and the internet is howpeople are using the web. With better connections, mobile phones and computers, Indians areincreasingly using the internet for more than just checking their email.

In both rural and urban areas, social networking is a key driver of use. The most popular site inIndia is now Facebook, which in the past six months saw its user base grow by more than a third.


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The professional networking site Linkedin is also seeing greater uptake in India. The country hasthe second largest number of users for the site, according to figures from socialbakers.com.

Indian internet users have a wealth of choices when it comes to getting connected

Online videos and music are another area which will see huge growth in the coming year saysTarun Abhichandani, group business director for IMRB, an Indian market research organisation.

Mr Abhichandani says this is driven by the fact the lion's share of India's internet users are youngmales.

More than half of the country's population is under the age of 25, a huge potential market forinternet businesses.

This net-savvy generation is also helping to build e-commerce in India. The number oftransactions made online has been growing: in the past year, the value of online business in India

was estimated to be worth about $10bn.

Revenue generation

Mr Abhichandai says we can expect to see mobile commerce, also known as m-commerce, takeoff in the next year.

Some 13 billion adverts are already sent to mobile devices in India every month, a source offrustration to many users but a valuable source of revenue for marketers. In fact, two-thirds of allIndian e-commerce comes from mobile devices.

What Indians do online

3 hours - Average time an Indian net user spends on social media. 13m - Number of Indians registered on matrimonial or dating sites. 70% of Indian internet users who watch online videos.

Source: wearesocial.sg

The biggest change, when it comes to content, will be the provision of more non-Englishwebsites in a country where hundreds of languages are spoken.

"We only have so many English speakers in the country, so we would want more local languagetranslations of all the websites that are available to Indian users," Mr Abhichandani says.

"People are mostly comfortable speaking in their own language especially in specific regions, soIndian users are waiting for that kind of content to come up."

Websites such as Wikipedia are already trying to push regional language content.


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Internet use in India overall is predicted to grow, but challenges of reach and technology willdetermine just who logs on and how.

Myanmar media use Twitter, Facebook to report voteYANGON: Myanmar's journalists will take toTwitterandFacebookin their battle to beat press

restrictions and deliver breaking news of Sunday's by-elections that for many will be the biggeststory of their careers.

The vote - the first contested by opposition leaderAung San Suu Kyiand likely to propel her

into parliament - is set to pose a host of challenges for news editors from the country's long-

censored media.

All private news publications are weekly, after the previous military rulers nationalised dailies

half a century ago and "everybody wants to be a Monday paper this week", said Thiha Saw,

editor of Open News, one of a number of papers to have applied for permission to print a day

after the by-elections.

Those newspapers not shifting their print runs will rely on their burgeoning social media pages to

provide readers with up to date coverage.

"Our paper will be (published) after the election, so we will post on Facebook and our Twitter

account, so we will update all the news every hour after the polling stations open," said Nyein

Nyein Naing, executive editor of 7Day News, one of the country's biggest weeklies with an

estimated readership of 1.5 million.

Until last year, prominent coverage of Suu Kyi - known here as "The Lady" - was almost

unheard of and people who spoke to reporters were taking a real risk.

Front page pictures of the Nobel prize-winning opposition leader are now commonplace, while

coverage of some other previously taboo subjects is also allowed after a new regime loosened

censorship as part of wide-ranging reforms that have taken observers by surprise.

Weeklies are still subject to pre-publication scrutiny that is described by media rights

organisations as among the world's most draconian, but Nyein Nyein Naing told AFP

newspapers were increasingly deciding not to send sensitive stories to the censors.

"We are just trying to push our boundaries a little bit. We do something one week and nothing

happens, so we do more the next week," she said, indicating the latest edition of the paper, which

carried a front page story about the controversial decision by authorities to postpone voting in

three constituencies in Kachin state due to ongoing ethnic unrest in the northern region.
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She said when it comes to breaking news online, editors publish what they want.

"For the Facebook and Twitter, we don't think about censorship at all, we just put everything that

we have got."

She said 7Day News had become increasingly reliant on Facebook to reach its readership.

A story posted on the 7Day page of the social media website about electricity blackouts, an

increasing problem during the summer months, had more than a hundred comments and 165

shares in just two hours -- no mean feat in a country where only a fraction of the population has

access to the Internet.

ip on China fears, UK growth downgrade

But while censors might not stop papers covering the election in real time - the Internet itselfcould pose a challenge in a country beset by outages during sensitive periods.

"We all are worried about the Internet connection. Not only me but other journalists who arerunning their stories through the Internet," said Nyein Nyein Naing, adding that her reportercould not send pictures during a recent Suu Kyi trip to the far north because the connection wasdown.

"I don't think that would be coincidentally," she said when asked if the authorities were behindthe outage.

Wai Phyo, editor in chief of Eleven Media, said he was also concerned about the Internetconnection but the organisation will also use its text service to send news to subscribers' mobilephones on election night.

"We will use all possible ways to send out our information," he said.

"The main thing is the Internet connection on that day. We have many difficulties. I want theInternet to be good."

But he said journalists' ability to report on the vote would be a test of the poll.

"The world is watching. I think our press freedom to cover the by-election will decide whether it

is free and fair," he said.

Thiha Saw, who will be busy compiling early results on Sunday night in the run up to hismidnight print deadline, said he had already written the Open News election supplement cover.

"There will be the picture of the Lady - we have got hundreds of them - and the title will be 'TheLady wins'!" he said with obvious relish.
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31 Mar, 2012, 11.26AM IST, The writer has posted comments on this article Srinath

Vudali,TNN

Cyber criminals can't delete wrong doing, deleted data can be retrieved:Forensic Experts

HYDERABAD: Severalcyber criminalswho were under the impression that pressing the

'Delete' key would erase every trace of their online fraud are waking up to the fact thatforensic

expertscan retrieve any deleted data.

One such felon is the fisheries department executive engineer 'Big Fish' Velugubanti

Suryanarayana, who was caught in 2008 by ACB sleuths for allegedly possessing

disproportionate assets worth crores of rupees.

Suryanarayana allegedly deleted thousands of files from his laptop and other computers in a bid

to destroy evidence. But after forensic experts had gone through the seized machines, it was

found that in all, Suryanaryana had deleted more than 15,000 files, of which more than 14,000

files were recoverable.

"The data was recovered and given to court and it stands as important evidence . Suryanarayana

deleted nearly 15,000 files and it took us a lot of time to recover thedeleted data," O Narasimha

Murthy, director of theAP Forensic Science Laboratory(APFSL), told TOI.

Fisheries department additional director Prakash Rao told TOI that Suryanarayana continued to

be under suspension. Officials said that many of the deleted files pertained to the awarding ofcontracts by Suryanarayana in his capacity as executive engineer in the fisheries department.

Officials at APFSL said that the number ofcyber crimecases was steadily on the rise and that, in

most cases, the offenders take every precaution to erase data and tamper with evidence. This has

been a common feature in recent financial frauds, in cyber harassment andforgery cases

involving fake educational certificates.

