Communications and IT

Ministry of Communications has three departments: Posts, Telecommunication and IT.

Posts in India were introduced by Lord Clive in 1766 and consolidated by Lord Hastings by starting the GPO. The uniform rate of postage by Lord Dalhousie made it the common mode of communication accessible to all Indians.

Postal Service board is the apex controlling authority of Indian posts. It has six members and a chairman. Deputy secretary and financial advisor to the department are permanent invitees. The Secretary of Dept of Posts provides implementation of the decisions.

Post

Indian post is the largest post organisation in the world. 90% of its branches are in rural areas. The post offices in hilly areas are subsidised by 85% and in normal rural areas by 67%. One post office covers an area of 21 sq. km and 7800 people approx.

Schemes

Project Arrow: To improve look and feel and to improve service quality of post.

National Postal week on Oct 9-15 with Philately day on October 13.

Information Technology

Currently 52% of World’s outsourcing market is captured by India. Although it is export driven but IT services, domestic software products and business process management are the main sectors with high domestic demand in that order

Schemes

e- Bharat: Improving availability of basic services to common man in his locality using the online mode

MeghRaj: Government of India’s cloud computing environment to act as a repository for various applications and services.

Bodies:

Software Technology Parks of India:

It is an autonomous society under the DEITy [Dept of Electronics & IT ] ministry. Main objective is promotion of software exports of India.

Media Labs Asia

To provide benefits of ICT to common man this was setup as a not-for-profit company under DEITy.

Telecommunications:

India has the second largest telecom network in the World after China. 100 crore telephones are existing with 2 crore landlines and 98 crore mobiles. The tele – density of India is 80% with 150% in urban areas and 48% in rural areas.

Telecom Commission:

The commission has a chairman, 4 full time members and three part time members. The full time members are secretaries in the Dept of Telecom and part time are secretaries in other departments. The chairman is the secretary of the Dept. of Telecom.

Functions:

1. Formulating the policy on telecom.
2. Implement the governments decisions on telecom sector.
3. Preparing the budget of the Dept. of Telecom.

Universal Service Obligation Fund:

It is created by an Act of Parliament to provide subsidy support to providing telecom services of all types in rural areas.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India:

Established by an Act of Parliament in 1997.

Functions:

1. ensure compliance of terms and conditions of the license by the licensee.
2. lay down quality of service standards to be followed by service providers.
3. specify tariff policy
4. recommend rules for entry of service providers and terms and conditions for getting a license of service providers

Q.The term ‘IndARC’ sometimes seen in the news, is the name of? (UPSC CSAT 2015)

• • an indigenously developed radar system inducted into Indian Defence

• • India’s satellite to provide services to the countries of Indian Ocean Rim

• • a scientific establishment set up by India in Antarctic region

• • India’s underwater observatory to scientifically study the Arctic region

Ans . D

1. IndARC, the India’s first underwater moored observatory, has been deployed in the Kongsfjorden fjord, half way between Norway and the North Pole. It will collect real- time data on seawater temperature, salinity, ocean currents and other vital parameters of the fjord.