#best automatic gate opener kerala

[cctv-aura]

#GateAutomationKerala #AutomaticGatesAlappuzha #AutomaticGateOpener #Palakkad #Pathanamthitta #Kottayam #Kollam Aura Business Solutions is a leading gate automation dealer having Italian automatic sliding gate openers and automatic swing gate openers capable of pulling small domestic gates to heavy industrial gates. We also have automatic rolling shutter motors, parking barriers etc to provide complete entrance security solutions. Unlike other companies, we undertake full electrification, cabling, welding and finishing works of the gate installation as Aura Business Solutions believes in comprehensive, customized and quality automation and security solutions to our clients. Currently our services are available at Trivandrum, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Coimbatore, Dindigul and Tirupur districts of Kerala and Tamilnadu.

[aldenengineers]

Alden Engineers-We have pride in our work

Alden is entitled as the best shingles roofing in kochi .We invest heavily in the quality, experience and client assistance we give to address our client's issues. It is our central goal to give great workmanship and complete consumer loyalty from the beginning, entirely through to the culmination of your undertaking. To comprehend the necessities and assumptions for our clients, we likewise take incredible consideration to work and speak with each client in both an individual and expert way. Our standing depends on our administration, establishment and quality, paying little heed to how huge or little the work might be.

Alden’s main concern. We are here for you, to help direct you through this interaction beginning to end. Honesty is our most worth resource. We will remain behind our promise and our craftsmanship.We offer truss work in kochi. Alden  is pleased to be locally and worked. Private companies is the thing that made this nation incredible. Backing your independent ventures, similar to us.

We are likewise glad to be one of the head metal material project workers in our general vicinity and would be satisfied to help teach anybody that is keen on the advantages of metal material. We give customary vertical boards in both uncovered clasp and standing crease, and we likewise offer stone-covered steel material that look like earthenware tile, conventional wood shake, and engineering shingles. We are also the providers of pergola works in kochi.

Alden  is a  roof and Installation organization that offers a full scope of metal rooftop frameworks. With regards to  metal rooftop needs, purchasers depend on  information, skill and honesty. We are also famous in the field of glass cladding work in kerala.

At  Alden we invest wholeheartedly in the experience, quality, and client care we give to address our client's issues. It is our central goal to give phenomenal workmanship and complete consumer loyalty from the beginning, entirely through to the consummation of the task.

Obligation to quality has been the establishment of the organization from the beginning. We are  exclusive expectations are a custom common by the expert group and work power.

We are the popular automated gate manufactures in Kerala.Automatic entryways are vital for any incorporated security and access control framework in present day business foundations. Any place you need to control vehicular or potentially common access, mechanized doors can be the most productive arrangement. We are producers of programmed entryways in India and we offer custom programmed doors plan, programmed entryways manufacture, programmed entryways establishment and computerization. We can coordinate our programmed entryways with any sort of section framework, access control framework or biometric access framework that you have set up at your home or office or plant or business establishment.We are the best Automatic Gate Supplier in India and we offer a wide scope of Automatic Gate openers in India that can be utilized to robotize any sort of door.  

We give new Residential Construction, Drafting and configuration administrations. Since our organization opened its entryways in 2004, we have dealt with each client like they were a piece of our family.

We are the leading Tiny homes construction in kerala .We realize the intangibles can transform a fantasy into the real world. something deserving of the biggest speculation you may at any point make. That is the reason we construct all of our homes considering you and we go above and beyond, by placing your own contacts in your new home; regardless of whether it's choosing the ground surface, inside paint tone or kitchen ledges.We are also the finest Lift structure manufactures in Kerala.

[brajeshupadhyay]