Of the 21,000 cases that the APFSL has dealt with in the last one year, nearly 500 are cyber

crimes and that number keeps increasing.

However, the officials cannot always count on their forensic skills to be able to retrieve all

deleted data. The quest for accuracy though is on and officials said that they have procured

advanced software like Rainbow, Tables and mobile phone extractions which will be operational

in about a month.
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An amount of Rs 4.4 crore was spent behind the upgrade ofDNA finger printing, toxicology and

cyber forensicsat APFSL using funds from the police modernisation fund, officials added

Hacker group 'Anonymous' might target internet services: Interpol chief

NEW DELHI:InterpolChief Ronald Noble on Friday warned that a group of hackers might tryto shut down internet service tomorrow.

"Operation Global Blackout 2012 looks to shut down the internet for a whole day tomorrow by

disabling its core DNS servers, making websites inaccessible," Noble said here.

He said thehacker group'Anonymous' is protesting against Wall Street and irresponsible leaders.

The Interpol Chief was delivering 13th DP Kohli memorial lecture on 'Multi-jurisdictional

Investigation: Operation Unmask'. The event was organised by theCentral Bureau of

Investigation(CBI) here.

"Investigations have already been launched by Colombia, Chile and Spain as their private and

public websites have been attacked by the group," Noble said.

31 Mar, 2012, 12.00AM IST,

Websites of Indian government and Tibetan activists hacked

NEW DELHI:Websitesof Indian government andTibetan activistsin the country are underattack in a cyber attack campaign engineered by a Chinese hacker, working with one of the

world's largest e-tailers Tencent, a report released by IT security firmTrend Microsaid onFriday.

The Luckycat cyber campaign, has been linked to 90 attacks in recent past against targets inIndia and Japan, as well as against Tibetan activists, said the report released by the Japanesenetwork security firm. 'Luckycat' has been able to compromise about 233 computers many ofwhich are in India.

"We were able to track elements of this campaign tohackersbased in China," said BaburajVarma, Head - Technical Services (India & SAARC) Trend Micro.

"The victims, include Indian military research organisations and shipping companies, besidesaerospace, energy and engineering companies in Japan," said Varma

The owner of the attack alias, according to online records, is Gu Kaiyuan, a former graduatestudent at Sichuan University, in Chengdu, China. The university receives government financingfor its research in computer network defence. The hacker is now an employee at Tencent, China'sleadinginternetcompany, according to Trend Micro.
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According to the report, the hacker is believed to have recruited students to work on theuniversity's research involvingcomputer attacks.

31 Mar, 2012, 02.58PM IST,

Chinese hackers attack Indian websites

NEW YORK: Indian military research bodies and Tibetan activists have been targeted by

hackers based inChina, with a former graduate student at a Chinese university emerging as a key

figure responsible for the cyber breach, according to a report by a computer security firm.

In its 24 page report, Tokyo-based Trend Micro said thehackingcampaign, dubbed 'Luckycat'

targeted Indian military research institutions, entities inJapanas well as the Tibetan community.

The campaign, active since around June 2011, has been linked to 90 attacks against targets in

Japan andIndiaas well as Tibetan activists. In all, the Luckycat campaign managed tocompromise 233 computers in systematic attacks.

Victims of the attack also include Indian shipping companies, Japan's aerospace, energy and

engineering companies and at least 30 computer systems of Tibetan advocacy groups.

Trend Micro said each malware attack involves a unique campaign code that can be used to track

which victims were compromised by which malware attack.

"This illustrates that the attackers are both very aggressive and continually target their intended

victims. These are not smash-and-grab attacks but constitute a "campaign" comprising a series of

ongoing attacks over time,' it said in its report.

Trend Micro tracked elements of the cyber attack campaign to hackers based in China.

The Luckycat campaign attacked a diverse set of targets using a variety of malware, some of

which have been linked to other cyber-espionage campaigns.

The attackers behind this campaign maintain a diverse set of command-and-control infrastructure

and leverages anonymity tools to obfuscate their operations, the report said.

It cited the example of a hacking attack on India's ballistic missile defence programme.

In this, a malicious document containing information on the programme was used to lure

potential victims into opening it.
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This document contained malicious code that exploited a vulnerability in computer software

enabling the hackers to penetrate the compromised computer.

Back-end issues in financial inclusion

The market for financial inclusion services is in its infancy, but has huge potential.

The Financial Inclusion Plan drawn up by RBI envisages bringing more than 3.5 lakh villagesinto the formal banking network by March 2013. The count achieved till now is approximately1.2 lakh villages. In view of the massive scale of rollout targeted, banks have been permitted tooutsource part of the technology and manpower requirements of their FI projects from competenttechnology services providers (TSP). Further, RBI having permitted corporate entities to beenlisted as banking correspondents, eligible TSPs can also undertake BC services, thusparticipating end-to-end in the FI delivery process.

The TSPs are selected by banks through a competitive bidding process. From October 2009 till

January 2012, more than 70 requests for Proposals (RFPs) were floated by various banks,including a sizeable number of Regional Rural Banks, and contracts for the relative FI projectshave been awarded to successful TSPs. The tenure of these FI projects varies from three to fiveyears.

The FI services market, in its infancy now, holds huge potential. Assuming conservative pricingof the services, upon coverage of all unbanked villages, the FI domain could generate a grossrevenue of Rs 40-50 billion annually for the TSPs. There are more than 30 TSPs active in thedomain, vying for the FI pie. The TSP community comprises of several IT majors, micro financeinstitutions, NGOs, smart card manufacturers, professional BC organisations, besides nichetechnology solution providers and system integrators.

The FI mission envisages the accomplishment of three essential dimensionsoutreach,availability, and usage of basic banking services. The focus of all banks is currently on achievingthe outreach targets by deploying BCs covering the villages allotted to them. Data from progressreviews by the State Level Bankers' Committees indicate that most PSU banks are close toachievement of the outreach targets, for March 2012, on this yardstick.

However, feedback emanating from banks and the TSPs at the structured interactive forums andpeer-level meetings indicate that the progress with regard to the availability and usage factors, asreflected by new accounts acquisition and transaction activity levels respectively, have been wellbelow the expectations of the banks.

The major qualitative concerns surfacing in the present outsourcing model and systemicimprovements desirable towards strengthening the approach are presented below, for collectiveconsideration of the stakeholders.


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India plans 50 innovation clusters to help MSMEsThe National Innovation Council plans to cover the entire country by 2012 with theseinnovations clusters to facilitate creation of ecosystemSubmitted on 03/28/2012 - 11:47:06 AM

New Delhi: The National Innovation Council (NInC) aims to have around 50 innovation clusters

covering the entire country by the end of 2012 to help out the Micro, Small and Medium

Enterprises (MSMEs), Chairman Sam Pitroda said.

