Giving Villagers a Voice
Ajay Bhattacharya recently invited various stakeholders to Sanchar Bhavan on Ashoka Road to discus the format of the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund scheme for supporting wireless broadband deployment in rural areas where the population is small and the commercial rollout of infrastructure infeasible.
The scheme aims to support players that are deploying wireless broadband in rural areas so that the government’s commitment to increasing broadband penetration in rural India is fulfilled.
Bhattacharya, a 1977 batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, believes that while the USO Fund has achieved a lot in the area of rural connectivity, much still remains to be done.
He wants to focus on broadband and better mobile coverage. ?Practically every village now has a basic telephone service in the form of a public call centre and we have ensured mobile coverage in every habitation that has more than 2,000 people. What we are pushing for now is the rollout of wireline broadband across 28,000 locations in the country,” he says.
A man of few words and a permanently furrowed brow, Bhattacharya has been impressed at the way the deployment of satellite phones has enabled villagers in very remote parts of the country to access telecom services. Satellite phones are used where it does not make economic sense to roll out a network and where there is no availability of grid power. The phone allows villagers to connect with their family and friends, feel less isolated and more connected to the national mainstream.
Located in solar-powered phone booths, the satellite phone has proved to be immensely popular. Bhattacharya has been told of one phone, on the route to Kailash Mansarovar, which is in continual use, both by local people and pilgrims on their way to the holy site.
?It is very satisfying to be able to connect people in remote areas and improve their economic activity and prospects,” he says.?I vividly recall how, when I was travelling through the rural areas of Uttarakhand, I saw a young boy carrying a pail of water from a pond to his home while talking on the mobile phone.”
His remarks on uneven development bring to mind the statistics showing that India has more mobile phones than toilets. The country has some 565 million mobile phone connections, covering roughly half of India’s 1.2 billion people, while only 366 million have access to a proper toilet, according to a recent study by the United Nations.
During his travels, Bhattacharya has observed this imbalance in development. ?You feel dismayed when some areas are so lacking and so behind the rest of the country,”he laments.
Bhattacharya says that whenever phones are taken to remote villages, his employees enjoy the pleasure of being welcomed and held in high regard. This, he says, more than makes up for the discomfort of working in far-flung regions where there are no facilities, no roads and no electricity, and which are often affected by insurgency.
He makes it a point to travel extensively to get a feel of what is happening on the ground as well as to share in the excitement of this powerful agent of change. Under his guidance, the USO Fund has taken several initiatives to promote rural telephony. These include the implementation of tower infrastructure sharing and renewable energy projects, and augmentation of other types of infrastructure such as the optic fibre cable backbone. In the first phase of its tower-sharing project, nearly 7,400 towers were shared amongst three operators to provide all habitations with a population of more than 2,000 with mobile coverage. For the second phase of the project, an attempt is being made to reach out to even more remote areas with a population of less than 2,000. The bidding process for the second phase of the project is still to be initiated.
No doubt, the uptake of renewable energy by telecom companies so far has been quite low. As Bhattacharya points out, ?The adoption has been limited since only a few operators have realised the potential of such technologies.” Typically, the high capex is a deterrent to using technologies like photovoltaics. ?The USO Fund is willing to step in,” says Bhattacharya. In fact, the fund is currently supporting a few pilot projects using solar and other renewable energy solutions being undertaken by telecom operators.
Bhattacharya’s previous posting was as joint secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture where he was responsible for animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries for four years.
?It was a fascinating job because it is connected with livelihoods, with development, with conservation, with ecology, and all sorts of issues,”? he says. ?We set up the National Fisheries Development Board to look after this very important sector. Fisheries is the largest single item of agricultural export from India. You have no idea of the volume of prawns exported by India.”
His career has covered most of the postings of an IAS officer, ranging from a collector dealing with land acquisitions, land disputes, and law and order to revenue and industries in Tamil Nadu. In New Delhi, his work has encompassed health and family welfare, communications and information, to name only a few assignments.
Bhattacharya has also undergone extensive training in the areas of energy as well as environment; transport policy and management; ethical issues in administration; and science and technology in development.
Bhattacharya is a Bengali but grew up in Roorkee, Uttar Pradesh, where his father worked for the government. He grew up in a large family and attended a private school. ?Roorkee was a nice town, very quiet but with most facilities in place and good education. Now it has grown and is less green,” he said.
His childhood ambition was to become an engineer, which he achieved by graduating in the subject. He worked for a few years with the Central Electricity Authority before deciding, on an impulse, to try for the IAS.?I was not enjoying my job at that time so I thought I would give the IAS a go. It was not premeditated, just an impulse and it worked,” he says.
He has enjoyed the variety of work the service has afforded him, something he feels that the private sector can never offer. Every posting has been satisfying, he says, as there was always something to achieve.
?I’ve been lucky in that I have had fairly long tenures in my posts so I was able to understand the issues in depth and make a difference,” he says.
He has heard reports that the IAS is a less attractive career option to young Indians today but says that the number of applicants it gets belies this perception. ?Of course, what has changed is that people have many more career choices than before, but the service is still attractive, judging by the number of people who apply,” he says
