From the media

Want to get onto the Internet? If all goes well, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited will offer full connectivity in three months. Says Mr V.Babuji, director development of the VSNL, "We will definitely offer Internet as a separate service. We have already places orders for the equipment and will be setting up a separate node in Bombay."

Sources in the information technology industry say the VSNL is planning to offer dial-up connections to Internet to students, professionals, non-commercial users, commercial users, software exporters and E-mail or Internet service providers. The charges for commercial users will be Rs 15,000 per annum, for non commercial users Rs 9,000, for professionals Rs 5,000, and a paltry Rs 500 for students.

"This will be a God send to all those who have been wanting to get on the Internet," says a software consultant. "Internet is the place to be in today," says Suchit Nanda of Bombay-based Live Wire! Bulletin Board.

Internet, say technology buffs, is to the Nineties what computerisation was to the Eighties. It is the closest man has come to circling the globe in a moment. Thirty million users worldwide are logged onto it.

India's DoT set up Ernet in 1989 to offer connections to Internet. But full connectivity is restricted to eight nodes in the country, namely the DoE, the IITs, NCST, IISc (Bangalore) and IUCAA (Pune). Individuals cannot get access.

Wipro Infotech, Sprint RPG, Datapro and Sterling Computers offer internet link, but confine usage to E-mail messages. They would like to introduce more Internet services provided the stringent controls over Ernet's leased lines are relaxed.

While the world is going crazy over Internet, India's DoT, having set up Ernet to offer Internet connections for research, has a monopolistic tendency and does not feel that commercial usage is justified.

The National Informatics Centre offers Internet connectivity in 15 cities through its high speed satellite link, not connected to DoT's leased lines, but its charges are exorbitant, Internet seekers say that NIC's attitude is more public sector than private sector.

World wide, Internet has no governing body, controlling its membership and usage. It's called the world's largest functioning anarchy. And it functions beautifully. But in India, the monopolistic control DoT has over the telecommunication industry and the attitude of NIC are blocking India's entry into the information superhighway. "The fact remains that we are at the mercy of the authorities and any change in telecom policy can curtail our Internet connections," says a software consultant.

The first private e-mail service, Madras based Icnet, began operations in 1992, and today five networks are already offering Internet connections but only for e-mail.

A Bombay based consultancy, Ravi Database Consultants, has started providing news and information on India to Internet users abroad and has already got 350 subscribers for the home pages service which they introduced in India three weeks ago. But their India page is made in the US, and the collated information fed in through their Bombay connection goes through an expensive direct dialling process to reach the US. RDC has two subscribers for its home page services, Boyden Consultants, a placement agency, and Ogilvy and Mather.

"Almost 5,000 people have logged in since we set up. Initially access was free, but now we have curtailed it to those subscribers who have paid the US $ 20 fee to the provider." Nearly 85 percent of their subscribers are from the US and the rest in Canada, Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong. "Within the US, fifty per cent of the users are from educational services and the other half from commercial institutes." Ravi Database Consultants have their connection in San Diego, USA. "This makes it very expensive, but we don't expect to make a profit this early. It would probably take some months before Internet really catches on. We offer companies pages where they can display information about themselves for Rs 15,000 per year," says Mr Jain.

Suchit Nanda's Live Wire! Bulletin Board Service set up four years ago is one of the 30-odd BBS service in the country. He says, "The situation in India is rather volatile at the moment as far as the Internet is concerned. The problem in India is the low penetration of telephones and no clear cut guidelines of what is legal and illegal."

"Internet has suddenly gone big, and there are a lot of people who want a stake in the pie," says Mr P.Mishra, Systems Administrator at the Centre for the Monitoring of the Indian Economy, "But in India, sadly, there is no formalised policy for Internet users and no commercial Internet providers," moans Mr Mishra.