"We plan to finish pilot, learn from it and then take this project to 50 clusters. I would like to see

40-50 clusters doing such innovations by the end of 2012. Ideally, would want 150 clusters in

India to have innovation centre by the end of next year," Pitroda said, giving an update on the

Innovation Cluster initiative launched in November 2011.

The Indian government has declared 2010-2020 as the "Decade of Innovation". The cluster

initiative aims to facilitate creation of ecosystems that will enable generation of new products,

services, processes and business models, spurring job creation and inclusive growth.In both developed and developing countries, MSMEs and start-ups are viewed as major engines

of growth and employment. In 2010-11, Indian MSMEs represented 45 per cent of manufactured

output and 40 per cent of exports.

India is estimated to have 5,000 regional MSME clusters that include the gems cluster in Surat

(Gujarat), brassware cluster in Moradabad (UP) and textile cluster at Tirupur (Tamil Nadu),

reports IANS.

But most MSME clusters in India suffer from lack of access to technology, research and

development (R&D), financing and skills which in turn impact their growth and productivity.

NInC aims to create models for transforming regional MSME clusters into innovation

ecosystems with collaborative partnerships among stakeholders.

Samir Mitra, a senior expert at NInC, said the Cluster Innovation Centres (CICs) acting as

networking hubs for innovation ecosystems are being created in 8 clusters.

TECHNOLOGY CONSTRAINTS

Most of the banks have opted for the smart card platform. In a number of projects, where theTSP and the bank's CBS vendors are different entities, the end-to-end technology interface

between the TSP's proprietary FI solution and the Bank's Core Banking Solution is yet tostabilise, mainly due to the complexities involved in integrating the dynamic customertransaction processes.

There are instances of multiple TSPs having been engaged by the banks, each offering their ownproprietary interfacing solutions, leading to complications at the bank's CBS end. The banksdesire the FI solution to be interoperable across the three technology platforms, viz, smart cards,


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mobile phone and the micro ATMs, while the solutions are at present mostly confined to smartcards.

The Aadhar-Enabled Payment System (AEPS), being developed by the National PaymentsCorporation of India, would necessitate the FI technology solutions to be inter-bank compatible.

The present FI solutions are bank-specific. The scalability of the current FI solutions for copingwith the large volume of transaction flow expected from electronic benefit transfers, MNREGApayments, RSBY transactions and the State sector social welfare schemes remains to beestablished.

UNIVERSAL FI SOLUTION

A multiplicity of FI solutions being offered by TSPs is bound to render the technologyenvironment fragmented, impeding coordinated implementation of the FI programme. Thetechnological inadequacies need to be addressed and the scope of the solutions enlarged suitablyto meet the intended convergence and scalability requirements.

The ideal response would be to put in place a Universal FI Solution (UFIS), standardising theinterface with the CBS, coupling it with a standard common FI-CBS, the set of which can beprescribed for adoption by all banks and the TSPs uniformly. At the bank level, data could beported from FI-CBS into the Bank's internal CBS, and vice versa. The proposed UFIS wouldaddress all the future requirements, such as inter-operability through some other technologyplatforms and inter-bank connectivity through AEPS. The diagram appended depicts the presentand proposed approach.

The task of developing the proposed UFIS and FI-CBS could be entrusted to a centraltechnological agency, preferably, the National Informatics Centre Services Inc. (NICSI), who

have, on behalf of the respective Ministries, developed and standardised operating systems for e-governance applications and for the RSBY projects.

The support software components of the FIS suite, needed for enrolment, card management andBC Cash Management etc, could also be similarly standardised and approved by NICSI, so thatthe entire FI solution architecture would be uniform across the banking system. All banks andTSPs may be advised to migrate to UFIS from the current solutions in due course. Reservationsremain in banking quarters regarding commercial banks relying on proprietary FI solutions of theTSPs. Adoption of officially-approved UFIS would address this concern conclusively.

AMBIGUITY IN PRICING

The TSP compensation is determined based on the number of customers enrolled and the number/ quantum of transactions conducted. The responsibility for achievement of targeted businesslevels should primarily rest with the banks. The role of the TSPs / BCs could only be supportive.The variable pricing method is hence inappropriate. It could also turn out to be counter-productive.


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The TSPs, having incurred capital and fixed costs, could be at a disadvantage if the targetednumbers/quantum aren't eventually achieved, resulting in hesitancy on their part to commitfurther resources to the projects. The TSPs would like to be assured of a reasonable return ontheir outgo in the projects. Given the long tenure of the projects, the banks, would like the coststo be pegged with reasonable certainty. Adopting a fixed pricing model, as proposed below,

would be beneficial for both banks and TSPs.

In respect of future projects, the banks may realistically work out the estimated project cost,grouped into one-time and recurring costs, including BC costs, and invite competitive bids fromTSPs, to quote their profit margin over their estimated costs.

The bidder quoting the lowest profit margin in both the segments and emerging as the L1 biddermay be awarded the contract. The banks shall pay the TSPs respective estimated costs at monthlyintervals, subject to the costs being actually incurred by the TSPs, and satisfaction of the ServiceLevel Agreements entered into.

The profit margins shall be paid by the bank at quarterly rests. In addition, with a view tohedging inflation, the recurring costs may be indexed to the inflation rate, and revised by thebanks annually.

(The author is a former General Manager of SBI and a freelance Consultant on FI projects.)

Fighting Corruption with IT

Summary:

Technology is making it difficult to fudge information even as corruption continues to deny

benefits to the poor, says Usha Ganesh

Corruption, and the fight against it, has been making headlines in India consistently for the last

few months. Led by Anna Hazare, a social activist, the call for passing the Jan Lokpal (Public

Ombudsman) Bill has transformed the political consciousness of tens of thousands of Indians

who reluctantly accept corruption as part of their culture. For these new converts to activism, the

call is seen as a second freedom strugglefollowing the one that gained India its independence

in 1947. The Bill, basically drafted by people who could be termed neutral or without any

political affiliations, is seen widely as a tool to fight corruption that has India consistently

ranking near the mid-way mark in Transparency Internationals Corruption Perceptions Index.

India came in at 95 out of 183 countries in 2011, with a rank of 3.5 on a 10-point scale, where

zero means that the country is perceived as highly corrupt. The Bill is yet to be passed, andHazares core team is mulling the next steps. The pause notwithstanding, this anti-corruption

drive is striking in its reach and response, touching thousands of young Indians from all socio-

economic groups in significant numbers. While some would argue that corruption continues

unabated, the Internet, social media and mobile technology have silently contributed to creating

awareness and to the mobilisation of public opinion.


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Impact of Corruption on the Poor

Like mobile telephones, corruption is ubiquitous in India, spanning the socioeconomic spectrum

and age/gender demographics. Its impact on the poor is both active and passive. The urban poor,

existing in what can be termed an extra-legal space, regularly pay money for living in illegal

housing and accessing water and electricity through illegal connections. A study on corruption inIndia, conducted by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) together with Transparency

International India, indicates that the poor pay over INR8,000 million (US$154m) in bribes to

access 11 essential public services that include the public distribution system (PDS), education,

health, electricity, housing and water supply, among others.