In the mid 90s, Bill Gates released his first book, The Road Ahead, and it blew our minds. Or at least one part of it did (I never managed to read much of it). In it, Gates described the Seattle home he was then building with inlaid fiber optic cables where each room would have its own unobtrusive touchpad to control the lights, music and temperature. Best of all, as you entered a room, it’d automatically customise those elements and even wall paintings (via LCD screens) based on personal preferences, all pinged via an electronic pin everyone in the house would wear. I was reminded of that moment from a quarter century ago as I listened to a recent webinar on access to the internet in India, organised by Agami, the law and justice organisation where I work. Much of Gates’ fantastic vision has become widely available today in the form of mobile phones, smart devices and apps – all of them powered by the internet, and what he then romantically called the Information Highway. In a socially distanced landscape, addressing the 'digital ditch' is more essential than ever. Representational image from Reuters/Kacper Pempel Now in our elastically wrenching world, Gates is having another moment of prescience (as well as right-wing data hacks and conspiracy theories), this time with brighter sweaters and a thinner, papery voice. Whatever you think of him, he did baldly predict in his 2015 TED talk that “the greatest risk of global catastrophe” was not nuclear war but “most likely a highly infectious virus...not missiles but microbes”. The march of the internet into our lives, taking over every aspect and every hour, is so ubiquitous it doesn't need much emphasis or spelling out. And concurrently, neither does the fact that as more than a fifth of humanity frets under some form of lockdown and the rest practices swivel-eyed social distancing, we are all keeping up some semblance of normalcy by going online. A recent survey found that internet browsing shot up by 72 percent in the first week of lockdown in India. Online is where we are all talking and conferencing and texting, sharing parody videos, moving our money, dropping out of online courses, asking doctors about pulse oximeters, damning house cleaning bloggers, thanking recipe writers for using metric measurements, rediscovering celebrities for their shenanigans and, of course, unquenchably consuming the news and ordering more and more supplies even as we feel all Zoomed out. The new economy is not so new anymore, and it’s vital to say this aloud: Our economy is now vastly inaccessible without the internet. All the platforms, gateways and content are useless without it. Yet according to government data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), only about half of Indians have access to the basic broadband speed of 512 Kbps or more. Last year’s IAMAI-Nielsen study found an even wider gap of only 36 percent of Indians having internet access in the first place. And only a third of them are women. This is not a digital divide anymore. This is a digital ditch. Which means, half to two-thirds of the country are in an economic ditch. Much of the high speed and reliable networks have been first laid in urban centres, and the work on Digital India programmes has not kept pace with the gradually devolving economy or the current COVID-19 crisis. Perhaps some of this slowness is due to decision makers still not quite accepting that the internet has moved this fast from being a useful luxury to an essential resource? Or is it more of a lingering bias that rural or disadvantaged Indians just don't need as much internet as people like us? Either way, the numbers tell a different story. Of all ‘regular users’ in India (who accessed the internet in the last 30 days), 40 percent are actually rural users – and that base is growing much faster than the urban one. More than 50 percent of rural customers are willing to go online to buy goods. Two thirds of all existing Indian internet users are in the 12-29 year age group, and in general this age group resides much more in rural than urban India. Data usage in rural India increased by almost 100 percent during the lockdown. And all this when rural internet penetration stands at only 27 percent (versus 51 percent in urban areas). In January, the Supreme Court declared access to the internet a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution. This was in response to a plea on the internet blockade in Jammu & Kashmir since last summer’s revoking of Article 370. Since then, there has been only partial lifting of the digital ban there – only 2G speeds for postpaid mobiles while prepaid sims still have to get verified – despite mounting reports that lack of high-speed internet is hobbling the medical community and accelerating the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed, retired Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir, as well as Rahul Matthan, Partner at Trilegal law firm, criticised such internet shutdowns at the Agami webinar. They both cited similar metaphors comparing the internet today to essential services like water and electricity, and how authorities don’t switch them off to some citizens when convenient. Now, the internet has thankfully been deemed an essential service by the Home Ministry during the national lockdown, but there doesn’t seem much more on the government’s agenda here. “I don't think the [central] government has realised how critical this infrastructure is,” Aruna Sundararajan, former Telecom Secretary of India, said at the webinar. “I served on the COVID taskforce in Kerala and we devoted a whole chapter to seeing how to ensure internet services wouldn’t get disrupted, how there’d [actually] be a 30-40 percent increase in availability. We put in suggestions that people who normally don’t have access somehow need to be given it because they’re the ones who need it the most.” Governments and companies worldwide are hustling to ensure that their citizens remain online. Chile is offering a “solidarity plan" for affordable internet in partnership with private companies, while Thailand has granted 10 GB of free data to mobile users. Egypt has given free SIM cards to students and borne the cost of a 20 percent increase in all subscribers' monthly downloads. In the US, the telecom regulator negotiated with more than 50 major internet providers to get them to agree to suspend data and speed caps, suspend shutoffs and late fees, waive installation fees, provide free service and other schemes for low-income users and open Wi-Fi hotspots for the public. Meanwhile, the major telecom and broadband companies in India have offered some initiatives like free incoming calls to low-income users, Airtel and BSNL have provided extended mobile validity and Rs 10 talktime free, while Jio Phone users have got 100 minutes and 100 SMS free. Meanwhile, ACT Fibernet has offered free upgrades of unlimited data and 300 Mbps speed, Jio Fiber has offered free 10 Mbps connections to new users and double data to existing ones, and Jio has offered free broadband in some places. Some say that in this crisis, the Indian government needs to pitch in much more such as reduce red tape to enable telecom companies to build capacity fast, incentivise them to increase data limits and subsidise costs, and even use disaster relief funds to build public Wi-Fi zones. There were a host of other solutions proposed at the webinar as well. Sundararajan said the government must build the infrastructure for 4G access for all Indians – and pointed out that this is actually possible in just 6-12 months – as well as finish the incomplete project to lay fiber optic cables for 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. Sundararajan and Apar Gupta, Executive Director of Internet Freedom Foundation, also recommended that the pending Data Protection Bill be enacted to address cybersecurity concerns as citizens go online. Justice Ahmed suggested engaging the local Legal Services Authorities across the country to provide internet and justice access to their constituencies, while Matthan emphasised the right to broadband rather than just internet as a more realistic need today. Gupta recommended voluntary pledges by telecom companies to not disconnect connections for non-payment during this crisis, actualising a network neutrality enforcement mechanism in telecom licenses for private entities, and regulatory reform in telecom suspension rules to guard against internet shutdowns. The non-profit Jan Sahas has reported that a significant proportion of the distress calls they’re receiving are actually requests to recharge mobile phone accounts. “In the next 12-24 months we’ll have restrictions of some kind,” said Sundararajan, “and the need for internet is only going to exponentially accelerate.” We can’t meaningfully talk about justice for the offline world anymore, given its sharp marginalisation from most mainstream social, political and economic activity. The fact is that those of us in the information or service economies are not the only ones who need the internet, not anymore. For most of this century, all Indians have needed it to lead fuller and fully connected lives; the big difference in the last few years is that we now also need it to be fuller consumers. And in a landscape that promises to be socially distanced for the next one to two years, all of us need it whether we are in the organised or unorganised sector. There is the case of access to justice, and there is the case for access to a healthy life. Getting all citizens online is surely the one reliable way to unite them in following mandates for the greater good while giving them a way to access basic needs. And getting everyone online would also surely create a permanent resource to help the Indian economy leap away from the cliff it’s getting overfamiliar with. Gaurav Jain is a writer, editor and entrepreneur who co-founded the digital feminist portal The Ladies Finger and the award-winning boutique media house Grist Media. He works at Agami, an organisation that inspires and enables ideas for law and justice.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronavirus-crisis-underscores-urgency_27.html

[cctv-aura]

Automatic Gate Opener Kerala | Remote Controlled Gate Opener | Automatic Sliding Gates | Automatic Swing Gates | Aura Business Solutions

[cctv-aura]

AURA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS | The CCTV, Automation Experts in Pathanamthitta

CCTV Camera Installation Pathanamthitta | CCTV Dealers Pathanamthitta | Hikvision Dealers in Pathanamthitta

AURA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

Call: 9496638352

Website:

https://www.aurabusinesssolutions.in

https://www.auracctv.in

Aura Business Solutions is the leaders in Surveillance, Security and Automation since 2014 having operations across Kerala.  We provide cutting-edge and tailor-made surveillance and security solutions to both individual as well as corporate clients across the state of Kerala.  Our wide range of services include CCTV Camera Installation, Burglar Alarm (Security Alarm), Automatic Gate Opener, EPABX, IP-PBX, Intercom Systems, Video Door Phones, Access Control Systems, Public Address Solutions and Networking and Software Solutions.  

Please consider the following facts before you install CCTV Cameras.

Cameras need to be fixed after talking to a security system expert, he would assist you in installing best suitable system at your home or office after considering various factors including the possible security threats, your budget etc.  An authorised solution provider can give you latest IP and AHD CCTV models with prompt service support.  An experienced firm having 8 years of successful history and over 1800+ clients Aura can give you best CCTV, Security System solutions.

We have service available across Pathanamthitta District.  Please check the following places in Pathanamthitta District where we have service.  CCTV Pathanamthitta - CCTV Kavumbhagom, CCTV Thiruvalla, CCTV Eraviperoor, CCTV Puramattom, CCTV Kumbanad, CCTV Pullad, CCTV Thadiyoor, CCTV Naranganam, CCTV Elathoor, CCTV Pathanamthitta Town, CCTV Mezhuveli, CCTV Kulanada, CCTV Thmpamon, CCTV Chandanappally, CCTV Pandalam, CCTV Pattazhi, CCTV Adoor, CCTV Enath, CCTV Kalayapuram, CCTV Kottarakkara, CCTV Pathanapuram, CCTV Paracode, CCTV Vakayar, CCTV Konni, CCTV Malayalapuzha, CCTV Vadasserikara, CCTV Ranni

[aldenengineers]

Alden Engineers-We willing to give Satisfaction for you

Alden  a trustworthy name in  glass roofing services kerala has been the main decision for customer and designers who comprehend the incentive for cash. The organization has in the course of recent years been furnishing quality material sheet and adornments with astounding client support and after-deals administration which causes our clients to get fulfillment for administration conveyed. 

The organization accept wasteful conveyance, quality confirmation and assurance on our items and administrations.  through persevering from our committed and experienced very much prepared staff would need to be the main brand in the material and development industry in Kerala.Our corporate vision is to give the most awesome aspect benefits in giving quality materials, fast conveyance and solid administrations for our customers. 

Tile roof services in kerala is submitted in giving quality roofing material at an incredible incentive for cash.Conveyance our administrations to our treasured clients at the perfect time and spot is a fundamental piece of our business. 

Our clients are the explanation the business exist and hence offering fantastic assistance for clients is something we don't underestimate. Making a wellbeing client connection bonds to continue cooperating. Alden is tied in with placing the client first in all that we do. A brand name in the Kerala  material industry, we guarantee of giving quality materials yet at moderate cost with 15 years ensure on our administrations. 

We are  giving Tiny homes construction in kerala.We are  manufacturers, trailblazers, and inhabitants. With over 15 years in imaginative home plan and development, our plan/assemble approach implies that we are with each customer, on each undertaking, from the main discussion to the last nail. 

