Joining India with Bharat: An ongoing digital journey

The turn of the century gave a push to convergence, with telecom at its core. A tech-driven future could speed up the connectivity revolution in its true sense

- NIVEDITA MOOKERJI

The discussion at a recent Business Standard meeting centred around the overwhelming impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on everything, from information technology to healthcare and hospitality.

While nobody could say with certainty how it would play out —would it eat up jobs or generate employment or do both?—there was no doubt that AI would transform the way we live and work, perhaps far more quickly than the connectivity revolution of the past 25 years.

That revolution came gradually, before turning into a tide.

Whether it's the march from 2G to 5G telecom service, the transition from local kirana to on-tap quick commerce, the growing popularity of UPI payments, the phenomenal dependence on virtual meetings to keep WFH (the pandemic-necessitated 'working from home') going, or ditching the big screen for OTTs, the connectivity revolution has today changed the game, empowering everyone with a smartphone in remarkable ways.

It all began five years before the dawn of 2000, when mobile phone service entered India. On July 31, 1995, Jyoti Basu, then the chief minister of West Bengal, made the country's first cellphone call, from Writers' Building in Kolkata to then telecom minister Sukhram in New Delhi.

The turn of the century ushered in an era of communications convergence.

The Draft Communications Convergence Bill, 2000, the outcome of numerous high-level meetings involving several ministries and subsequently, a group of ministers chaired by then finance minister Yashwant Sinha, sought to offer a regulatory framework for the convergence of the broadcasting, internet and telecom services. The proposed legislation was inspired by similar legal frameworks in countries such as the US and Malaysia.