Far more insidious is the passive corruption the urban poor are subjected to when they are

unaware of pertinent government subsidies and aid. According to a report, a mere 15 percent of

public funds set aside for poverty alleviation actually reach the poor. A government-sponsored

study on the efficacy of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) found

corruption in programme implementation where workers worked for one day and were paid

wages for one day. However, records showed them as having worked for 33 days, with the

wages for the remaining 32 days being misappropriated. On closer study, job cards, which all

workers are issued under the program, were found to have fake entries and often in the

possession of the local panchayat members. Workers were threatened not to complain about the

fake entries, lest they lose even the few days of work and wages that trickled down to them.

Food security, which the government attempts to deliver to below poverty line (BPL) households

through its PDS, is another area that needs attention. The poor often need to pay bribes to acquire

these ration cards that state that they are below the poverty line. Pilferage, theft and adulteration

complete the picture, and the poor remain food-insecure despite government budgets to ensure

otherwise.

A Silent Crusade: Technology-Driven Solutions

In 2005, the Indian Government passed the Right to Information Act in a bid to promote

transparency, whereby citizens could access information controlled by public departments. While

citizens were now armed, they were still unaware of what information they should seek, where to

access this information and how they could leverage it to fight corruption. Simultaneously, the

governments efforts to computerise government departments, as well as digitise documentation

and records, achieved some scale. While not all government departments and documents are

digitised today, online access to forms and information is now increasingly available.

As an offshoot of this growing digitisation, it has become more difficult for files to go missing

these misplaced files often carried a price tag of INR100 (US$2) or more for the file to be

found. A more recent and substantially ambitiousgovernment initiative, the Unique

Identification (UID) project, Aadhaar, is expected to have an impact on corruption at the last

mile. It will be linked to the governments social sector schemes related to the provision of


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subsidised products and services, and will make it difficult for these benefits to be re-routed to

recipients other than the beneficiaries.

Government departments need not be the only stakeholders to adopt technology in order to fight

corruption. NGOs and other civil society groups can also leverage technology to carry out more

effective social audits. In a scenario without computerisation, data resides in many differentgovernment files and registers. In the case of a program like the NREGA, the person conducting

the social audit has to access each register to arrive at the likely wage a worker has received. He

or she then has to go to each household to find out if they were really paid this amount. Social

audits, therefore, are cumbersome and difficult to conduct on a large scale. Having said that,

there has been an impact on corruption in areas where social audits have been conducted.

A Stanford University initiative, the Program on Liberation Technology, is examining ways in

which mobile phones, as well as other technology, can help fight corruption and aid social audits.

One of the projects focuses on using basic short messaging service (SMS) technology to

empower the poor by letting them know what, as per public record, they have supposedly

received (i.e., a road in their locality, food grains, pensions, etc.). This empowers the poor with

facts, so that if there is misappropriation of funds, they can seek redressal through official

channels with a complaint backed by evidence. They could also use this information to gain

justice on moral grounds andif they find others in a similar situationeven fight collectively

by staging a protest.

The Stanford project is likely to move to the pilot stage in the Indian states of Bihar and Andhra

Pradesh. Says S. Vivek, who manages the program, A team is starting to build the basic

technology to store and disseminate public records. We will start with programs such as the

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India and expand coverage over the next few

years. The team plans to implement the model in randomly selected villages for two years and

test its impact on corruption. Vivek adds that there are ways to extend this service to include a

feedback mechanism, where the recipient of the SMS can reply to confirm or deny having

received the benefit. It is also possible to provide contact details of responsible officials, as well

as to a redressal center or mechanism such as an NGO.

The Bangladesh Experience

Anna Hazares anti-corruption drive proved that there is power in numbers and that technology

can help mobilise these numbers very effectively. Likewise, Transparency International (TI)

Bangladesh has seen similar success with being able to catalyse important institutional and

policy reforms. TI Bangladesh recognised the need to sustain engagement with people and to

create a platform for such sustained engagement. Its Youth Engagement and Support (YES)

program has mobilised over 5,500 young volunteers to fight corruption across 60 centers in

Bangladesh. By using social media, these groups actively engage with their peers and enable the

dissemination of TIs anti-corruption message across the country. TI has adopted this model

globally.


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While social media helps mobilise the collective voice, deeper impact on fighting corruption,

says TIs Executive Director Iftekhar Zaman, comes from the Bangladesh governments efforts

to move to technology-led governance. For instance, e-governance programs, such as Access to

Information (A2I) and an e-procurement program, help reduce direct interaction between the

service provider and the beneficiary, thereby reducing opportunities for bribes or political

influence in approval of bids or tenders.

While remaining enthusiastic about the power of technology to add strength to the anti-

corruption movement, Zaman believes that, finally, the will of the people will decide the success

of the anti-corruption drive. On December 9, 2011, celebrated as Anti-Corruption Day, he wrote

in the December issue ofForum: It is the people who have to make their voice and demand

stronger so that our political leaders deliver their commitments without fear or favor.

Conclusion

Computerisation, such as that of NREGA, has made it tough to fudge information. Yet, new

forms of corruption continue to emerge. Mr. Vivek from the Stanford project adds that due toincreased monitoring, workers are paid their wages but only after a couple of months. Those in

control are then able to leverage the funds to earn interest income during these two months. He

also speaks of clever uses of technology to take small but effective steps to fight corruption. He

cites an example in Tamil Nadu where the field officer has to send an SMS to the collectors

office indicating the number of women and men who are at work every morning. This, he says,

makes spot checks easy and effective. In the fight against corruption, technology is not the

complete answer, but it can strengthen an existing anti-corruption process by making it easier,

more efficient and cost-effective. If technology can get more people to buy into the fight against

corruption, success is more likely within reach.

Growing protectionism in the USMarch 30, 2012:

Many in the US believe that emerging economies like India or China are dumping cheap goodsinto the US markets and eating away manufacturing jobs. Outsourcing to Indian IT companies istaking service sector jobs away from the US to the Indian cities. They think that increaseddemand in fast-growing emerging markets is responsible for higher oil prices. Their solution: theUS should stop practising free trade, as it is not serving its economic interest well.

However, a recent study by international trade experts, Robert Z. Lawrence and LawrenceEdwards, shows that there is a good correlation between import and employment growth in theUS. The study concludes that increase in labour productivity and shift in demand away frommanufacturing to services have caused the decline in manufacturing jobs, rather than cheapimports. The contribution of manufacturing to employment in the US has been declining by 0.4per cent a year during the last 50 years, long before the US started running trade deficits withChina or India.


