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T W E L V E
I
ndia Internet World (IIW), the event that
focuses on the Indian Internet market, celebrating its achievements and highlighting
the key trends and developments that dot this landscape, is being held in New
Delhi, this week.
This year around, IIW has an even greater significance. For one, India has recently
crossed the milestone of 1.5 million Internet connections (translating into
around 4.5 million users). The Net, earlier shrouded in mystique and “other worldliness”
is now a key tool, not merely for “ Edutainment” but also hard core business both
on the B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) fronts.
The truly heartening bit of news is that the PC alone is not the only vehicle
on which India’s Internet expansion plans will ride. The country’s burgeoning cable
TV market is also going to be a major conduit for taking Internet to India’s
homes. Estimates indicate that cable TV goes to 37 million homes in India today.
Add Internet capability to cable and you have a latent market of this rather
gargantuan number.
The current cable penetration figures meanwhile indicate that over the next one
year, there will be at least two million homes (20 lakhs) with a combination of
cable and Internet. At an average of five persons per family, this works out to 100
lakh viewers/Internet users in the next one year!
Already, companies such as Spectra Net are investing in this market. Around 180
miles of cable have been laid by the company in the city of Delhi alone.
Hindujas, Zee, Hughes and others have plans for Mumbai. Similarly, giants such
as Reliance are also looking at spreading the Net’s net using the cable route. States
such as Maharashtra are going to play a proactive role in taking the Internet to the
man-on-the-street using non-conventional, non-traditional, non-PC pathways.
The Times of India-Delhi Times September 29, 2000
Roti, Kapda and Bandwidth