We are additionally enthusiastic promoters for the Tiny House Movement—a move toward utilizing less worldwide assets and having more prominent monetary and individual flexibility. It's a reviving current of right-estimating in a country where greater used to be the lone measuring stick of better. Visit our affiliation and maintainability accomplices to study Tiny Living.We also delivering Container office work in Kerala.Astounding houses could never turn out to be genuine without stunning customers. Our homes are a community try of plan, development, and customer input, all with a solitary center: causing your home to feel like home. 

We start with a base of prevalent structure frameworks and a demonstrated system for following through on schedule and on spending plan. Add to that oppor-tunities for custom setups in each corner—from outsides to inside plan, completions to furniture — and you get a house plan that vows to be what you need. We start with a base of prevalent structure frameworks and a demonstrated technique for following through on schedule and on spending plan. Add to that oppor-tunities for custom setups in each corner—from outsides to inside plan, completions to furniture — and you get a house plan that vows to be what you need. 

We are the best automated gate manufactures in Kerala .Programmed doors are crucial for any incorporated security and access control framework in present day business foundations. Any place you need to control vehicular or potentially common access, computerized doors can be the most proficient arrangement. We are producers of programmed doors in India and we offer custom programmed entryways plan, programmed entryways manufacture, programmed doors establishment and robotization. We can coordinate our programmed doors with any sort of section framework, access control framework or biometric access framework that you have set up at your home or office or plant or business foundation.  We offer a wide assortment of Automatic Gate Openers that can be utilized to plan any sort of programmed door. We can convey steel programmed entryways, or Aluminum programmed doors, or Wooden programmed entryways or some other custom sort, offering you a wide assortment of decisions. 

We are the suggested  fencingwork contractors in Kerala. Alden created more amazing fencing styles and plans with best excellent of fencing work clear and entirely done in kochi. We are give best nature of fencing materials are utilizing in the fencing zones. We offer an ideal equilibrium of current exquisite and immortal reasonableness with the greatest of fencing materials which is reflected in our fencing works. We are taken care of works for unrivaled quality, normalized materials are utilized arrange giving the best. 

Fencing Services in Kochi driving fencing administrations vendors in Pollachi is one of the south side biggest providers of fencing, assisting numerous cheerful clients with picking the correct fencing for their requirements. Fencing materials arrives in an assortment of styles and types, each offering various benefits as indicated by reason. Just as the fundamental reason you need your fencing to satisfy, you will likewise should know about any tallness limitations on fencing boards relevant in your general vicinity. We are the best production, fencing administrations vendors and Suppliers in Kochi encompassing neighborhood.

[aldenengineers]

Alden Engineers-Our Service Will Last and Perform

At  Alden shingles roofing in kochi, we would prefer not to simply be your next material worker for hire we need to be the last one you'll at any point need for all your material, siding, windows, protection and energy improvement projects. We offer client support in Kochi,Kerala,  and the encompassing zones, and are prepared to act in the event that you need rooftop fixes or substitution. You can call us currently to talk with a material master who can help answer your inquiries and give you direction on your material concerns and how your home may profit by an Energy Star affirmed rooftop framework. Our accomplished proficient record agents stand prepared to address the entirety of your inquiries and worries all through the task. Additionally, every work we oversee will have a Factory-Trained Project Manager on location to guarantee that the work is pushing ahead on schedule and on spending plan.We offer truss work in kochi.

We put stock in being open and direct with our clients. We highly esteem furnishing the entirety of our clients with an extensive, scientific assessment of their present storage room/material framework and finding the best answer for them. We need our customers to realize that their business is imperative to us, and that they can confide in the assessment and nature of numerous long periods of material and home improvement experience. At the point when you ask Alden  Roofing  for a free gauge, we guarantee you that you will get our clear, legitimate assessment on the best answer for your material and storage room energy needs. All things considered, we need to be the "Dependable Reputable Resource for All Your Roofing Needs In Kerala.We also give  pergola works in kochi.

We are one of the main maker and provider of the complete scope of  glass cladding work in kerala.Manufactured utilizing exclusive expectation crude material, these  Claddings are known for its assortment, unique plan and incomparable allure, across the globe. Special mix of most recent innovation and high evaluation craftsmanship, these claddings are exceptionally valuable and durable. High on interest for its most recent plan and industry driving value, these claddings are extraordinary incentive for cash. 

With the coming of changes in building engineering, an ever increasing number of structures require glass exteriors and  veneers to be on top of current design. Alden is settled in Kochi of India, and this implies we develop building exterior frameworks for various kinds of organizations, who all have various necessities, however who all need to make their structures look exceptional. To accomplish this, we tune in to our customers' necessities, together conclude the veneer plan, and develop building exteriors that make the customer's structure into a milestone. 

Alden automated gate manufactures in Kerala is a cutting edge venture giving mechanization arrangements. It represents considerable authority being developed of top caliber, Auto Gate System arrangement. Can meet prerequisites of various climate and diverse level applications. We are giving inovated innovation and top notch items that can satisfy market need at home. We, Alden Supply, introduce and fix a wide range of auto doors, auto entryway frameworks, programmed entryways and engine doors in and around Kochi, Thrissure, Palakkadu, egions in Kerala. We spend significant time in the plan, supply, establishment, testing and dispatching of coordinated Automatic Gate frameworks. 

We are the best fencingwork contractors in Kerala.Our foundation office involves progressed hardware and instruments, which encourage us in building up these outstanding quality items. Our quality monitors direct severe quality tests, to check the faultlessness of these items. According to the comfort of our customers, we offer them with simple installment modes and terms. Wide conveyance organization, set up by us, causes us in conveying the completed items at customers' objective inside the specified time span.

[brajeshupadhyay]

Coronavirus crisis underscores urgency of bridging divide between India's digital haves and have-nots

In the mid 90s, Bill Gates released his first book, The Road Ahead, and it blew our minds. Or at least one part of it did (I never managed to read much of it). In it, Gates described the Seattle home he was then building with inlaid fiber optic cables where each room would have its own unobtrusive touchpad to control the lights, music and temperature. Best of all, as you entered a room, it’d automatically customise those elements and even wall paintings (via LCD screens) based on personal preferences, all pinged via an electronic pin everyone in the house would wear.

I was reminded of that moment from a quarter century ago as I listened to a recent webinar on access to the internet in India, organised by Agami, the law and justice organisation where I work. Much of Gates’ fantastic vision has become widely available today in the form of mobile phones, smart devices and apps – all of them powered by the internet, and what he then romantically called the Information Highway.

In a socially distanced landscape, addressing the 'digital ditch' is more essential than ever. Representational image from Reuters/Kacper Pempel

Now in our elastically wrenching world, Gates is having another moment of prescience (as well as right-wing data hacks and conspiracy theories), this time with brighter sweaters and a thinner, papery voice. Whatever you think of him, he did baldly predict in his 2015 TED talk that “the greatest risk of global catastrophe” was not nuclear war but “most likely a highly infectious virus...not missiles but microbes”.

The march of the internet into our lives, taking over every aspect and every hour, is so ubiquitous it doesn't need much emphasis or spelling out. And concurrently, neither does the fact that as more than a fifth of humanity frets under some form of lockdown and the rest practices swivel-eyed social distancing, we are all keeping up some semblance of normalcy by going online.