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Further, the major cause of rising oil prices is the relative decrease in the oil production inOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, as compared tothe rise in demand for it. The increased demand for oil in emerging economies, at best, partlyexplains the rising oil prices. High growth in emerging economies and improved productivityresult in the deteriorating terms of trade for such economies and welfare gains for importing

countries. As a result, exports from China or India benefit the US.

This logic can be applied to the services. Export of IT & ITES to the US helps Americancorporations improve their cost competitiveness. Indian IT majors (considered to move jobsaway from the US) have, in fact, created direct and indirect employment opportunities for theAmerican people.

According to a recent CII survey, in the last five years, Indian companies in the US haveinvested US$ 26 billion, and created 100,000 jobs. In fact, 5 per cent of the employees of Indiansoftware companies like TCS, Wipro or Infosys in the US are non-Indians.

INDIA'S EXPERIENCE

Protectionism is a high-cost option in an interdependent environment. India and the rest of thesocialist countries have learnt it the hard way. Increased imports induce indigenous industries tobe more competitive. Ultimately, it leads to increase in exports, as has been the experience ofIndia. Post liberalisation, India's exports have increased from US$ 18.5 billion in 1990-91 to US$251.1 billion in 2010-11.

In this period, India's GDP has also increased from US$ 300 billion to US$1.8 trillion. Now,trade has become a key policy instrument for achieving economic growth in India.

With the slow progress of WTO Doha Round, all major countries, and blocs such as EU,ASEAN, India, China and Brazil are keen on signing bilateral and regional trade agreements tosupplement domestic markets.

Realising the importance of freer trade in achieving faster growth, African countries are alsocontemplating a pan-African free trade area. Article 24 of GATT 1994 (and Article 5 of GATS)allows bilateral or regional trade agreements (BTAs/RTAs) if they cover substantial trade of theparticipating nations. But regional trade agreements can only be the second-best alternative tomultilateral trade liberalisation under the framework of WTO.

TRADE POLICY DILEMMA

Unsustainable debt situation will force future reduction in domestic consumption, a reality thatthe US cannot ignore. The US, then, will need export markets more than it does today to sustainits growth. This won't be the case with China (with less than 40 per cent share of domesticconsumption expenditure in GDP as compared to 70 per cent in the US) which possesses enoughmaneuverability to increase domestic consumption. The US needs free trade more than theiremerging economy counterparts.


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Trade barriers are higher in emerging economies than in the US. As a result, the cost of furtheropening up and remaining a free economy is less for the US. Emerging economies like China orIndia, too, need open markets for their exports and sourcing of raw materials that they don'tproduce. This fact can be leveraged to break the Doha Round logjam.

WTO DOHA ROUND

Given the current economic clout of advanced emerging economies like China, India, or Russia(which is now a WTO member), it wouldn't be easy for the US to insist on its trade agenda whenincrease in intra-trade among developing nations has reduced their dependence on the US or EU.Only 9.8 per cent of India's merchandise exports were shipped to the US in 2010-11, ascompared to 8.3 per cent to Africa.

To conclude the Doha Round, the US will need to engage emerging economies by being flexibleon issues having serious trade implications. In India's case, they are agricultural subsidies, inparticular, those on cotton, sectoral proposal under NAMA (Non-Agricultural Market Access)

and Mode 4 services.

Sectoral proposal seeks to impose duty-free trade in 14 key industrial sectors, including textiles& clothing, chemicals, fertilisers, pharmaceuticals, plastics, electrical and electronic goods.Considering the sensitivities attached to these sectors, it won't be easy to get India (or anydeveloping country) to agree to the proposal. Securing acceptability for sectoral proposal willrequire provisions for keeping a few items under each chapter in the sensitive list, rather thanmaking its acceptance mandatory.

The US will also need to improve its offer on Mode 4 (movement of professionals) services. Thiswill require greater flexibilities on the immigration policy than what the US would ideally want.

Despite the growing sentiment against immigration in the US, it suits the US. Studies haveshown that educated immigrants play a significant role in innovation, something the Americanmanufacturing sector badly needs when competing with low-cost countries like China.

Services account for more than 65 per cent of global GDP, so any real trade gain has to comefrom opening up trade in services. Therefore, trade in services should be the focus of anymultilateral trade negotiation, as manufacturing alone cannot provide job opportunities foreveryone, either in India or in the US.

Hence, a speedier recovery of the US is the key to lessen the adverse impact of the Euro Zonecrisis. This isn't possible in the absence of seamless movement of goods and services across

regions. It's time the US recognised its role in getting WTO Doha Round negotiations concluded.Its successful conclusion is good for the US and rest of the globe, all suffering from oneeconomic crisis after another. Waiting for the next US Presidential election will be too late.

(The author is a subject matter expert (International Trade) for a top corporate house.)


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Emerging Trends in Cyber Security March 28, 2012

Issues of cyber security might have come from the fringes to the centre of the threat calculus, but

framing a coherent response has proved to be a difficult task. The vulnerabilities specific to

software, hardware, applications and critical infrastructure are generic, and do not need

recounting. The approaches of countries such as China and Russia have been analysed and

commented upon in considerable detail. China is seen as an outlier that is exploiting the

vulnerabilities to the maximum, to conduct a range of activities from cyber espionage to cyber

harassment, on the basis of a stated policy to neutralise the advantages of countries it perceives

as hostile to it; advantages that could be in terms of military and technological superiority, or

even an open society. Russia has been criticised for a policy of tolerating the activities of cyber

criminals and even utilising them for its purposes through its intelligence agencies, so long as

their activities are not directed against the motherland. Recent trends indicate that what should

have been the exception is increasingly becoming the norm. The absence of agreed norms ofconduct in cyberspace and the scope for conducting a myriad range ofmalafide activities with

limited risk of retribution is leading to both vertical and horizontal proliferation of such

activities.

In most countries, de facto responsibility for cyber security is being vested with intelligence

agencies for reasons of expediency; they have the necessary expertise and experience to deal

with cyber security issues. These moves have potential long-term detrimental and destabilising

effects. In the first instance, the mutual suspicion generated by such agencies across the entire

spectrum of institutions, both within and outside national boundaries, makes the kind of co-

operation required for cyber security very difficult, even when backed by political andadministrative fiat. Recent reports that the National Security Agency (NSA), which is

responsible for cyber security in the United States, is building massive complexes to capture,

store, and analyse data flowing through the worlds networks would mean that the same agency

would become the leading source of information insecurity. This, coupled with other news of

private companies with global footprints such as Google entering into close collaboration with

the NSA, will naturally create suspicions in other countries where these companies operate.

Other issues being debated within the United States pertain to the NSAs attempts to arrogate

more powers of investigation, but the arguments against the granting of such powers are

applicable universally.

