Is it too late to introduce 3G in India?
Finally, the much-delayed 3G auctions will take place in India next month. Nine players will participate in the auctions for pan-India 3G spectrum, which will begin Apr.
India: Its size, its people, its coming of age.
Swati Prasad is a New Delhi-based freelance journalist who spent much of the mid-1990s and 2000s covering brick-and-mortar industries for some of India's leading publications. Seven years back when she took to freelancing, India was at the peak of its "outsourcing hub" glory and the world of Indian IT, telecom and Internet fascinated her. A self-proclaimed technophobic, Swati loves to report on anything that's remotely alien to her--be it cloud computing, telecom, BPOs, social media, e-government or software and hardware, and also how high-tech sectors impact the Indian economy.
Finally, the much-delayed 3G auctions will take place in India next month. Nine players will participate in the auctions for pan-India 3G spectrum, which will begin Apr.
Earlier this month, we had our friends over from Bengaluru--Deepty and Namit. Deepty is a tech-savvy corporate lawyer.
It's very difficult to crystal-gaze. Back in 2000, when mobile telephony was becoming cheaper in India (and I had just acquired my first mobile phone--my elder brother's hand-me-down, a Nokia 1610), I would have never anticipated that in less than five years, almost every man/woman on Delhi's streets would own a mobile phone.
Today's newspapers carry a photograph of Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz offering a bouquet of flowers to India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.It wasn't just another meeting between the Indian PM and the CEO of a multinational.
Today is Mahatma Gandhi's birthday--or Gandhi Jayanti, as the day is known here in India. While most know Gandhiji as the pioneer of satyagraha (resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience) that was founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence, he was also a good economist.
Social networking has assumed immense importance in our lives. Over the last few months, we have seen how a tweet, a profile status or personal information on Facebook can cost some people their job, marriage, image and much more.
The auction for 3G spectrum was to happen in December 2008, but a host of issues (such as lack of agreement between ministries over the reserve price for the spectrum, the forthcoming general elections, the global financial meltdown coupled with telecom operators' reluctance in making huge expenditure on 3G) led to the deferment of the auction.Now, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has announced that auction for 3G spectrum will take place on Dec.
In March 2007, I got the opportunity to visit the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. It was interesting to visit the alma mater of thousands of successful engineers and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
India's demographics (50 percent of India's population is below the age of 25 years) has been perceived as both a boon and a bane. During this decade, however, we have repeatedly heard the phrase "India's demographic advantage".
When you are used to double-digit growth rates (ranging from 13 to 50 percent per annum), a growth forecast of 4 to 7 percent definitely comes as a surprise. At Chennai today, Nasscom (the trade body of Indian IT-BPO industry) announced that the industry is estimated to grow by 4 to 7 percent in the current financial year (2009-10).