India8217;s Internet chase

In the early nineties, the US established itself as the first nation of cyberspace. Over the last two years, it saw its presence diluted by a boom in the European Internet industry. Now, regional dominance patterns are set to shift radically. By the end of this year, English will no longer be the language spoken most commonly on the Internet. The new powerhouse is Asia, and the fastest growth rate will probably be seen in India. Right now, India ranks tenth in the ownership of Web property but very soon, it will outstrip China, which currently holds the first place in Asia on the database of Network Solutions, the people who assign Website names. The reasons are obvious: freedom of speech and a computer-savvy population give India a considerable advantage. The bottleneck right now is in the Indian communications infrastructure, but at the Internet World show which concluded in Delhi on Friday, it was clear that the sector will slowly be opened up to private enterprise. Manufacturers of technologies thatbypass the landline system were hawking their wares with some energy to the corporate sector, which will be its first buyers. And anyway, since India has fewer legacy systems bogging it down, cheap cellular services will be a reality sooner rather than later, making reliable Internet access available to the individual consumer.

In terms of economic expectation, the Internet industry now stands where tourism did in the Rajiv Gandhi era 8212; it is seen as a Midas machine for gathering forex. The Y2K boom showed how much Indian expertise is worth in the global marketplace. It is now being speculated that the overseas money that went into Y2K will be diverted into the communications infrastructure. US venture capital firms are expected to show interest in Indian startups. A million high-paying jobs are seen to be in the offing. Some of this seems incredible, but no more incredible than the growth in PCO services would have seemed in the mid-nineties. The growth of the industry is assured, but its rate will bedetermined by government policy. The State will have to begin to see itself as a facilitator rather than a policing agent. It should, for starters, follow the lead of the US, which is trying to make cyberspace a duty-free zone. Tax holidays alone will not be able to sustain a high rate of growth.

However, a caveat is in order: the Indian Internet is showing a high growth rate because it is a late starter. The flip side is that it has a lot of catching up to do. The corporate culture is still steeped in the logic of the eighties, while Internet startups overseas see themselves as global and virtual corporation from day one. A comfort level also has to be established between business and government. The latter can no longer operate in a top-down fashion, expecting that task forces and focus groups will be equal to the rate of progress of the Internet. It must learn to be flexible and generous with its turf, and allow entrepreneurs the freedom to set standards of their own and steer the industry according totheir perceptions. It must be a partner in the project, not a permission-granting authority, no matter how benign.