Unless there is an international effort to work towards norms for cyberspace, the lawlessness that

currently pervades will assume gargantuan proportions. The unhealthy dependence on

intelligence agencies to manage cyberspace will lead to unholy alliances between these agencies

and the lawless elements, almost out of necessity since the so-called cyberwars that break out

every now and then are a numbers game. A comparison of the cyber wars in West Asia and

South Asia would seem to bear this out, especially with regard to why such attacks have not


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crossed any red lines, despite threats to bring down the financial systems and so on. The near

equivalence of hackers in the countries of South Asia would point to a low level form of

deterrence in existence. Nearly all upswings in defacements and hacking, which normally follow

a tit-for-tat pattern, have ended in truces being called by the hackers on various sides. The

invisible hand of the intelligence agencies has been seen to be present wherever in the world

patriotic hacking has taken place, and South Asia would be no exception. That there have not

been any major incidents of hacking ascribed to hackers in the sub-continent despite the low

levels of computer security would lead one to speculate that these agencies have had a

restraining effect on such activities. That said, the scope for losing control is quite high,

especially as more and more critical services go online and become potential targets.

One of the biggest drawbacks to securing cyberspace in the Indian context is the lack of adequate

data. Whatever data is available does not adequately convey the full picture, or worse, can be

misleading. Skewed data also results in skewed priorities; the continued highlighting of website

hackings leads to a great deal of time being spent on securing government websites, irrespective

of their importance, at a time when greater attention should be paid to other facets of cybersecurity such as securing critical infrastructure or auditing the cyber security preparedness of

companies in critical sectors. To illustrate, according to the annual report of the National Crime

Records Bureau, cyber-related crimes were a mere 1,322 in 2010, making up 0.19 per cent of all

crimes in the country. At the same time, according to figures from the Reserve Bank of India as

recently reported to Parliament, the total amount involved in cases of financial fraud over the

Internet in 2011 was Rs.787.39 lakh or US $1.6 million. And finally, according to the Computer

Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In), 13,301 security incidents were reported to it in

2011. While these indices have been monitored over the past few years and provide a general

idea of the upward trend in cyber-related incidents, they do not lend themselves easily to further

analysis in the absence of more detailed data. For instance, in the case of financial fraud, it would

be useful to know whether these were perpetrated by exploiting technical vulnerabilities or

through other means such as social engineering, or by a combination of the two. The absence of

more precise figures creates an information gap between the various stakeholders, be it the

government, the various service providers primarily in the private sector, and the end users of

these services. Much of the data lies with different organisations and is not available in the

public domain. With cyber infrastructure and data largely in the hands of the private sector, there

needs to be much more by way of standardisation and sharing of data between the government

and the private critical information infrastructure companies such as the Internet Service

Providers.

These issues highlight the complex and inter-connected challenges in cyber security, and

demonstrate how the short sighted approach towards these challenges is taking us further away

from the oft-vaunted goals of an open, secure and stable cyberspace.


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The new biometrics-enabled e-payment channel is not cheaper to the StateGovernment: Ashok Khemka

New Delhi: Haryana is one of the first states in India to move towardse-paymentsof welfareprogrammes. Early last year, it began stopped disbursing its social sector pensions through

sarpanches, and began using banks and banking correspondents instead.

However, after six or so months, the state government called off the project and went back to theold approach. Given that the rest of the country is also moving towards e-payments ofwelfareprogrammes, what does Haryana's experience have to tell us about e-payments? Is the newchannel better at rooting out corruption? Is it more cost-effective at delivery than the erstwhilemodel?

ET emailed some of these questions toAshok Khemka, the Director of the state's Department forSocial Justice and Empowerment. Read on.

Haryana is an important case study for anyone trying to understand the issues involved inmoving towards e-payment of welfare schemes. Given that, can you give me an overview ofthe reasons why you wanted to move to e-payment of pensions?

The distribution system is well established since long in the State of Haryana. The Department ofSocial Justice & Empowerment was making payments of social security benefits through thePanchayati Raj Institutions.

A fixed remuneration for this work is paid to the Sarpanches on monthly basis. The cost of thephysical mode of distribution works out to Rs 2.50 crores per annum. This is only 0.15% of thetotal payments made. The decision to move to the E-payments through bank accounts was taken

by the Government to give an impetus to the Financial Inclusion Plan of the Ministry of Financeand the Planning Commission.

The objective was to catalyze the Financial Inclusion of the weaker sections of society into theformal banking system by remitting pensions electronically into the bank accounts. It wasexpected that the beneficiary would be able to transact from his bank account at the CustomerService Point established by the Business Correspondent of the Bank at the village level.

The welfare benefits would be leveraged to help establishbanking infrastructurein the ruralareas.

However, after six months of the rollout, you went back to the old system. In my previousinterview with you, you cited two reasons. One, under-deployment of BC terminals. And,two, a problem with biometrics identification. Can you tell me about both? For instance,why was there an under-deployment of the BC terminals?

We had created 19.2 lakh bank accounts, of which 18.2 lakh bank accounts are still in active use.Against the 18.2 lakh bank accounts in active use, even allowing a minimum of one withdrawal
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/e-paymentshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/e-paymentshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/e-paymentshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/welfare-programmeshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/welfare-programmeshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/welfare-programmeshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/welfare-programmeshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Ashok-Khemkahttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Ashok-Khemkahttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Ashok-Khemkahttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/banking-infrastructurehttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/banking-infrastructurehttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/banking-infrastructurehttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/banking-infrastructurehttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Ashok-Khemkahttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/welfare-programmeshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/welfare-programmeshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/e-payments


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per month, the infrastructure of the BC ought to have catered to at least 18.2 lakh withdrawalsper month, that is, at the rate of just one withdrawal per account per month.

But the BC could do no more than 3 lakh transactions in a month. This means that the BC couldcater to just one withdrawal facility to the customer for every six months on an average. This

clearly is not acceptable to any customer, including you and me.

The banks while signing the agreement with the Business Correspondent did not take adequatecare to lay down the parameters to determine the service quality of the BC, i.e., adequate numberof visits of the BC with predictability.

The BC is supposed to be a local person to be directly engaged by the Bank at the village level,but unfortunately the BC was reduced to be a subsidiary Company of the Technical ServiceProvider. The cost cutting by the BC Company resulted to inadequate deployment of terminal-days.

The rejection rate was as high as 30% with the biometrics authentication of the customer at the

time of the transaction. This was due to operational inefficiencies at the time of the biometricscapture and incorrect storage of the biometrics captured against the pensioner's account. All thisled to harassment of the end customer at the ground level.

Following from the previous question, what was the problem with the biometrics? Is this aproblem which will be resolved once you start using Aadhaar-compliant equipment andbiometrics?

A. The micro-ATM terminals deployed by the BC are Aadhaar-compliant. The problems arerelated to operations and are not technology-related. Aadhaar-compliance does not mean that thebiometrics captured at the time of the transaction will be authenticated with the biometrics storedinAadhaardatabase.

The authentication is done with the biometrics stored in the Bank's database. Aadhaar numberhelps identify the customer at the time of opening of the bank account.

