Eighth Plan Objectives
Telecom Services 10.30 The Plan of telecommunication services is framed on the long term objective of a gradual building up of the telephone connection is now very long not only in the metropolitan cities but also in smaller towns which have shown a sharp increase in demand as soon as new telephone connections are released. Hence, the Plan aims at reducing the waiting period to less than two years in general and also to provide the telephones practically on demand in rural and tribal areas. This will be ensured by installing additional switching capaci- ty of 93 lakh (110 lakh including replacements) lines in order to provide 75 lakh new telephone connections.
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10.31 In addition to the availability of telephones, accessibility, connectivity and reliability will be the primary goals. Accessibility to telephones will be ensured by providing a telephone in all the Gram Panchayats by April 1, 1995 and having LDPTs, in additional 1.5 lakh villages by 1st April, 1997 so that 3.6 lakh of the total 5.7 lakh villages in the country are covered by the facility. One Public Call Office (PCO) will be provided for every 100 households in the urban areas. Provision of highway telephones on the national highways will also be a part of this programme.
10.32 The objective of connectivity will be achieved by providing subscriber trunk dialling facility to all exchanges by April 1, 1997. As part of this programme, all subdivisional/tehsil headquarters or equivalent towns and all exchanges with 500 or more lines will have STD facility. There will be a similar facility for all the industrial growth centres, tourist and pilgrim centres by April 1, 1995. In addition, all the district headquarters will be linked by digital network.
10.33 Reliability will be achieved through the provision of media diversity in the transmission network between the trunk automatic exchanges, network management centres for control and management of networks and a ducting programme to lay 3000 km of new ducts.
10.34 A beginning will also be made in the Eighth Plan to provide a range of value added services (telematics) mainly on the basis of franchise. This will consist of cellular mobile services, voice and electronic mail services, audio and video conferencing services, radio paging and videotex. In the telex and telegraph services, the aim will be to convert the telex network to an all electronic one, to provide access to the telex network from all district headquarters through public telex offices and to make available bureaufax centres at the subdivisional/tehsil headquarters or equivalent towns. In telegraph services, the aim will be to deliver 98% of the booked telegramms within 12 hours and 100% within 24 hours.
10.35 The outlay for telecommunications sector in the Eighth Plan is Rs. 25, 137 crore. The main physical targets are given in Annexure- 10.3.
10.36 The entire programme outlined above will need substantial in- crease in the availability of switching and transmission equipment. Under the new economic policy initiated by the Government, fundamental policy changes regarding deregulation of industries including telecom sector have been effected. Manufacture of telecom equipment has been thrown pen to the private sector. Despite this, it is expected that there will be a significant gap in the first two years between the requirement and the indigenous production of equipment. In the past, the main supplier of equipment was Indian ?Telephone Industries. However, in the new industrial policy, the telecom equipment industry has been delicensed. The interest evinced by several leading foreign manufacturers is most encouraging and it is hoped, will lead to very substantial addition to the indigenous capacity in the private sector.
National Capital Region (NCR) 10.37 The development of telecommunication services in the National Capital Region, which consists of 20 priority towns and 5 counter magnet town in the three States adjoining Delhi, will receive special emphasis in the Eighth Plan. For this purpose, the DOT has prepared a sub plan with the aim to make available in the Region a reliable and modernised telecom facility, which will be comparable to that of the Capital itself so that a harmonised and balanced growth of the Region takes place. In order to achieve this, almost 97 per cent of the switching equipment to be provided for expansion of telecom services in the Region will be of electronic type and only 3 per cent will consist of electromechanical equipment. The transmission system would entirely be a digital one consisting of ultra high frequency/microwave and optical fibre systems. A total of 3.67 lakh lines of switching capacity is proposed to be added to NCR telecom network during the period. The outlay proposed for the subplan of the NCR is Rs. 995 crore. The likely scenario of the NCR telecom network at the end of the Eighth Plan is presented in annexure-10.4.
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Problems and Strategy 10.38 The target of 110 lakh gross additions of direct exchange lines over a five year period is a modest one and is well within the capaci- ty f the Department of Telecommunications to achieve. However, the problem is one of availability of funds and equipment and choice of technology. Clearly, the amount of resources that the DOT would be able to generate internally would not be sufficient to meet the in- vestment required. Since the fiscal deficit has to be brought down significantly during the Eighth Plan, the option of market borrowing is also limited.
10.39 As resources of that magnitude do not appear to be in sight within the public sector system, there is a need to draw up a time- bound concrete plan of allowing private enterprise and private sector funding in the basis telecommunication services. Some concrete methods must be devised to obtain resource by way of share capital and con- vertible of non-convertable bonds from the capital market. There are several options for this including leasing, joint venture with a minority share for the Government etc. Even foreign direct investment in some of the areas could be encouraged. However, all these fundamen- tally have to aim at involving the private sector in the expansion of telecom network. Private sector participation should not be viewed as abdication of responsibility by the public sector. On the contrary, it should be seen as healthy sharing of work. Unless innovative methods are devised, the public sector resources alone will not be able to support the programme needed by our vast country in the Eighth Plan. This sector needs sweeping structural and institutional reforms. Without a bold initiative for allowing private enterprise in areas hitherto kept as a preserve of the public sector, it is apprehended that the long term objective of improving telecom services in the country to international standards and to match even the level obtain- ing in the more progressive developing countries will not be achieved.
