Recently, I came across a piece on the Time Magazine website, authored by Simon Robinson (http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1817222,00.html), wherein Simon talked about Anil Ambani’s Hollywood dreams. The story talked of how there was a probability of Steven Spielberg and ADAG coming together, to be more precise; “Reliance providing between $500 million and $600 million to Spielberg’s Dreamworks SKG, financing that would allow Dreamworks to split from Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures.”

As, I went through the piece; my admiration for the junior Ambani brother went a few notches higher, not as much for making the phriangi Jurassic Park director indebted to us Indians, but more for the mileage that he seems to be deriving even before there was pen put to paper on the deal. Imagine WSJ and Time Magazine discussing the story and carrying them in their publications. The only other Indian businessman, who achieved this feat recently was Ratan Tata; but then he had to build a ‘Nano’ for the same after investing billions of dollars. And this is the very reason, I ‘kind off’ like Ambani, his media-savviness.

Unlike Branson (Vijay Mallya’s role model), Anil Ambani exudes a very no-nonsense business image. Each bit of news that emanates from his PR machinery subtly reminds that he is a “Wharton” MBA. The press handouts will have an image of him sitting in his corporate office, smiling benignly at you. He will hold joint press conferences with the Hoi polloi, be it Steve Ballmer or Bill Clinton. Then, of course, there are marathons that “fitness freak” Ambani runs and the innumerable trophies that he keeps accepting all the time. Some months back, there was immense coverage of the fact how Ambani Jr. had become a trillionnaire and also the 6th richest person in the world (based on the valuation of one of his company’s IPO, that tonked immediately after listing. So that was the end to that story).

There is a world of difference between how the two Ambani brothers carry on with their work. While the elder one (also the more richer) tends to keep away from media even though he owns a rather ‘costly’ IPL team. The only time Mukhesh Ambani was in news recent times was because of the $2 billion house that he is building. Meanwhile, ADAG’s public machinery seems to be working overtime, much like some 24/7 call center, trying to come up with some saucy and juicy bit.

So, there is Ambani Jr. investing millions in Fame Adlabs (a multiplex and film distribution chain in India). Or his Reliance Power is being listed (apparently, the very listing saw the end of the bull run and the return of the bears). Or how he aimed to be as big as TCS and the rest by launching a software firm Tech Reliance. Then, recently there has been these high-profile negotiations with MTN, the largest mobile operator in Africa. And finally, there’s Spielberg. He has even coaxed his good friend, Amitabh Bachchan to turn to blogging (he writes on one of ADAG’s online properties). Through all these stories, the official machinery will maintain a discrete silence. While some “informed sources” will keep the media wheels running with tid-bits and suppositions. Ask some one for a quote, and all you will get is hush-hush. Even the Time Magazine couldn’t coax them into commenting on a story.

Come to think of it, the raison d’etre of Ambani’s wealth are entities that he did not create himself, like Reliance Communications and Reliance Energy, the former was done by big brother and the latter was a PSU. And that is the reason, I like Anil Ambani; he manages to be there on my newspaper every morning somehow the other, talking of some fantastical venture or a success and when neither just plainly accusing his brother for some corporate misdemeanor. Bravo Ambani Jr!

The Time Magazine piece by Simon gives me a good excuse to post a small analysis that I had done at the time rumors were floating around on Tech Reliance. Sadly, I am only a tech journalist, so I need good “tech” reasons to write such features. I thank Ambani Jr. for giving me a reason to write such a piece and Simon for giving me an excuse to post it here. BTW, there seems to be little happening on the Tech Reliance front, the website is still a dead link. Hope the Spielberg is not another Tech Reliance story.
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And now comes; Tech Reliance
The industry is curious about the latest foray by Anil Ambani. But he seems to be keeping the cards close to his chest, at the moment.

The dawn of New Year is often associated with cheer and celebration. It is the time to party, to let loose. But, it is also the time for introspection and inference. Individuals and companies alike make plans and resolutions for the coming year and gear themselves accordingly. Surely even the mighty trillionnaire Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, chairman of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), must have made quite a few resolutions for 2008, ranging from garnering a few extra billions to running the full Mumbai marathon. But then resolutions are often a private affair, conceived in seclusion and its success celebrated in public.