A recent survey found that internet browsing shot up by 72 percent in the first week of lockdown in India. Online is where we are all talking and conferencing and texting, sharing parody videos, moving our money, dropping out of online courses, asking doctors about pulse oximeters, damning house cleaning bloggers, thanking recipe writers for using metric measurements, rediscovering celebrities for their shenanigans and, of course, unquenchably consuming the news and ordering more and more supplies even as we feel all Zoomed out.

The new economy is not so new anymore, and it’s vital to say this aloud: Our economy is now vastly inaccessible without the internet. All the platforms, gateways and content are useless without it. Yet according to government data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), only about half of Indians have access to the basic broadband speed of 512 Kbps or more. Last year’s IAMAI-Nielsen study found an even wider gap of only 36 percent of Indians having internet access in the first place. And only a third of them are women.

This is not a digital divide anymore. This is a digital ditch.

Which means, half to two-thirds of the country are in an economic ditch.

Much of the high speed and reliable networks have been first laid in urban centres, and the work on Digital India programmes has not kept pace with the gradually devolving economy or the current COVID-19 crisis. Perhaps some of this slowness is due to decision makers still not quite accepting that the internet has moved this fast from being a useful luxury to an essential resource? Or is it more of a lingering bias that rural or disadvantaged Indians just don't need as much internet as people like us?

Either way, the numbers tell a different story. Of all ‘regular users’ in India (who accessed the internet in the last 30 days), 40 percent are actually rural users – and that base is growing much faster than the urban one. More than 50 percent of rural customers are willing to go online to buy goods. Two thirds of all existing Indian internet users are in the 12-29 year age group, and in general this age group resides much more in rural than urban India. Data usage in rural India increased by almost 100 percent during the lockdown. And all this when rural internet penetration stands at only 27 percent (versus 51 percent in urban areas).

In January, the Supreme Court declared access to the internet a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution. This was in response to a plea on the internet blockade in Jammu & Kashmir since last summer’s revoking of Article 370. Since then, there has been only partial lifting of the digital ban there – only 2G speeds for postpaid mobiles while prepaid sims still have to get verified – despite mounting reports that lack of high-speed internet is hobbling the medical community and accelerating the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.

Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed, retired Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir, as well as Rahul Matthan, Partner at Trilegal law firm, criticised such internet shutdowns at the Agami webinar. They both cited similar metaphors comparing the internet today to essential services like water and electricity, and how authorities don’t switch them off to some citizens when convenient.

Now, the internet has thankfully been deemed an essential service by the Home Ministry during the national lockdown, but there doesn’t seem much more on the government’s agenda here. “I don't think the [central] government has realised how critical this infrastructure is,” Aruna Sundararajan, former Telecom Secretary of India, said at the webinar. “I served on the COVID taskforce in Kerala and we devoted a whole chapter to seeing how to ensure internet services wouldn’t get disrupted, how there’d [actually] be a 30-40 percent increase in availability. We put in suggestions that people who normally don’t have access somehow need to be given it because they’re the ones who need it the most.”

Governments and companies worldwide are hustling to ensure that their citizens remain online. Chile is offering a “solidarity plan" for affordable internet in partnership with private companies, while Thailand has granted 10 GB of free data to mobile users. Egypt has given free SIM cards to students and borne the cost of a 20 percent increase in all subscribers' monthly downloads. In the US, the telecom regulator negotiated with more than 50 major internet providers to get them to agree to suspend data and speed caps, suspend shutoffs and late fees, waive installation fees, provide free service and other schemes for low-income users and open Wi-Fi hotspots for the public.

Meanwhile, the major telecom and broadband companies in India have offered some initiatives like free incoming calls to low-income users, Airtel and BSNL have provided extended mobile validity and Rs 10 talktime free, while Jio Phone users have got 100 minutes and 100 SMS free. Meanwhile, ACT Fibernet has offered free upgrades of unlimited data and 300 Mbps speed, Jio Fiber has offered free 10 Mbps connections to new users and double data to existing ones, and Jio has offered free broadband in some places.

Some say that in this crisis, the Indian government needs to pitch in much more such as reduce red tape to enable telecom companies to build capacity fast, incentivise them to increase data limits and subsidise costs, and even use disaster relief funds to build public Wi-Fi zones. There were a host of other solutions proposed at the webinar as well. Sundararajan said the government must build the infrastructure for 4G access for all Indians – and pointed out that this is actually possible in just 6-12 months – as well as finish the incomplete project to lay fiber optic cables for 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. Sundararajan and Apar Gupta, Executive Director of Internet Freedom Foundation, also recommended that the pending Data Protection Bill be enacted to address cybersecurity concerns as citizens go online.

Justice Ahmed suggested engaging the local Legal Services Authorities across the country to provide internet and justice access to their constituencies, while Matthan emphasised the right to broadband rather than just internet as a more realistic need today. Gupta recommended voluntary pledges by telecom companies to not disconnect connections for non-payment during this crisis, actualising a network neutrality enforcement mechanism in telecom licenses for private entities, and regulatory reform in telecom suspension rules to guard against internet shutdowns.

The non-profit Jan Sahas has reported that a significant proportion of the distress calls they’re receiving are actually requests to recharge mobile phone accounts. “In the next 12-24 months we’ll have restrictions of some kind,” said Sundararajan, “and the need for internet is only going to exponentially accelerate.” We can’t meaningfully talk about justice for the offline world anymore, given its sharp marginalisation from most mainstream social, political and economic activity.

The fact is that those of us in the information or service economies are not the only ones who need the internet, not anymore. For most of this century, all Indians have needed it to lead fuller and fully connected lives; the big difference in the last few years is that we now also need it to be fuller consumers. And in a landscape that promises to be socially distanced for the next one to two years, all of us need it whether we are in the organised or unorganised sector.

There is the case of access to justice, and there is the case for access to a healthy life. Getting all citizens online is surely the one reliable way to unite them in following mandates for the greater good while giving them a way to access basic needs. And getting everyone online would also surely create a permanent resource to help the Indian economy leap away from the cliff it’s getting overfamiliar with.

Gaurav Jain is a writer, editor and entrepreneur who co-founded the digital feminist portal The Ladies Finger and the award-winning boutique media house Grist Media. He works at Agami, an organisation that inspires and enables ideas for law and justice.

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2Y7Bz9y

[brajeshupadhyay]

Coronavirus crisis underscores urgency of bridging divide between India's digital haves and have-nots

In the mid 90s, Bill Gates released his first book, The Road Ahead, and it blew our minds. Or at least one part of it did (I never managed to read much of it). In it, Gates described the Seattle home he was then building with inlaid fiber optic cables where each room would have its own unobtrusive touchpad to control the lights, music and temperature. Best of all, as you entered a room, it’d automatically customise those elements and even wall paintings (via LCD screens) based on personal preferences, all pinged via an electronic pin everyone in the house would wear.

I was reminded of that moment from a quarter century ago as I listened to a recent webinar on access to the internet in India, organised by Agami, the law and justice organisation where I work. Much of Gates’ fantastic vision has become widely available today in the form of mobile phones, smart devices and apps – all of them powered by the internet, and what he then romantically called the Information Highway.

Now in our elastically wrenching world, Gates is having another moment of prescience (as well as right-wing data hacks and conspiracy theories), this time with brighter sweaters and a thinner, papery voice. Whatever you think of him, he did baldly predict in his 2015 TED talk that “the greatest risk of global catastrophe” was not nuclear war but “most likely a highly infectious virus...not missiles but microbes”.

