Meeting international standards in telecommunications
What is the nature of the changes you propose?
So far the targets set by the telecom bodies are primitively low. I want them to accept as high targets as the market demands.
Does the country need much higher targets?
Let me give you an example. Currently our target in rural telecommunications is aimed at providing at least one phone in a radii of 5 km. Can we be happy with targets that conceive people walking 5 km to make a phone call. Moreover, it has been estimated that there are 8 telephones for every 100,000 people living in rural India. Do you not think that these targets should be doubled?
But why would higher targets neccessitate privatisation?
The average telephone density in industrialised countries is slightly more than 100 per thousand population. Our projection is only to go upto 20 by 1997, at an expenditure of Rs 40,000 crore. If we are to provide a telecommunication climate that is even modestly comparable to international levels we have to rope in the private sector.