Yet, barely had the sherry stopped flowing at the onset of 2008, there was a small bit of news that emanated from unknown quarters. The news concerned Ambani, and more so his proposed venture. After proving his mettle in the telecom and the entertainment sector, it seems that Ambani has resolved to take on the knights of the IT industry. Of the many, or even the few, resolutions made by 48-year-old businessman, Information Technology was one of them, and it was dubbed as ‘Tech Reliance’.

Little wonder, the industry was agog with excitement. There was lot of speculation and supposition about the viability of Tech Reliance. Discrete and unknown “company sources” kept feeding news bits to eager newspersons. There was talk about the how the group would take on the Biggies of Indian IT, or how determined Ambani was to make this venture a roaring success. Through all this, ADAG was mum. The official channels churned out the normal PR spiel, no confirmation was given and no denial made. “The group continuously explores new avenues for growth and we seek to enhance value for our stakeholders,” was the only word that came out.

The battle plans
The news went that Tech Reliance would have six development centers across India by the end of December 2008. Currently, the Group has IT centers catering to corporate needs in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad. According to reports there are over 2000 employees working out of these centers, the numbers would supposedly double by March.

The Reliance – ADAG (R-ADAG, as it is called) happens to be among India’s top three private sector business houses, with a market capitalization of over $ 22 billion, net assets in excess of $ 7 billion, and net worth to the tune of $ 6 billion. Interests of the Group range from communications (Reliance Communications) and financial services (Reliance Capital Ltd), to generation, transmission and distribution of power (Reliance Energy), infrastructure and entertainment. In the last year or so, the group has forayed into numerous industries, for instance, acquiring stake in Adlabs.

It is estimated that Group spends anything between $400-500 million on IT services for all related ventures and the Tech Reliance could start up by serving the needs of the group at the onset, saving costs and also gaining experience. It is likely that Ambani desires to put all his IT eggs in one basket. Amongst other things, Ambani also owns a BPO company, Reliance Infostreams, providing inbound and outbound customer support to India Mobile, Reliance India Phone subscribers and a few foreign clients. But at the moment, it seems that Infostreams would continue to exist as a separate identity.

Taking on the Titans
Till now the story read smoothly: Tech Reliance for Reliance-ADAG. But, the news leak went further. It would seem that Ambani is not only keen to save money (by doing it himself) but also earn big moolah through his new venture. Tech Reliance, supposedly, would be a challenger to the Indian tech giants like TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Satyam. According to ‘informed sources’ Ambani has kept aside some $2 billion for the tech venture and Tech Reliance would be in the big league in a couple of years by offering various consulting and other IT services to domestic and international clients.

In recent times, telecom services have become a big market opportunity. Quite recently Vodafone outsourced all its IT operations, with the exception of network service platforms, to IBM for five years. Earlier, IBM had won a 10-year, $800 million contract IT infrastructure for Idea Cellular. While in 2004, IBM won a 10-year IT outsourcing deal from Bharti Airtel, the deal was valued at about $750 million and has grown to about $1.2 billion currently. Meanwhile, TCS had won a 9-year infrastructure management contract from BSNL valued at around $140 million. Ambani could be looking at a piece of this burgeoning telecom pie.

The going won’t be easy, even for Ambani. TCS has been around for some 4 decades and has revenues of over $4.3 billion, Wipro Technologies with over $3.47 billion, Infosys with $3.1 billion and Satyam with over $1.4 billion. All these players have spread their operations globally, as well in India. Not to mention that MNCs also have a keen eye on India, with the Big Blue (IBM) clocking close to $1 billion in revenues from India. Breaking the stranglehold is tough, if not impossible.

To be a big player, Tech Reliance would need more than the Group IT revenues; it will need to win projects from Fortune 100 companies. But would these companies rely on Tech Reliance? Is a question that will be answered in the days to come. It is conjectured that Ambani would go the M&A way, pickup a single or a few ripe apples to expand. A joint venture is always handy in such circumstances, for instance the way Mahindra & Mahindra launched Tech Mahindra (earlier Mahindra BT) with British Telecom. Sometime back there were rumors that Reliance Communications (RCOM) was in talks with Accenture Consulting to float a joint venture to manage and operate the Group’s IT infrastructure services and processes. Somehow, nothing materialized. Maybe, Tech Reliance rose from the ashes of this JV itself.