The march of the internet into our lives, taking over every aspect and every hour, is so ubiquitous it doesn't need much emphasis or spelling out. And concurrently, neither does the fact that as more than a fifth of humanity frets under some form of lockdown and the rest practices swivel-eyed social distancing, we are all keeping up some semblance of normalcy by going online.

A recent survey found that internet browsing shot up by 72 percent in the first week of lockdown in India. Online is where we are all talking and conferencing and texting, sharing parody videos, moving our money, dropping out of online courses, asking doctors about pulse oximeters, damning house cleaning bloggers, thanking recipe writers for using metric measurements, rediscovering celebrities for their shenanigans and, of course, unquenchably consuming the news and ordering more and more supplies even as we feel all Zoomed out.

The new economy is not so new anymore, and it’s vital to say this aloud: Our economy is now vastly inaccessible without the internet. All the platforms, gateways and content are useless without it. Yet according to government data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), only about half of Indians have access to the basic broadband speed of 512 Kbps or more. Last year’s IAMAI-Nielsen study found an even wider gap of only 36 percent of Indians having internet access in the first place. And only a third of them are women.

This is not a digital divide anymore. This is a digital ditch.

Which means, half to two-thirds of the country are in an economic ditch.

Much of the high speed and reliable networks have been first laid in urban centres, and the work on Digital India programmes has not kept pace with the gradually devolving economy or the current COVID-19 crisis. Perhaps some of this slowness is due to decision makers still not quite accepting that the internet has moved this fast from being a useful luxury to an essential resource? Or is it more of a lingering bias that rural or disadvantaged Indians just don't need as much internet as people like us?

Either way, the numbers tell a different story. Of all ‘regular users’ in India (who accessed the internet in the last 30 days), 40 percent are actually rural users – and that base is growing much faster than the urban one. More than 50 percent of rural customers are willing to go online to buy goods. Two thirds of all existing Indian internet users are in the 12-29 year age group, and in general this age group resides much more in rural than urban India. Data usage in rural India increased by almost 100 percent during the lockdown. And all this when rural internet penetration stands at only 27 percent (versus 51 percent in urban areas).

In January, the Supreme Court declared access to the internet a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution. This was in response to a plea on the internet blockade in Jammu & Kashmir since last summer’s revoking of Article 370. Since then, there has been only partial lifting of the digital ban there – only 2G speeds for postpaid mobiles while prepaid sims still have to get verified – despite mounting reports that lack of high-speed internet is hobbling the medical community and accelerating the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.

Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed, retired Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir, as well as Rahul Matthan, Partner at Trilegal law firm, criticised such internet shutdowns at the Agami webinar. They both cited similar metaphors comparing the internet today to essential services like water and electricity, and how authorities don’t switch them off to some citizens when convenient.

Now, the internet has thankfully been deemed an essential service by the Home Ministry during the national lockdown, but there doesn’t seem much more on the government’s agenda here. “I don't think the [central] government has realised how critical this infrastructure is,” Aruna Sundararajan, former Telecom Secretary of India, said at the webinar. “I served on the COVID taskforce in Kerala and we devoted a whole chapter to seeing how to ensure internet services wouldn’t get disrupted, how there’d [actually] be a 30-40 percent increase in availability. We put in suggestions that people who normally don’t have access somehow need to be given it because they’re the ones who need it the most.”

Governments and companies worldwide are hustling to ensure that their citizens remain online. Chile is offering a “solidarity plan" for affordable internet in partnership with private companies, while Thailand has granted 10 GB of free data to mobile users. Egypt has given free SIM cards to students and borne the cost of a 20 percent increase in all subscribers' monthly downloads. In the US, the telecom regulator negotiated with more than 50 major internet providers to get them to agree to suspend data and speed caps, suspend shutoffs and late fees, waive installation fees, provide free service and other schemes for low-income users and open Wi-Fi hotspots for the public.

Meanwhile, the major telecom and broadband companies in India have offered some initiatives like free incoming calls to low-income users, Airtel and BSNL have provided extended mobile validity and Rs 10 talktime free, while Jio Phone users have got 100 minutes and 100 SMS free. Meanwhile, ACT Fibernet has offered free upgrades of unlimited data and 300 Mbps speed, Jio Fiber has offered free 10 Mbps connections to new users and double data to existing ones, and Jio has offered free broadband in some places.

Some say that in this crisis, the Indian government needs to pitch in much more such as reduce red tape to enable telecom companies to build capacity fast, incentivise them to increase data limits and subsidise costs, and even use disaster relief funds to build public Wi-Fi zones. There were a host of other solutions proposed at the webinar as well. Sundararajan said the government must build the infrastructure for 4G access for all Indians – and pointed out that this is actually possible in just 6-12 months – as well as finish the incomplete project to lay fiber optic cables for 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. Sundararajan and Apar Gupta, Executive Director of Internet Freedom Foundation, also recommended that the pending Data Protection Bill be enacted to address cybersecurity concerns as citizens go online.

Justice Ahmed suggested engaging the local Legal Services Authorities across the country to provide internet and justice access to their constituencies, while Matthan emphasised the right to broadband rather than just internet as a more realistic need today. Gupta recommended voluntary pledges by telecom companies to not disconnect connections for non-payment during this crisis, actualising a network neutrality enforcement mechanism in telecom licenses for private entities, and regulatory reform in telecom suspension rules to guard against internet shutdowns.

The non-profit Jan Sahas has reported that a significant proportion of the distress calls they’re receiving are actually requests to recharge mobile phone accounts. “In the next 12-24 months we’ll have restrictions of some kind,” said Sundararajan, “and the need for internet is only going to exponentially accelerate.” We can’t meaningfully talk about justice for the offline world anymore, given its sharp marginalisation from most mainstream social, political and economic activity.

The fact is that those of us in the information or service economies are not the only ones who need the internet, not anymore. For most of this century, all Indians have needed it to lead fuller and fully connected lives; the big difference in the last few years is that we now also need it to be fuller consumers. And in a landscape that promises to be socially distanced for the next 1-2 years, all of us need it whether we are in the organised or unorganised sector.

There is the case of access to justice, and there is the case for access to a healthy life. Getting all citizens online is surely the one reliable way to unite them in following mandates for the greater good while giving them a way to access basic needs. And getting everyone online would also surely create a permanent resource to help the Indian economy leap away from the cliff it’s getting overfamiliar with.

Gaurav Jain is a writer, editor and entrepreneur who co-founded the digital feminist portal The Ladies Finger and the award-winning boutique media house Grist Media. He works at Agami, an organisation that inspires and enables ideas for law and justice.

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2VYl10X

[brajeshupadhyay]

Coronavirus crisis underscores urgency of bridging divide between India's digital haves and have-nots

In the mid 90s, Bill Gates released his first book, The Road Ahead, and it blew our minds. Or at least one part of it did (I never managed to read much of it). In it, Gates described the Seattle home he was then building with inlaid fiber optic cables where each room would have its own unobtrusive touchpad to control the lights, music and temperature. Best of all, as you entered a room, it’d automatically customise those elements and even wall paintings (via LCD screens) based on personal preferences, all pinged via an electronic pin everyone in the house would wear.

I was reminded of that moment from a quarter century ago as I listened to a recent webinar on access to the internet in India, organised by Agami, the law and justice organisation where I work. Much of Gates’ fantastic vision has become widely available today in the form of mobile phones, smart devices and apps – all of them powered by the internet, and what he then romantically called the Information Highway.

