'We need to think and talk as a nation to be a global front ranker,'says Pilot

Noida (Uttar Pradesh), Feb.4 (ANI): "India, no doubt, has the potential, ability, capacity and the confidence to become a front ranking country of the world, what we need to do as a nation and I am not talking about what government should do, what society should do, what NGOs should do, or what young people should do, is to start thinking and talking as a nation because all of our objectives ultimately are same," said Minister of State for Communication and IT Sachin Pilot.

Inaugurating the annual two- day seminar "TeleFocus- 2010" on the theme of "Growth of Telecom in Emerging Economy today at Amity, Pilot expressed his concern over important issue of sealing of towers in Delhi/ NCR.

"The issue is between the telephone operators and the authorities; it has nothing to do with my ministry. Whatever is the law of the country has to be abided by and without ignoring the rules and regulations of our country, all the operators should work. At the same time, authorities should seal the towers only after physical verification. The consumer should not suffer as the fallout of the tussle between the operators and authorities. Operators and authorities should try and resolve this issue faster, since the actual consumer is suffering," Pilot said.

"Though we are able to provide connectivity to half a billion users in the country but there are half a billion people who are yet to be empowered. Mobile communication technology and a sense of having communication gadgets in one's hand is a true empowering tool because the mobile phone, today, has just not remained an instrument that we use to make and receive phone calls," he added.

On how youth could play a greater role in telecom sector, he said: "There is a tremendous convergence of information technology happening. There was a time when handsets were used to make phone calls and to talk to people and desktops and laptops were used to surf the net. Now, the handset is being used via 3G technology, to do video conferencing, to talk to each other, to have night chats on handsets and we are using mobile to surf the net. There are more opportunities, now, for youth to find new and dynamic ideas, to be more creative."

"To participate in this ever changing dynamic sector since there are more companies then ever before and there are more entrepreneurs than ever before. I am happy to say that in last year or so there has been sluggishness in the global economy; there has been recession in most western countries but despite all that I think, India has maintained itself with a pretty healthy growth rate of 47 percent and I would add that the telecom sector and the IT sector have been a great catalyst for Indian economy to sustain that growth," he added.

Talking about disparities in tele-density in metropolitan cities like Delhi and Chennai on one hand and rural areas on the other hand, he said: "In states like Arunachal Pradesh, the appetite for connectivity is phenomenal; everybody young and old, professionals and students wants to be connected. It is imperative that we have a network of communication and information that really links the entire country. This infrastructure, this resource deployment should not be restricted to only large networked cities."

He highlighted the importance of penetrating the rural, remote and tribal parts of the country with a big push because those are the areas where things like health and education is desperately eeded. (ANI)