10.40 It is not enough to provide the telephones alone. It is equally necessary to improve the quality of service. During the Seventh Plan, the quality of service, specially fault rate per 100 stations per month, did not improve significantly despite expansion of the network and upgradation of technology. The average fault rate in the metro and major cities continued to be in the range of 18-20. Even if telecom service is allowed to be provided by the agencies other than the DOT, efficiency of the basic network will have to be maintained by the Department of Telecommunications and in the final analysis, improve- ment in the level of service will depend on the work culture and the work ethics of that Department.
Public Sector Undertakings
Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) 10.41 In the Eighth Plan, ITI envisages a production level of 4,934 lakh lines of electronic switching equipment at its Bangalore complex. The Rai Barelli unit is expected to reach full production of 1728 lakh lines of electronic switching system and the Mankapur unit 3270 lakh lines of digital switching equipment. The main Palghat unit will produce 282 lakh lines of digital trunk auto exchange equipment, in addition to 127 lakh lines of small local exchanges. The old strowger and crossbar exchanges will be phased out of production. New schemes will envisage expansion of digital trunk auto exchange, manufacture of cordless telephones and transmission equipment including the fibre optic systems.
Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) 10.42 With the expansion of the International Trunk Dialling Services to most of the countries by the end of the Seventh Pan, VSNL will aim at improving the quality of service and utilisation of the network through improvements in call completion rates. Reliability will be provided by diversifying the international transmission media through addition of digital submarine cables which will provide an alternative to satellite transmission. Additional international gateway centres will be established so as to provide uniform network access to various regions of the country. Moreover, new services for improved informa- tion transfer will be introduced through facilities like teletex, mail box service,
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database access, voice mail etc. The VSNL also plans to offer mobile international telecom services to the customers on land, on the high sees and in the air. The entire Plan outlay will be generated by VSNL through its own resources.
Hindustan Teleprinters Limited (HTL) 10.43 With electromechanical teleprinter being phased out of the sys- tem, the HTL is actively planing to diversify into new product lines including manufacture of the Roman and bilingual electronic teleprint- ers. Electronic key boards, FAX machines, payphones, chip cards, voice cards and C-DOT switching exchanges (upto 1400 lines) are some of the new products which will be manufactured.
Wireless Monitoring Organisation (WMO) 10.44 The Eighth plan proposals of the WMO consists of using continu- ing programmes viz., satellite monitoring earth station project to monitor emissions from communications satellite in the geostationary orbit and strengthening and modernising existing facilities. This will include argumentation of High Frequency (HF) channel facilities, provision of HF direction finding system, extension of microwave mobile monitoring facilities and upgradation of existing satellite monitoring stations to take care of the UHF/VHF and the Ku/Ka bonds. The outlay of WMO is entirely supported by Government budget.
S & T programme 10.45 The C-DOT, Telematics Engineering Centre (TEC) and Telematics Research centre (TRC) are the main Research & Development agencies in the telecom sector besides the in - house facilities of ITI and BEL. The basic goal of Research & Development effort in the Eighth Plan would be to meet the higher technology needs of the entire range of switching and transmission equipment, keeping in view the objectives of extending telecom facilities to all villages, providing STD facili- ties to all exchanges and making available the latest value added services. The specific areas that will receive priority attention are ISDN capability for C-DOT switches, digital time division technology for rural communication and advanced microwave and fibre optics sys- tems. Besides, systems - related Research & Development for improved operations and maintenance will also be carried out involving both hardware and software development. Standardisation, approval and evaluation work will continue to be carried out at the TEC. Greater coordination between the Research & Development activities of ITI and TEC will be achieved during the Eighth Plan. Besides optimally utilis- ing the manpower resources available in the Government and Public Sector research organisation, concerted efforts will be made to har- ness the immense potential of IITs and other research laboratories in the country.
Information & Broadcasting 10.46 Today, the advancements in information technology and the spread in dissemination of information have virtually become an index of a country's development. Moreover, in a democracy, successful develop- ment needs participation of the people which is possible only if they are adequately informed. This calls for optimum investment on collec- tion and dissemination of information and for ensuring access to the media of radio and television. At the same time, these media have to cater to the need for entertainment. Both the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) and Publicity and Information Departments of State Governments are involved in these efforts.
Seventh Plan Performance 10.47 The major thrust of the Seventh Plan relating to Information and Broadcasting sector was on raising the level of consciousness of the people. It laid emphasis on skillful synthesis of traditional and folk forms of communication on one hand and modern audio visual media including satellite communication on the other. The actual outlays and expenditures of different media organisations at the Centre in the Information and Broadcasting sector are at Annexure-10.5.
