Silent relief

Sometimes,lessons for policymakers come from the oddest places. Earlier this year,as security was ramped up pre-Ayodhya judgment,bulk SMSes were banned. For all we know,the widespread relief at not having gym memberships touted at you early in the morning contributed to the calm mood with which the country received the verdict. Levity apart,it is true that those days threw into sharp relief the intrusiveness of telephone-based marketing,just as a brief moment of silence between songs can bring crashingly home how loud and offensive the music at a restaurant is.

From New Years Day,however,new regulations from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will go into effect. These tighten up the earlier do-not-call list: as of right now,sending Start DND as an SMS to 1909 puts your phone number on a list that is supposed to protect you from unsolicited marketing calls. But it takes almost two months for that to happen,and it does nothing to stop bulk SMSes. Now,we are promised that this blessed insulation will be extended to SMSes; that there will be various layers of protection to choose from; and that getting on the list will not take longer than a week. The new rules have been given a bit of teeth,too: anyone bothering you once youre on the do-not-call list will have to pay a fine which could be as high as Rs 2.5 lakh,and,if they do it six times,they will not be allowed an account with any telephone company for two years. Hopefully the penalties are draconian enough to scare off violators.

Either way,it is possible that a new and glorious age of silence is about to dawn. And this will please pretty much everyone,since in Indias metros it sometimes seems impossible to complete a sentence without being interrupted by an SMS telling you about great three-bedrooms in the suburbs at unaffordable prices,or a new public speaking class that you really must attend if you ever want anyone to listen to you again. And heres the lesson: sometimes policy interventions dont have to be big-bang,high-profile efforts in order to be vastly welcome and universally popular.