Hot Air?
Nonetheless, media is having a field day, thanks to the innumerable anonymous sources. According to one such source, the company will be based out of centers in Mangalore and Bangalore, initially. Or the fact that Ambani has personally recruited a core team of 15 to overlook the operations and expansion of Tech Reliance. Yet, the official website of the Group does not even have a name of the proposed company. Of the numerous entities mentioned on the website (http://www.relianceadagroup.com/adportal/ADA/aboutus/companies.html) there is no mention of Tech Reliance.

Could it be that Ambani was testing the response to his idea before deciding to launch his venture? Many people (anonymously again) opine that this could be a smart way to drum up recruitment, by selectively leaking news bits. Indeed, on Orkut, a social networking website, many people are asking when, how and where is Tech Reliance recruiting. If indeed, Ambani wishes to ‘double’ his IT workforce by March, he must be making a big splash about it. But, there is a big under construction sign on techreliance.in, reflective on the state of the venture itself.

That is all there is about the venture at the moment. Till the dapper Ambani opens up about the venture, there will be lot of riff-raff about Tech Reliance. Hopefully in the days to come, there would be an end to news shrouded in anonymity and we could witness the birth on another IT company. A probable David that aspires to take on the Goliaths. Good luck, Ambani.
n

I was 16 and it was my mom’s birthday. All of us were waiting for Papa to come home so that we could go out to Juhu beach followed by dinner at the Evening Post, a restaurant where prices were a wee-bit higher than the usual ones and the waiters were also dressed in starched whites bowing and nodding frequently, thus making it a special place fit for birthdays and anniversaries. Post afternoon, I was standing outside our home and I noticed something quite out of the place, nervous people were rushing hither-thither and one could spot a motley group talking quite animatedly.

It had not been much time, since the city of Mumbai had witnessed the worst kind of communal violence after the demolition of Babri Masjid, we were all edgy and worried, fearing and scared about the worst. It was then that we came to know that a series of blasts had rocked the city of Mumbai. Rumors were flowing thick and thin, the news on the television or the radio was not much of help. Some were saying that there were 15 blasts and some claiming it to be 5. With every passing moment, I would hear of a blast at some another location, Air India Building, Zaveri Bazaar, Sea Rock, Sebi, Centaur, Passport Office. I was extremely worried about Pa, this was the time before mobile phones become ubiquitous, so there was no way to reassure self.

Standing outside my home, I remember looking to heavens in utter helplessness, pleading with the divine powers to take care of my pa, many promises were made, many bribes were offered. What else could a puny teenager do in the wake of these circumstances? Fortunately for me, the gods were kind. Pa missed one of blasts by a whisker, so as to say. But that wasn’t the case for hundreds of poor individuals who on March 12, 1992 met a horrific death. For so many hundreds of teenagers like me who lost their parents on that day, life would never ever be the same.

There have been quite a few bomb blasts post 1992, even another serial blasts in suburban Mumbai trains and every time my blood curdles up. What really pisses me is the impunity with which these bastards commit the crimes and get away with it. It is as if, there is little that we can do to really protect ourselves, it is so easy for these gutter-snipes to place a bomb or two where they wish and never for once does our administration wake up. Every time, I see or hear about a blast, I remember my mom’s birthday, the day I was imploring and pleading with gods to take care of my Pa. So, when I heard and saw the news on television about the blasts in Jaipur, I felt like screaming, shouting, hitting out at somebody, anybody, I felt like crying. I needed to do something, and the piece below was written in angst and in pain. I just wish I didn’t have to return to that day in 1992, again and again.
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Jaipur blasts: A bloody soft state

The real answer to terror could come from hardware and software, and nothing else

Blood was splattered on the soiled ground; there was single leather shoe with singed laces; cycles, bicycles, handcarts all twisted horrifically out of shape; shattered glass everywhere; somewhere afar one could discern the silhouette of a human form – life snuffed out, and in the neighborhood, wails intermixed with groans, for the dead and for the living.

And looming large over everything was silence, an overpowering silence, a defeated silence — a helpless one. Yet again, terror had come calling and yet again we were helpless and weak in front of it.

The only thing that had changed this time was the location: instead of a train or bus in Mumbai, or the Parliament in Delhi or instead of an open air theatre in Hyderabad, or a temple in Akshardham, or a mosque in down south, it was the beautiful Pink City of Jaipur.