Now in our elastically wrenching world, Gates is having another moment of prescience (as well as right-wing data hacks and conspiracy theories), this time with brighter sweaters and a thinner, papery voice. Whatever you think of him, he did baldly predict in his 2015 TED talk that “the greatest risk of global catastrophe” was not nuclear war but “most likely a highly infectious virus...not missiles but microbes”.

The march of the internet into our lives, taking over every aspect and every hour, is so ubiquitous it doesn't need much emphasis or spelling out. And concurrently, neither does the fact that as more than a fifth of humanity frets under some form of lockdown and the rest practices swivel-eyed social distancing, we are all keeping up some semblance of normalcy by going online.

A recent survey found that internet browsing shot up by 72 percent in the first week of lockdown in India. Online is where we are all talking and conferencing and texting, sharing parody videos, moving our money, dropping out of online courses, asking doctors about pulse oximeters, damning house cleaning bloggers, thanking recipe writers for using metric measurements, rediscovering celebrities for their shenanigans and, of course, unquenchably consuming the news and ordering more and more supplies even as we feel all Zoomed out.

The new economy is not so new anymore, and it’s vital to say this aloud: Our economy is now vastly inaccessible without the internet. All the platforms, gateways and content are useless without it. Yet according to government data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), only about half of Indians have access to the basic broadband speed of 512 Kbps or more. Last year’s IAMAI-Nielsen study found an even wider gap of only 36 percent of Indians having internet access in the first place. And only a third of them are women.

This is not a digital divide anymore. This is a digital ditch.

Which means, half to two-thirds of the country are in an economic ditch.

Much of the high speed and reliable networks have been first laid in urban centres, and the work on Digital India programmes has not kept pace with the gradually devolving economy or the current COVID-19 crisis. Perhaps some of this slowness is due to decision makers still not quite accepting that the internet has moved this fast from being a useful luxury to an essential resource? Or is it more of a lingering bias that rural or disadvantaged Indians just don't need as much internet as people like us?

Either way, the numbers tell a different story. Of all ‘regular users’ in India (who accessed the internet in the last 30 days), 40 percent are actually rural users – and that base is growing much faster than the urban one. More than 50 percent of rural customers are willing to go online to buy goods. Two thirds of all existing Indian internet users are in the 12-29 year age group, and in general this age group resides much more in rural than urban India. Data usage in rural India increased by almost 100 percent during the lockdown. And all this when rural internet penetration stands at only 27 percent (versus 51 percent in urban areas).

In January, the Supreme Court declared access to the internet a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution. This was in response to a plea on the internet blockade in Jammu & Kashmir since last summer’s revoking of Article 370. Since then, there has been only partial lifting of the digital ban there – only 2G speeds for postpaid mobiles while prepaid sims still have to get verified – despite mounting reports that lack of high-speed internet is hobbling the medical community and accelerating the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.

Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed, retired Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir, as well as Rahul Matthan, Partner at Trilegal law firm, criticised such internet shutdowns at the Agami webinar. They both cited similar metaphors comparing the internet today to essential services like water and electricity, and how authorities don’t switch them off to some citizens when convenient.

Now, the internet has thankfully been deemed an essential service by the Home Ministry during the national lockdown, but there doesn’t seem much more on the government’s agenda here. “I don't think the [central] government has realised how critical this infrastructure is,” Aruna Sundararajan, former Telecom Secretary of India, said at the webinar. “I served on the COVID taskforce in Kerala and we devoted a whole chapter to seeing how to ensure internet services wouldn’t get disrupted, how there’d [actually] be a 30-40 percent increase in availability. We put in suggestions that people who normally don’t have access somehow need to be given it because they’re the ones who need it the most.”

Governments and companies worldwide are hustling to ensure that their citizens remain online. Chile is offering a “solidarity plan" for affordable internet in partnership with private companies, while Thailand has granted 10 GB of free data to mobile users. Egypt has given free SIM cards to students and borne the cost of a 20 percent increase in all subscribers' monthly downloads. In the US, the telecom regulator negotiated with more than 50 major internet providers to get them to agree to suspend data and speed caps, suspend shutoffs and late fees, waive installation fees, provide free service and other schemes for low-income users and open Wi-Fi hotspots for the public.

Meanwhile, the major telecom and broadband companies in India have offered some initiatives like free incoming calls to low-income users, Airtel and BSNL have provided extended mobile validity and Rs 10 talktime free, while Jio Phone users have got 100 minutes and 100 SMS free. Meanwhile, ACT Fibernet has offered free upgrades of unlimited data and 300 Mbps speed, Jio Fiber has offered free 10 Mbps connections to new users and double data to existing ones, and Jio has offered free broadband in some places.

Some say that in this crisis, the Indian government needs to pitch in much more such as reduce red tape to enable telecom companies to build capacity fast, incentivise them to increase data limits and subsidise costs, and even use disaster relief funds to build public Wi-Fi zones. There were a host of other solutions proposed at the webinar as well. Sundararajan said the government must build the infrastructure for 4G access for all Indians – and pointed out that this is actually possible in just 6-12 months – as well as finish the incomplete project to lay fiber optic cables for 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. Sundararajan and Apar Gupta, Executive Director of Internet Freedom Foundation, also recommended that the pending Data Protection Bill be enacted to address cybersecurity concerns as citizens go online.

Justice Ahmed suggested engaging the local Legal Services Authorities across the country to provide internet and justice access to their constituencies, while Matthan emphasised the right to broadband rather than just internet as a more realistic need today. Gupta recommended voluntary pledges by telecom companies to not disconnect connections for non-payment during this crisis, actualising a network neutrality enforcement mechanism in telecom licenses for private entities, and regulatory reform in telecom suspension rules to guard against internet shutdowns.

The non-profit Jan Sahas has reported that a significant proportion of the distress calls they’re receiving are actually requests to recharge mobile phone accounts. “In the next 12-24 months we’ll have restrictions of some kind,” said Sundararajan, “and the need for internet is only going to exponentially accelerate.” We can’t meaningfully talk about justice for the offline world anymore, given its sharp marginalisation from most mainstream social, political and economic activity.

The fact is that those of us in the information or service economies are not the only ones who need the internet, not anymore. For most of this century, all Indians have needed it to lead fuller and fully connected lives; the big difference in the last few years is that we now also need it to be fuller consumers. And in a landscape that promises to be socially distanced for the next 1-2 years, all of us need it whether we are in the organised or unorganised sector.

There is the case of access to justice, and there is the case for access to a healthy life. Getting all citizens online is surely the one reliable way to unite them in following mandates for the greater good while giving them a way to access basic needs. And getting everyone online would also surely create a permanent resource to help the Indian economy leap away from the cliff it’s getting overfamiliar with.