We are told that the new biometric-enabled e-payment channel is cheaper and moreaccurate. Haryana suggests that this is not correct. Why? What is your sense of the cost ofoperations of this new model if you want to ensure prompt payment?

The new biometrics-enabled e-payment channel is not cheaper to the State Government. TheState was committed to pay @ 2.06% of the amount transferred. It seems even this high rate ofcommission was not viable to the Banks. One of the major BC operators has raised a demand forraising the commission from 2% to 4%.

The traditional channel of distribution in the State of Haryana is quite robust and costs the Stateonly 0.15%. Cost-wise, the traditional channel is cheaper, but the advantage of E-paymentthrough bank accounts was the advantage of Financial Inclusion and the availability of bankingand insurance products to the unbanked, weaker sections of the society.
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We are also told that one reason Haryana cancelled the project is due to vested interestslike sarpanches who were threatened by electronic delivery. Is that correct?

This is not correct. The Sarpanches are elected representatives and are responsible for timely

delivery of pension. It was, therefore, natural for them to raise voice against the erratic schedulesof the Business Correspondent and biometrics authentication failures. There were large numberof demonstrations and road blockades across the State by the disabled, destitutes and seniorcitizens who were denied the payment of pension for several months.

How is the new model working in urban areas? If it is working better, what are thereasons?

The story in the urban areas is the same as in the rural areas. However, the justification of the BCmodel is for the unbanked areas, where the normal branched banking is not viable.

What are the Haryana government's plans now?

In view of the grossly inadequate infrastructure deployed by the BC, the e-payments throughBank accounts will be continued for the present in urban areas only. For this to happen, theBanks would have to notify the locations of the Customer Service Points ward-wise.

These CSP locations would entertain requests for new enrolments, distribution & correction ofsmart cards and entertain customer grievances. Fresh funds would be routed through the bankaccounts after the CSP centres established by the Banks are verified by the Department. Theremittance through Bank Accounts in rural areas would commence after the Banks haveestablished adequate infrastructure in the rural areas.

And how do you plan to curtail existing corruption and leakages in your pensionprogramme? For instance, one advantage of biometrics is that they get rid of ghost

pensioners. How do you address that problem right now?The problem of ghost, duplicate and ineligible pensioners is well recognized. The biometricsauthentication could have catered to the problem of ghost and duplicate pensioners. However tilldate, 93% of the registered pensioners have bank accounts which are in active use.

You can hazard a guess how many of the balance 7% are ghost or duplicate, who did not comeforward to open bank account. However, the Technical Service Provider employed by the Banksfailed to identify even a single duplicate identity out of the 19.2 lakh bank accounts created usingthe biometrics captured.

In Aadhaar-compliant bank accounts, the problem of ghost and duplicate pensioners would bedone away with. But here the Government has to take a political call whether Aadhaar is to bemade mandatory for a citizen receiving any welfare or subsidy benefits from the State.


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Innovation centre soon for industrial clustersNew Delhi, March 28:

There are about 5,000 industrial clusters that have been doing their bit for the country and

produce 45 per cent of goods, but remain largely unsung. Most of these are small and mediumunits that cannot hire consultants or technical and marketing expertise.

Now, the National Innovation Council (NIC) has stepped in. It has announced a cluster

innovation centre' initiative to help these clusters improve their efficiency and competitiveness

To begin with, it has identified eight clusters, mainly small and medium enterprises, and is

providing them necessary linkages to innovate and commercialise their products, Mr Sam

Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister on innovation, infrastructure and information, told

reporters here on Wednesday.

There are about 200 large clusters, such as diamonds, pharma, food processing, bamboo etc. We

plan to organise them and provide linkages with partners like the Council of Scientific and

Industrial Research (CSIR), industry, R&D labs, financial institutions and universities, Mr

Pitroda said.

A pilot project is already on in eight clusters since November 2011 and will last for six-nine

months. Among these is a bamboo cluster in Agartala, auto components in Haryana, furniture

and Ayush in Kerala, brassware in Uttar Pradesh and food processing in Tamil Nadu.

Interesting things are happening, such as innovations in waste recycling. For instance, butter is

being made from mango kernels and wood is being created from rice husk. We can provide

technology and marketing expertise to these clusters, he said.

marketing

Mr Samir K Brahmachari , Director-General, CSIR, admitted that while his organisation, with a

strong army of scientists, had been doing such work for years, it lacked marketing capability.

When asked if there was some duplicity in work being done by NIC and CSIR, Mr Brahmachari

said, NIC is adding professionalism and skill to the tasks that we have been carrying out.


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29 Mar, 2012, 04.53AM IST,

Trai's over-regulation of TV channels is no good

Telecom watchdogTraihas circulated a consultation paper which seeks to tighten controls on

broadcast television. It seeks to limit the number of tickers on the screen to two and limits these

to a maximum of 10% of screen area.

There are limits on graphics and captions as well. Most damagingly, it seeks to regulate the

duration, frequency, timing, and even the volume, of commercial breaks on TV channels.

Current rules say that free-to-air channels can run at most 12 minutes of advertising per hour and

pay channels, which charge viewers to watch, only six minutes per hour. Trai has pointed out

that these rules are observed mostly in the breach.

There are many reasons why that happens, but one of them is the structure of the TV distributionbusiness. The vast bulk of distribution is analog, controlled by local cable operators, who

routinely under-report revenues collected from viewers. It is estimated that pay channels receive

less than a third of the actual revenues due to them from the cablewallah. Trai should concentrate

on implementingfull digitisationand enforce it with the full force of law.

In addition to boosting competition, full digitisation will yield revenues of up to Rs 5,000 crore

every year for the government. On the other hand, limits on advertising breaks will drive down

revenues and ultimately send the industry spinning into the red. Already, the profusion of

channels across all genres - entertainment, sports, news, regional and what have you - has created

enormous competitive pressure on margins of even established players.

Advertising rates today are lower than ever before. Shorter advertising breaks will force bigger

players to hike rates and drive smaller players into bankruptcy, driving down competition. When

it comes to media, history shows that the best regulation is the least regulation.

Media consumers are fickle, they will move away from channels which they perceive as being

too cluttered with advertising or graphics or anything else that spoils their viewing experience.

That is why the industry regulates itself and that is the way things should remain.
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Fresh 3G auctions may not be held anytime soon New Delhi, March 27:

Third generation (3G) mobile service providers may not get more spectrum in the near future.

That's because the Department of Telecom has agreed to give a large chunk of the 3G frequencyband to the Defence forces as part of deal done to streamline spectrum usage.

Airwaves in the 1920-1980 band are considered to be ideal for 3G services. But 34 units in thisband have now been given to the Defence as part of an exclusive band. Defence wants to deploy3G technology for its own internal communications. Of the remaining 25 units, the DoT hasalready sold 20 Mhz to telecom companies for 3G services in 2010.

This leaves the DoT with only 5 Mhz in some circles. The decision was conveyed to a Group ofMinister by the Wireless Planning & Coordination wing.

