Update: Atanu Dey has made certain assumptions about the cost of BJPs IT rollout plan, and estimates that the overall cost will be around $80 Billion.
Original Story: So the BJP has taken to technology with banner ads and a website, but some of the promises the party has made in its IT Vision Document made us wonder about why they didn’t suggest that India will colonize Mars. Thanks to Harish Anand Thilakan of Influx for informing us about the document.
Here are some highlights of the BJPs vision:
Internet users to equal mobile subscribers; 100 crore mobile users in five years: India has, reportedly, 50 million active Internet users in India today, less than 6 million broadband connections and 360 million mobile users. Where is the comparison? India is adding 10-15 million mobile subscribers per month, so BJP’s extrapolation of this growth to hit 100 crore in five years is quite possible, but 1 billion Internet subscribers?
2Mbps Broadband @ Rs 200 pm: This is a take on BSNL’s broadband roll outs across the country, only with a price tag – Rs 200 per month. Two long scheme names were announced – National Digital Highway Development Project and the Pradhan Mantri Digital Gram Sadak Yojana for last-mile access even in the remotest of villages. It also says that all schools and colleges will have Internet-enabled education. Doesnt say when.
e-PCOs & e-Post Offices: The party takes credit for an existing project by BSNL, by promising that all telephone booths will be upgraded to Internet kiosks. Last year, BSNL had announced in Karnataka that one PCO per district would be converted into e-PCOs. We have written about BSNL’s latest kiosk plans here. Another unoriginal concept is converting post offices to IT-enabled Multi-Service Outlets. The department of posts already announced an investment ofRs 900 crore for upgrading post offices with broadband. Project Arrow will convert head post offices, ‘mukhya dak ghars’ and other important post offices both in rural and urban areas within the next six months into e-Post Offices. Read more on the launch in the Hindu.
Cashless Hospitalisation For Villagers: This is sounds very similar to the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna, a scheme launched by rival party head Manmohan Singh in 2007. Each bio-metric Smart Card holds a fixed amount of Rs 30,000 and a unique identification number, so it can be swiped without security fears. Over 31,05,607 cards have been distributed till date.
E Gram Vishwa Gram: Narendra Modi’s e-governance project in Gujarat will be scaled up for the rest of the country. V-Sat, video conferencing, internet and video broadcasting will be implemented by private companies such as Reliance Infocom and Airtel. The project will include setting up Common Service Centres and bring Internet and cyber services to villagers. Will this not overlap BSNL’s Internet kiosk initiative?
New Laws – VoIP Unfettered, National ID Card, Broadband Is 2 Mbps, Open Standards: NDA, if voted to power, would enact a law to make national identity cards mandatory for citizens to strengthen national security. The party claims its ignored by the UPA government and plans to re-launch it. The card will integrate your voter id, PAN card, ration card and driving license. Also Voice over IP will be unrestricted, the document says.
Video Conferencing: Obfuscation is their escape. What does this “Video conferencing to be made affordable and universally accessible” exactly mean? And “Use of IT for the protection of India’s priceless cultural and artistic heritage” – how? BJP will also promote Indian languages and web-based learning by emulating Wikipedia, You Tube etc.
India Versus China:
BJP believes that in the next five years, India will equal China on all IT parameters. The mind boggles. Take a look at the table and decide for yourself.
Details of budgeting, implementation processes and milestones are explicitly absent for any of the projects. The IT Vision document is just another pre-poll exercise, shall we call their bluff?
You can download the PDF of the IT Vision Document here.
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13 Comments until now.
This may be a bluff and a routine pre-poll promise giving exercise but who cares? All the leading publications and well knows blogs like Medianama are covering it. What else does BJP want? People any way have short memory and we do not necessarily expect our politicians to keep their promises isn't it?
thinking about it and then articulating something in a written document is a step in itself. sure we must be happy that these things are at least on someone's mind with in the party set-up. getting down to doing all of it will be a question or priority and who is pushing the case forward. of course, some of that is just hot air, but hey they must have needed to some thing to fill it out to make it thick enough.
the notion that any publicity is good publicity is wrong – we've indicated that these promises are hollow or borrowed from BSNLs apparently hollow promises. Believe you me – if the BJP does get elected, then every year, we *will* check if they're meeting their promises, and five years from now, we *will* do a postmortem.
Easily the best headline I have seen on a Medianama article – Colonize Mars ;)
Nikhil – you aren't usually so cynical or pessimistic. I agree with flip in as much as putting a vision down is a start. You do need to dream to make things happen. Or you can take Behenji's example. She was on telly the other day saying how her party does not believe in a manifesto at all. No promises, nothing to keep. What you will have of course is her statue in every corner of every city if she does come to power. God knows thats not impossible in this crazy country of ours where I hear a convicted MP from the Samajwadi Party (see the Indian Express today) has applied for bail to contest elections – today. But I still have faith in our democracy. Shibu Soren will tell you what that means since he found out recently.
By the way, there is already work in progress to bank people below the proverty line. Its not smartphones, but it will be phones. Watch this space.
happyman – we're usually skeptical; cynical at best. :) The post is by Preethi, though. about banking BPL, you're probably referring to Eko, right?
right
Happyman, can't agree more with you. Though yes, free meal schemes have failed to take off and there isn't quite sufficient availability of 'free' potable water and fresh air in this country, one thing that seems to be available in abundance is cynicism coated opinion!
I agree with you – someone atleast thought about it. Some of the ideas are even, *gulp, novel. Am happy to read from an earlier riposte that Nikhil will indeed promise a post mortem. As long as we sit back and take lip service, we'll continue to receive it.
Btw Nikhil – do all the staff at Medianama have voter ID cards and more importantly, will they go to vote this year?
I love such manifestos…They exemplify all the cliches so often repeated in the movies. Yet our Parties and the Leaders fail to understand the same. What amazes me is that after all this, there is Mr. Advani's web site where he tries so craftily to woo the junta. with a vision for an India, which if painted will definitely make to the museum. Why is it easy to buy India through such colourful dreams?
It would be even more appalling if we fall for it – but these promises were not even for us; they are for the people of 'darkness' (ref: The White Tiger), who are gullible as much as hungry!!! Sigh…
Lets do something about this – not online because in this manner the catharsis will remain with us only. Let's try to take this to a mass media requesting a logical explanation to the manifestos and a question to the 'leaders' of how they plan to achieve the impossible!!! Let a television channel invite an open debate between the leaders and justify the claims they make in the manifestos.
Were you doing the same for the congress govt? Sorry, I'm new to this blog but your article and replies sound very partisan. Instead of doing my own research, I thought I would straight out ask you.
Eswar: this site wasn't around when the Congress was elected. Now that you mention it – we will look for their election manifesto in the last election and critique that soon. Also, once the Congress releases the IT manifesto for these elections, we'll critique that as well.
Look at policy during BJP and Congress times. In BJP rule telecom was liberalised. Telecom density increased as cheaper calls were possible due to government policy and technology. Congress on the other hand wasted 5 years without 3G. Technology is there but government policy is missing. 3G can change India. Congress wasted 3G opportunity. As a VAS service provider this is the biggest failure of Congress for me. As an Indian we have again went from being hero to zero due to congress policies.
Well at least (and at last) they recognized the need for better Information Infrastructure. Even if they can implement 50% of their promises, it would be great!