Gaurav Jain is a writer, editor and entrepreneur who co-founded the digital feminist portal The Ladies Finger and the award-winning boutique media house Grist Media. He works at Agami, an organisation that inspires and enables ideas for law and justice.

via Blogger https://ift.tt/3eUJI79

[brajeshupadhyay]

In the mid 90s, Bill Gates released his first book, The Road Ahead, and it blew our minds. Or at least one part of it did (I never managed to read much of it). In it, Gates described the Seattle home he was then building with inlaid fiber optic cables where each room would have its own unobtrusive touchpad to control the lights, music and temperature. Best of all, as you entered a room, it’d automatically customise those elements and even wall paintings (via LCD screens) based on personal preferences, all pinged via an electronic pin everyone in the house would wear. I was reminded of that moment from a quarter century ago as I listened to a recent webinar on access to the internet in India, organised by Agami, the law and justice organisation where I work. Much of Gates’ fantastic vision has become widely available today in the form of mobile phones, smart devices and apps – all of them powered by the internet, and what he then romantically called the Information Highway. Now in our elastically wrenching world, Gates is having another moment of prescience (as well as right-wing data hacks and conspiracy theories), this time with brighter sweaters and a thinner, papery voice. Whatever you think of him, he did baldly predict in his 2015 TED talk that “the greatest risk of global catastrophe” was not nuclear war but “most likely a highly infectious virus...not missiles but microbes”. The march of the internet into our lives, taking over every aspect and every hour, is so ubiquitous it doesn't need much emphasis or spelling out. And concurrently, neither does the fact that as more than a fifth of humanity frets under some form of lockdown and the rest practices swivel-eyed social distancing, we are all keeping up some semblance of normalcy by going online. A recent survey found that internet browsing shot up by 72 percent in the first week of lockdown in India. Online is where we are all talking and conferencing and texting, sharing parody videos, moving our money, dropping out of online courses, asking doctors about pulse oximeters, damning house cleaning bloggers, thanking recipe writers for using metric measurements, rediscovering celebrities for their shenanigans and, of course, unquenchably consuming the news and ordering more and more supplies even as we feel all Zoomed out. The new economy is not so new anymore, and it’s vital to say this aloud: Our economy is now vastly inaccessible without the internet. All the platforms, gateways and content are useless without it. Yet according to government data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), only about half of Indians have access to the basic broadband speed of 512 Kbps or more. Last year’s IAMAI-Nielsen study found an even wider gap of only 36 percent of Indians having internet access in the first place. And only a third of them are women. This is not a digital divide anymore. This is a digital ditch. Which means, half to two-thirds of the country are in an economic ditch. Much of the high speed and reliable networks have been first laid in urban centres, and the work on Digital India programmes has not kept pace with the gradually devolving economy or the current COVID-19 crisis. Perhaps some of this slowness is due to decision makers still not quite accepting that the internet has moved this fast from being a useful luxury to an essential resource? Or is it more of a lingering bias that rural or disadvantaged Indians just don't need as much internet as people like us? Either way, the numbers tell a different story. Of all ‘regular users’ in India (who accessed the internet in the last 30 days), 40 percent are actually rural users – and that base is growing much faster than the urban one. More than 50 percent of rural customers are willing to go online to buy goods. Two thirds of all existing Indian internet users are in the 12-29 year age group, and in general this age group resides much more in rural than urban India. Data usage in rural India increased by almost 100 percent during the lockdown. And all this when rural internet penetration stands at only 27 percent (versus 51 percent in urban areas). In January, the Supreme Court declared access to the internet a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution. This was in response to a plea on the internet blockade in Jammu & Kashmir since last summer’s revoking of Article 370. Since then, there has been only partial lifting of the digital ban there – only 2G speeds for postpaid mobiles while prepaid sims still have to get verified – despite mounting reports that lack of high-speed internet is hobbling the medical community and accelerating the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed, retired Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir, as well as Rahul Matthan, Partner at Trilegal law firm, criticised such internet shutdowns at the Agami webinar. They both cited similar metaphors comparing the internet today to essential services like water and electricity, and how authorities don’t switch them off to some citizens when convenient. Now, the internet has thankfully been deemed an essential service by the Home Ministry during the national lockdown, but there doesn’t seem much more on the government’s agenda here. “I don't think the [central] government has realised how critical this infrastructure is,” Aruna Sundararajan, former Telecom Secretary of India, said at the webinar. “I served on the COVID taskforce in Kerala and we devoted a whole chapter to seeing how to ensure internet services wouldn’t get disrupted, how there’d [actually] be a 30-40 percent increase in availability. We put in suggestions that people who normally don’t have access somehow need to be given it because they’re the ones who need it the most.” Governments and companies worldwide are hustling to ensure that their citizens remain online. Chile is offering a “solidarity plan" for affordable internet in partnership with private companies, while Thailand has granted 10 GB of free data to mobile users. Egypt has given free SIM cards to students and borne the cost of a 20 percent increase in all subscribers' monthly downloads. In the US, the telecom regulator negotiated with more than 50 major internet providers to get them to agree to suspend data and speed caps, suspend shutoffs and late fees, waive installation fees, provide free service and other schemes for low-income users and open Wi-Fi hotspots for the public. Meanwhile, the major telecom and broadband companies in India have offered some initiatives like free incoming calls to low-income users, Airtel and BSNL have provided extended mobile validity and Rs 10 talktime free, while Jio Phone users have got 100 minutes and 100 SMS free. Meanwhile, ACT Fibernet has offered free upgrades of unlimited data and 300 Mbps speed, Jio Fiber has offered free 10 Mbps connections to new users and double data to existing ones, and Jio has offered free broadband in some places. Some say that in this crisis, the Indian government needs to pitch in much more such as reduce red tape to enable telecom companies to build capacity fast, incentivise them to increase data limits and subsidise costs, and even use disaster relief funds to build public Wi-Fi zones. There were a host of other solutions proposed at the webinar as well. Sundararajan said the government must build the infrastructure for 4G access for all Indians – and pointed out that this is actually possible in just 6-12 months – as well as finish the incomplete project to lay fiber optic cables for 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. Sundararajan and Apar Gupta, Executive Director of Internet Freedom Foundation, also recommended that the pending Data Protection Bill be enacted to address cybersecurity concerns as citizens go online. Justice Ahmed suggested engaging the local Legal Services Authorities across the country to provide internet and justice access to their constituencies, while Matthan emphasised the right to broadband rather than just internet as a more realistic need today. Gupta recommended voluntary pledges by telecom companies to not disconnect connections for non-payment during this crisis, actualising a network neutrality enforcement mechanism in telecom licenses for private entities, and regulatory reform in telecom suspension rules to guard against internet shutdowns. The non-profit Jan Sahas has reported that a significant proportion of the distress calls they’re receiving are actually requests to recharge mobile phone accounts. “In the next 12-24 months we’ll have restrictions of some kind,” said Sundararajan, “and the need for internet is only going to exponentially accelerate.” We can’t meaningfully talk about justice for the offline world anymore, given its sharp marginalisation from most mainstream social, political and economic activity. The fact is that those of us in the information or service economies are not the only ones who need the internet, not anymore. For most of this century, all Indians have needed it to lead fuller and fully connected lives; the big difference in the last few years is that we now also need it to be fuller consumers. And in a landscape that promises to be socially distanced for the next 1-2 years, all of us need it whether we are in the organised or unorganised sector. There is the case of access to justice, and there is the case for access to a healthy life. Getting all citizens online is surely the one reliable way to unite them in following mandates for the greater good while giving them a way to access basic needs. And getting everyone online would also surely create a permanent resource to help the Indian economy leap away from the cliff it’s getting overfamiliar with. Gaurav Jain is a writer, editor and entrepreneur who co-founded the digital feminist portal The Ladies Finger and the award-winning boutique media house Grist Media. He works at Agami, an organisation that inspires and enables ideas for law and justice.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronavirus-crisis-underscores-urgency.html

[brajeshupadhyay]