This has huge implications for existing 3G players as they won't get any additional spectrum forsome time. In the first round of auction conducted in 2010, none of the bidders had won airwavesacross the country. Those who won got only 5 Mhz in each circle which is proving to be too littlefor high speed data services.

Also, with the Government disallowing 3G players to do intra-circle roaming agreements,operators hope to go pan-India will get dashed. For instance, an operator like Airtel could now berestricted to only the 13 circles it won spectrum. 3G players will have to wait till the Governmentfinds more airwaves in other frequency bands including possible refarming of 900 Mhz. Thiscould take time as refarming is a complex exercise.

The scarcity in 3G airwaves could, therefore, hasten the move towards 4G services because freshaiwarves in this segment are being vacated.

The entire 700 Mhz band is being vacated by the Ministry of I&B which will then be put up forauction this year.


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Facebook, Twitter interconnects large parts of the worldMar 27, 2012, 10.16PM IST

NEW YORK: Most of the world is interconnected thanks to email and social networking sites

such asFacebookandTwitter, according to a new poll released on Tuesday.

Eighty five percent of people around the globe who are connected online send and receive emailsand 62 percent communicate through social networking sites, particularly in Indonesia,Argentina and Russia, which have the highest percentage of users.

More than eight in 10 Indonesians and about 75 percent of people in Argentina,RussiaandSouth Africa visit social mediasites, the new Ipsos/Reuters poll showed.

Although Facebook and other popular social networking sites, blogs and forums, were foundedin theUnited Statesthe percentage of users was lower at six in 10, and in Japan it fell to 35

percent, the lowest of the 24 countries in the global survey.

"Even though the number in the United States was 61 percent, the majority of Americans areusing social media sites," said Keren Gottfried, research manager at Ipsos Global Public Affairs.

The fact that more than six in 10 people worldwide use social networks and forums, she added,suggests a transformation in how people communicate with each other.

"It is true interconnection and engagement with each other. It is not just about a message backand forth but building messages across communities and only the meaningful messages stick,"she explained.

"It looks like a majority of the world is communicating this way," she said, adding the numberswere more than half in almost every country polled.

Ipsos questioned a total of 19,216 adults around the world in the online survey.

Email usage was highest inHungary, where 94 percent of people communicated online. Thenumbers were similar in Sweden, Belgium, Indonesia, Argentina and Poland.

Saudi Arabia, where 46 percent of people said they communicate via email, had the lowestusage, followed by India at 68 percent and Japan at 75 percent. In all the other countries eight or

nine out of 10 people were email users.

Although Americans and Japanese are thought to be very tech savvy, voice-over IP (VOIP),audio conversations conducted via aninternet connection, were not very popular in bothcountries with less than 10 per cent of people using the relatively new technology, compared to36 percent in Russia, 32 per cent inTurkeyand 25 per cent in India.

Ipsos questioned people in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France,
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Germany, Britain, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico,Poland, Russia, SaudiArabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.

Facebook's new tool to tell you your 'real friends' | Mar 26, 2012,

NEW YORK:Social networkinggiantFacebookhas introduced a new tool to help users decidewho their real friends are, and who is just an acquaintance.

The social networking site introduced "Close Friends" and "Acquaintances" lists last year.

Now, by monitoring users'onlineinteraction, the site will automatically suggest a list of friendswho have not been contacted in a while to be demoted to 'acquaintances,' The New York DailyNews reports.

On hitting the 'add to acquaintances' button, you will still be Facebook "friends" with that person,and they will never find out that they've been downgraded.

You will just see fewer of their posts in your feed, the report said. You can also keepacquaintances from getting all of your life updates in the future.

When you are sharing something new on Facebook, hit the button to the left of "Post" in thelower right-hand corner of the update box, it should say "Public" or "Friends," depending onyour default settings, the choose "Friends except Acquaintances."

Though the acquaintance list feature has existed since last fall, Facebook has just startedrecommending "friends" you might not want to hear from for a while.

According to the report, to use this feature, one has to navigate to the "Friends" page, select the"Acquaintances" list, and then click on "See All Suggestions."

Is the Internet at risk? Increasing ISPs' power could pose threats to opencompetition, free speech

NEW DELHI: A growing issue in the West is coming to India: the threat to net neutrality. The

concept ofnet neutralityis based on the idea that companies which offer internet access should

treat all internet content equally, in terms of speed, pricing, and access.

It is important to protect this principle because if ISPs and telecom operators use their connectivity

to influence how and what users consume, it can result in either censorship by a private company

or anti-competitive practices. The internet was built as an open network, where information could

flow freely.

In this environment, innovation, entrepreneurship, and democracy have thrived all over the world.

Governments, including that of India, have rightly limited its openness when it violates laws, such
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as defamation or piracy, but such restrictions are imposed only in public interest.

The challenge to net neutrality is that the decisions of what content to censor or to give preference

to, lies in the hands of ISPs, which are predominantly corporate entities. In other words, the

gatekeepers of free speech and open competition are private companies, whose job is to make

profit.

Experts say net neutrality is essential for freedom of speech, and that giving any power to anISP

or telco to limit or favour certain content will violate this fundamental principle. Clear guidelines

should be put in place to ensure network operators do not deprive citizens of free speech and

choice.

"The moment an ISP or any other entity controls users' access to internet, that entity infringes on

the freedom of speech and freedom of choice. The recent Arab Spring and movements across

Libya, Egypt and Syria show you cannot put curbs on freedom of people to access and use internetto drive change,'' said Ranbir Singh, vice-chancellor,National Law University.

"Net neutrality is essential for continued economic development of any country. ISPs should

manage internet traffic for operational reasons but should not discriminate one type of content

from another," said Tony Hill, managing director, IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6).

The net neutrality debate first erupted in the United States, whenAT&Tsuggested it would like to

charge some web companies more for preferential treatment of their traffic. Consumer advocates

and web giants likeGoogleandAmazoncried foul, saying it's a bedrock principle of the net that

all traffic be treated equally.

Neutrality advocates say that global telecom companies and ISPs seek to be 'internet gatekeepers',

and want to decide the speed of the websites and apps on their network. They want to charge

content providers to provide speedy delivery of their data, and give preference to their own

services and content, at the expense of their competitors.

These activists allege that phone and cable companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars

in the US to lobby against net neutrality. The advocates of net neutrality have influential backers as

well.

Vinton Cerf, considered as 'father of Internet', Tim Berners Lee, the creator of the web, US

PresidentBarack Obamaand others have spoken out in favour of net neutrality. A number of

web sites, such as savetheinternet.com and others serve as advocates of internet neutrality.

"Net neutrality is a must for the growth of internet in India as in the coming years people will be

using internet more and for multiple purposes than at any other time in the past. As we become

more dependant on the internet, the need for neutrality only goes up," said National Law
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University's Singh.

But as India's internet subscriber b

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