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Broadcast and Telecast Media (Akashvani and Doordarshan) 10.48 The Seventh Plan saw maximisation of the reach of All India Radio's (AIR's) signal almost over the entire country, both in terms of population and geographical area. A three - tier system of radio broadcasting - national regional and local levels - was introduced. The National Channel was visualised to be the best method to relieve regional and local stations of the need to relay broadcasts from Delhi and to allow local radio stations opportunity to express themselves. AIR also laid stress on completion of spillover schemes of the Sixth Plan like, 1000 KW mediumwave transmitter for the National Channel at Nagpur and shortwave transmitters for the external services of 250 KW at Aligarh and of 500 KW at Bangalore. The intention was to maximise to day time overage and to provide new radio stations in uncovered pockets, utilize FM service for local transmissions and to encourage FM compatibility of small radio sets made in the country, to upgrade medium wave transmitters, to strengthen and consolidate eternal serv- ice transmitters, to replace and to modernise obsolete equipment, to extend radio networking through INSAT and to have uninterrupted broad- cast for North Eastern region. By the end of the Seventh Plan the coverage of AIR had increased to about 93% of the population. The number of broadcasting centres (including auxiliary centres) had risen to 134 and the number of transmitters to 226. The major achievements of AIR during the Seventh Plan include the introduction of hourly news bulletins from six in the morning till midnight, introduction of FM broadcast and launching of National Channel.
10.49 Likewise, Doordarshan, laid emphasis on introduction of two-tier service in a phased manner which included a television service for the whole country will Delhi as a main production centre and drawing programmes from other regional production centres and each major State having its own primary service originating in the State in the lan- guage of the State. By the end of the Seventh Plan, the coverage of Doordarshan had increased to about 53% of the population, the number of its studios had gone up to 31 and the number of transmitters (including transposers) to 535. The coverage will increase to 67% when all the Seventh Plan schemes and projects initiated in 1990-91 and 1991-92 are completed, the major achievements of Doordarshan include introduction of INTEXT-(teletext) service at Doordarshan Kendra, Delhi, starting of second channel at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, introduction of a special news bulletin from Delhi for the benefit of persons whose hearing is impaired, introduction of morning and after- noon transmissions and significant increase in transmission time from all the Doordarshan Kendras.
Science and Technology Programme 10.50 The major thrust of Science and Technology (S&T) component in the Seventh Plan was on improving transmission quality and modernisa- tion of production facilities. The main areas of work included digital technology, networking of transmission through satellite and antenna development. The Centre for Digital Techniques in Broadcasting has been established for introduction of digital techniques in radio and TV. Propagation and attenuation studies for both TV and FM (Frequency Modulated) radio signals; improvement of sound insulation and acous- tics of studios; development of computer programme for Radio Frequency network planning and antenna development were among the important Research and Development programme of the Seventh Plan. Very high frequency helical antenna was designed and put on tests on various modes of transmission. Based on indigenous technology, prototypes for amplitude/frequency modulation receivers, radio and TV signal genera- tors, pulse-coded modulation based multiplexers etc. have been de- veloped. This R & D effort will help promote industry-user linkages in high technology areas of communication, transmission, sound retrieval and image intelligence.
Information Media 10.51 The Seventh Plan saw considerable increase in investment on the electronic media. A substantial infrastructure was created in the different information and publicity units. As part of the modernisa- tion process the Press Information Bureau (PIB) introduced dissemina- tion of news and information through computerised channel and a com- puter was installed at the Headquarters of the Registrar of Newspapers of India (RNI). The Publication Division, which publishes a large number of journals including "Yojana" -
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a journal on planning and development - added Punjabi and Kannada editions of the journal during the Seventh Plan. A "Book Bazar on Wheel" was launched by the Division. The directorate of Field Publici- ty which targets its publicity effort mainly to the rural areas and has a large network, organised nearly 3.13 lakh film shows, arranged song and drama programmes, held 2.15 lakh photo exhibitions and 3.03 lakh oral communication programmes, thus reaching an estimated audi- ence of over 30 crore during the Seventh Plan period. The advertise- ment wing of Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity released 84,662 advertisements to various newspapers and journals on behalf of the Union Ministers/Departments during the Seventh Plan period. The Indian Institute of Mass Communication completed construction of its own building at the new campus of Jawahar Lal Nehru University. A Post Graduate Diploma course in Hindi Journalism was introduced and the Institute acquired personal computers and desk - top publishing facil- ities.
Film Media 10.52 The principal activities of the films media are to produce and distribute films, to participate in films festivals in India and abroad and to impart training in film and TV production. During the Seventh Plan, the Films Division produced 28 feature films, the (children's Film Society of India produced ten feature films and eight short films and the National Film Development Corporation produced/co- produced 36 films.