In the mid 90s, Bill Gates released his first book, The Road Ahead, and it blew our minds. Or at least one part of it did (I never managed to read much of it). In it, Gates described the Seattle home he was then building with inlaid fiber optic cables where each room would have its own unobtrusive touchpad to control the lights, music and temperature. Best of all, as you entered a room, it’d automatically customise those elements and even wall paintings (via LCD screens) based on personal preferences, all pinged via an electronic pin everyone in the house would wear. I was reminded of that moment from a quarter century ago as I listened to a recent webinar on access to the internet in India, organised by Agami, the law and justice organisation where I work. Much of Gates’ fantastic vision has become widely available today in the form of mobile phones, smart devices and apps – all of them powered by the internet, and what he then romantically called the Information Highway. Now in our elastically wrenching world, Gates is having another moment of prescience (as well as right-wing data hacks and conspiracy theories), this time with brighter sweaters and a thinner, papery voice. Whatever you think of him, he did baldly predict in his 2015 TED talk that “the greatest risk of global catastrophe” was not nuclear war but “most likely a highly infectious virus...not missiles but microbes”. The march of the internet into our lives, taking over every aspect and every hour, is so ubiquitous it doesn't need much emphasis or spelling out. And concurrently, neither does the fact that as more than a fifth of humanity frets under some form of lockdown and the rest practices swivel-eyed social distancing, we are all keeping up some semblance of normalcy by going online. A recent survey found that internet browsing shot up by 72 percent in the first week of lockdown in India. Online is where we are all talking and conferencing and texting, sharing parody videos, moving our money, dropping out of online courses, asking doctors about pulse oximeters, damning house cleaning bloggers, thanking recipe writers for using metric measurements, rediscovering celebrities for their shenanigans and, of course, unquenchably consuming the news and ordering more and more supplies even as we feel all Zoomed out. The new economy is not so new anymore, and it’s vital to say this aloud: Our economy is now vastly inaccessible without the internet. All the platforms, gateways and content are useless without it. Yet according to government data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), only about half of Indians have access to the basic broadband speed of 512 Kbps or more. Last year’s IAMAI-Nielsen study found an even wider gap of only 36 percent of Indians having internet access in the first place. And only a third of them are women. This is not a digital divide anymore. This is a digital ditch. Which means, half to two-thirds of the country are in an economic ditch. Much of the high speed and reliable networks have been first laid in urban centres, and the work on Digital India programmes has not kept pace with the gradually devolving economy or the current COVID-19 crisis. Perhaps some of this slowness is due to decision makers still not quite accepting that the internet has moved this fast from being a useful luxury to an essential resource? Or is it more of a lingering bias that rural or disadvantaged Indians just don't need as much internet as people like us? Either way, the numbers tell a different story. Of all ‘regular users’ in India (who accessed the internet in the last 30 days), 40 percent are actually rural users – and that base is growing much faster than the urban one. More than 50 percent of rural customers are willing to go online to buy goods. Two thirds of all existing Indian internet users are in the 12-29 year age group, and in general this age group resides much more in rural than urban India. Data usage in rural India increased by almost 100 percent during the lockdown. And all this when rural internet penetration stands at only 27 percent (versus 51 percent in urban areas). In January, the Supreme Court declared access to the internet a fundamental right under Article 19 of the Constitution. This was in response to a plea on the internet blockade in Jammu & Kashmir since last summer’s revoking of Article 370. Since then, there has been only partial lifting of the digital ban there – only 2G speeds for postpaid mobiles while prepaid sims still have to get verified – despite mounting reports that lack of high-speed internet is hobbling the medical community and accelerating the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed, retired Chief Justice of the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir, as well as Rahul Matthan, Partner at Trilegal law firm, criticised such internet shutdowns at the Agami webinar. They both cited similar metaphors comparing the internet today to essential services like water and electricity, and how authorities don’t switch them off to some citizens when convenient. Now, the internet has thankfully been deemed an essential service by the Home Ministry during the national lockdown, but there doesn’t seem much more on the government’s agenda here. “I don't think the [central] government has realised how critical this infrastructure is,” Aruna Sundararajan, former Telecom Secretary of India, said at the webinar. “I served on the COVID taskforce in Kerala and we devoted a whole chapter to seeing how to ensure internet services wouldn’t get disrupted, how there’d [actually] be a 30-40 percent increase in availability. We put in suggestions that people who normally don’t have access somehow need to be given it because they’re the ones who need it the most.” Governments and companies worldwide are hustling to ensure that their citizens remain online. Chile is offering a “solidarity plan" for affordable internet in partnership with private companies, while Thailand has granted 10 GB of free data to mobile users. Egypt has given free SIM cards to students and borne the cost of a 20 percent increase in all subscribers' monthly downloads. In the US, the telecom regulator negotiated with more than 50 major internet providers to get them to agree to suspend data and speed caps, suspend shutoffs and late fees, waive installation fees, provide free service and other schemes for low-income users and open Wi-Fi hotspots for the public. Meanwhile, the major telecom and broadband companies in India have offered some initiatives like free incoming calls to low-income users, Airtel and BSNL have provided extended mobile validity and Rs 10 talktime free, while Jio Phone users have got 100 minutes and 100 SMS free. Meanwhile, ACT Fibernet has offered free upgrades of unlimited data and 300 Mbps speed, Jio Fiber has offered free 10 Mbps connections to new users and double data to existing ones, and Jio has offered free broadband in some places. Some say that in this crisis, the Indian government needs to pitch in much more such as reduce red tape to enable telecom companies to build capacity fast, incentivise them to increase data limits and subsidise costs, and even use disaster relief funds to build public Wi-Fi zones. There were a host of other solutions proposed at the webinar as well. Sundararajan said the government must build the infrastructure for 4G access for all Indians – and pointed out that this is actually possible in just 6-12 months – as well as finish the incomplete project to lay fiber optic cables for 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. Sundararajan and Apar Gupta, Executive Director of Internet Freedom Foundation, also recommended that the pending Data Protection Bill be enacted to address cybersecurity concerns as citizens go online. Justice Ahmed suggested engaging the local Legal Services Authorities across the country to provide internet and justice access to their constituencies, while Matthan emphasised the right to broadband rather than just internet as a more realistic need today. Gupta recommended voluntary pledges by telecom companies to not disconnect connections for non-payment during this crisis, actualising a network neutrality enforcement mechanism in telecom licenses for private entities, and regulatory reform in telecom suspension rules to guard against internet shutdowns. The non-profit Jan Sahas has reported that a significant proportion of the distress calls they’re receiving are actually requests to recharge mobile phone accounts. “In the next 12-24 months we’ll have restrictions of some kind,” said Sundararajan, “and the need for internet is only going to exponentially accelerate.” We can’t meaningfully talk about justice for the offline world anymore, given its sharp marginalisation from most mainstream social, political and economic activity. The fact is that those of us in the information or service economies are not the only ones who need the internet, not anymore. For most of this century, all Indians have needed it to lead fuller and fully connected lives; the big difference in the last few years is that we now also need it to be fuller consumers. And in a landscape that promises to be socially distanced for the next 1-2 years, all of us need it whether we are in the organised or unorganised sector. There is the case of access to justice, and there is the case for access to a healthy life. Getting all citizens online is surely the one reliable way to unite them in following mandates for the greater good while giving them a way to access basic needs. And getting everyone online would also surely create a permanent resource to help the Indian economy leap away from the cliff it’s getting overfamiliar with. Gaurav Jain is a writer, editor and entrepreneur who co-founded the digital feminist portal The Ladies Finger and the award-winning boutique media house Grist Media. He works at Agami, an organisation that inspires and enables ideas for law and justice.

http://sansaartimes.blogspot.com/2020/04/coronavirus-crisis-underscores-urgency_26.html