Position Papers/Policymaking Process
From Www.india-gii.org
Fix the process, the Japanese always say, and the product will fix itself. If we have such terrible technology policy in the country, we need to fix the manner in which such policy is made. A couple of illustrations:
1. You may have seen M Gairola's article in the Economic Times on 18 August (appended below for your convenience). The TRAI went to considerable trouble in formulating a discussion paper on the issue of broadband, then conducted open houses around the country. Many of us responded in detail, and went to the open houses where we had a fairly detailed discussion, at the end of which the TRAI came out with recommendations. The result? The DoT threw out some parts, the DoS and the finance ministry most of what remained. The question we have repeatedly asked the TRAI is, who in this country makes telecom policy? Is there any way to contribute to that process, such that blunders are not made? As an example of one such blunder, http://www.dotindia.com/isp/guide_international_gateway.htm states that special permission is required if you wish to use encryption with a key length exceeding 40 bits RSA or equivalent -- there is no product with such a poor level of encryption available in the market: any use of Internet Explorer to access a secure site on the Net is a violation of this guideline.
2. Sajan Venniyoor <venniyoor@rediffmail.com> reported on the cr-india mailing list, that a similar fate was likely for TRAI recommendations on commercial FM radio licensing as well: this time, the Home Ministry was among those that stuck its foot out to trip the TRAI (http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/cr-india/2004-August/003135.html). Now, the TRAI has come out with a discussion paper on community radio policy (http://www.trai.gov.in/CONSULTATION%20PAPER25AUG.HTM) -- is there any point in us spending time in participating in this process, if some faceless government mandarins can simply throw out all our valuable suggestions without providing any reason?
Bad policy, of course, doesn't just hurt poor people. The government too lost a great deal of revenue as a result of delays caused by a poor basic telecom services policy. Ultimately, intervention at the level of the PM was needed to sort matters out. Consequently, the government should be receptive to sensible suggestions on how to improve the technology policy making process.
