Editorial 1 : Corridor to a new world
Recent Context:
- Historically, India has been the pivot of connectivity from ancient Red Sea route, Rome to Indian Ocean and Punjab that was significant from socio-culture, economic and connectivity point of view.
- And , recently, On September 10 in New Delhi, the Prime Minister of India, President of the United States, Chancellor of Germany, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, President of UAE, Prime Minister of Italy, and the President of the EU unanimously agreed to establish the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC).
About India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and its
- The IMEC will be a route in the historic sense of the word (with the geopolitical and economic significance that entails), providing transport connectivity to accelerate the development and integration of Asia, the Arabian Gulf, and Europe as a new locus of global power.
- MEC is envisioned two corridors
- An eastern corridor linking India to the Arabian Gulf and a northern corridor linking the Arabian Gulf to Europe. Both ends have robust port, rail, and road infrastructure.
- India, whose connectivity infrastructure has helped it become the world’s fastest-growing major economy, has a massive, well-integrated railroad network, mega ports, and highways on the eastern end of IMEC.
- Mega infra projects for augmenting capacities — dedicated rail freight corridors, highways, expressways and ports — are at various stages of development.
- On the western end of IMEC, beyond Haifa, the sea route across the Mediterranean is also a well-charted path to Greece, Italy, France, and Spain, and well served by hinterland connectivity to Europe by rail and roads.
Importance of IMEC:
- Promote better connectivity: It envisions a reliable, cost-effective railway and ship-to-rail transit network to supplement maritime and road routes, enabling goods and services to move between India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and the EU. IMEC is India’s moment.
- Development and employment generation in the region due to infrastructure development.
- It will also be the cornerstone of economic progress across the region by supercharging regional trade, and connecting Asia with Europe through a region that has never, since the ancient Red Sea route, been considered for such connectivity despite its game-changing potential in terms of shorter transits, accessibility, and multimodal connectivity.
- It will save time compare to existing one route:
- The maritime corridor between Asia and Europe currently remains rooted in the saturated Suez Canal and Mediterranean shipping routes despite being longer and involving additional logistics costs.
- It takes 11 days to sail from JNPT in Maharashtra to Suez port, and six days to Dammam. An additional 24-hour transit by railway could land consignments at Haifa, saving three to four days of transit.
- It will strengthen the supply chain among the partner nations.
- IMEC, which promises shorter routes. It links major ports of western India including JNPT, Kochi, Kandla and Mundra with major shipping ports of the Gulf, including Jebel Ali, Fujairah, Ras Al-Khair, Dammam, Duqm, and Salalah
- It will help in countering the China’s hegemony of Belt and Road Initiative in the Asia and European region.
Way forward:
- As commitment of resources from stakeholders and multinational financial institutions like the World Bank will not be an issue as the financial returns on investments promise to be high.
- The green and sustainable growth corridor will envisage the laying of cables for electricity and a pipeline for transporting clean hydrogen. The greening of this project will contribute to the global effort to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
- IMEC has incredible potential to integrate India, West Asia, and Europe on a collective path to growth at an unprecedented scale.
- And it is a historic moment for India as a regional leader that can bring up an entire regional economy through the combination of its technical leadership and outward-looking approach.
- As the next step, a working group of experts from the railway sector, ports and shipping, and communications needs to develop a plan of action to address physical and non-physical barriers, design, financing, legal and other regulatory requirements.
Conclusion:
- A mega global initiative like IMEC is only the beginning. As a strategic catalyst for a new way of thinking about collective growth, globalisation, and connectivity — Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam in the truest sense , this new corridor will trigger regional and global cooperation initiatives for socio-economic development across continents, benefitting millions.
Editorial 2 : A win-win for all
Context:
- The Digital India Programme had three main vision areas:
- Connectivity,
- Software and services on demand and
- Digital empowerment of citizens.
- Fortunately, the connectivity landscape has been transformed in the last seven years due to multiple factors like the boom in mobile telephony, 4G coverage, significant reduction in tariffs and increased smartphone penetration.
Recent rise in digitisation across different sector and concern
- Along with significant rise in digital connectivity and technologies, government’s enabling policies like Net Neutrality and focus on building Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), particularly Digital ID and UPI, have further contributed to the Digital India vision, resulting in a massive increase in digital transactions.
- However, this growth has also been accompanied by a huge surge in demand for data.
- Today, India’s per capita data consumption stands at a whopping 19.5 GB per month and the total data volume transported by mobile networks is more than the mobile networks of US and China combined
- Thus, the gap between demand and affordable supply still remains quite wide, especially for poor households and rural India
Government’s initiatives to promote digital data availability (PM-WANI)
- The creation of inter-operable public Wi-Fi hotspots was one such idea proposed by TRAI in which would foster a shared infrastructure as a last-mile distribution of broadband in sachet-sized packages of Rs 5-10.
- The idea was successfully piloted and submitted to the Department of Telecom (DOT) as Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (WANI), in March 2017.
- As a result, government launched PM-WANI scheme. In this No licence or permit was needed for operations to start.
- Start-ups who had participated in the initial pilot started work. Then Covid brought everything to a grinding halt. Now, the operators, called Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs), have started work again.
- It has been a game changer as In the last year alone, more than 1.5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspot have been installed by Public Data Office Aggregators (PDOAs) and more than a million people are getting unlimited internet daily by paying just Rs 5-10.
PM-WANI is gong to strengthen the India’s digital infrastructure
- By introducing various entities such as PDO, PDOA, app providers, and a central registry, an open and scalable framework has been created.
- In the way UPI transformed the financial space in India, PM WANI is going to become a unique Digital Public Infrastructure in connectivity.
- This framework offers a compelling business opportunity for aggregators as it allows unbundling of internet distribution at the last mile, eliminating the need for additional licensing fees.
- It provides a robust foundation for delivering affordable internet access to a significant portion of society. Currently, India’s home broadband penetration is one of the lowest in the world.
- PM-WANI presents a golden opportunity to accelerate high-speed unlimited internet penetration, bridging the digital divide and empowering communities nationwide.
- Moreover, many large Internet Service Providers are hesitant to enter underserved areas. This presents a golden opportunity for the PM-WANI framework to flourish. It also benefits ISPs and Telcos as they end up selling more bandwidth by making their end customers retailers.
- Therefore, by creating a win-win situation for all key stakeholders, PM-WANI also nurtures the growth of local nano entrepreneurs. These last-mile providers, found in small shops, local establishments, and even households, augment their monthly earnings while promoting internet usage.
Conclusion: Therefore, PM-WANI needs to be promoted by all stakeholders. It is uniquely Indian in its approach of interoperability, openness, and scalability. Hopefully, it will accelerate like UPI and the other DPIs being built in our country.