In 12 minutes flat, 7-8 RDX bombs changed so many lives that it will be hard to account for all of them. Official figures put the casualty at over 60, with more than a few hundred injured. These statistics are not only symbolic of our helplessness but also of the sheer callousness of the administration.
Indeed, the jamboree has already started; fingers have been pointed towards the usual suspects, LeT, the HUJI, SIMI, ISI and the lot. Of course, one cannot so easily blame Pakistan (considering the mess it, itself is in), so there is Bangladesh (but then the poor state has been in a constant mess since the time it was carved out in 1971).

Leaders in Delhi are talking tough, “We will not tolerate these kind of actions…strict action will be taken…the perpetrators would be punished,” and so on. In the next few days be ready for a few ‘terrorist encounters’, where a few of the so-called LeT or HUJI terrorist will be gunned down and on their bodies will be found maps of different temples and army headquarters.

But all these claims by ministers and administration is just hollow posturing because the people who live with their families under X,Y,Z security categories and move around in a cordon of bullet and bomb-proof cars are completely inept to handle terror.

The question that begs an answer is why isn’t the government doing something conclusive about it? When we can send a capsule to the moon or simultaneously put 10 satellites in geo-synchronous orbit, why are we not able to detect the sleeper cells of these so-called terrorist outfits within the country? Why even after so many terror strikes has our intelligent gathering mechanisms not been modernized?

Look at the way US has battled terror. 9/11 brought terror to the American soil for the first time in history. A couple of thousand died in the twin towers itself. In the aftermath of the event, US invaded Afghanistan, later Iraq, made enemies across the Middle East. The US was much feared before 9/11, after 9/11 it was much hated.

And yet, there hasn’t been a single terrorist strike in nation after that catastrophic event even though its enemies have multiplied manifold. Simply because it learnt from the event, it strengthened its intelligence gathering apparatus, virtually everything has systematized. Land in the US, there are multiple times your fingerprints are digitally captured, every traveler into the country resides for eons on the servers of the FBI or the NSA.

Even for those not in the US, there is no guarantee that National Security Agency (NSA) is not keeping a tab on them. It is said that the agency, scrutinizes every call or email that goes in or out of the US. There are hundreds or even thousands of spy satellites up in the sky looking at every square inch of land. America shackled the beast of terror with technology.

The US is increasingly relying on GPS as a crime-fighting tool; India on the other hand took a strong stand against BlackBerry ‘to stymie’ terror. And terrorists use mobile phones to trigger explosions in India, leaving innocents still, silent and slain.

Fortunately or unfortunately, we can never be like the US. But surely we can at least learn from the all these calamities, if there was ever a time to act, it is right now. There is an urgent need to disband all the portly officials from RAW, CBI, and the intelligence Bureau and put in place a hi-tech network.

The real answer to terror could come from hardware and software, and nothing else.
If a private company in India can build world 4th fastest computer, EKA, surely we can have a hi-tech apparatus in place, which can monitor all those calls and emails and discern patterns.

A super computer has more chances of finding a sleeper LeT cell, than a whole police apparatus of a state. If Indian software engineers can help design software for NASA and the likes, why can’t their talents be used here in India? The question is not of capability but of will.

Are the people who run this country, capable and competent to understand the dynamics of this new warfare against us? Or they simply going to live in their cocoons and ‘share our grief’ and do bloody nothing? How many more Mumbais, Hyderabads, Delhi, Jaipurs, are needed to shake them out of their lethargy? How many more lives of poor helpless Indians need to be sacrificed on this altar of indolence?

Or is it that, we are destined to be a bloody soft state that can hardly do a thing when dastardly terrorist strike at will and shame us over and over again.

Meanwhile, all we can do is look to the heavens and beseech the lord to have mercy on the poor citizens of the charming Pink City and give them the power and wherewithal to tide over this crisis.

Before I wrote the story on Tibet, I went to Youtube and saw the video of the Tankman, times and again. I remember seeing the video clip as a teenager in one of the television shows, Pranoy Roy’s The World This Week. As, a youngster I was amazed and spellbound by the courage of the man, who stood in front of that column of tanks, waving at them to leave. There hasn’t been an image that has left a mark on me, in the way Tankman had. And every time I was seeing the video on Youtube, I could feel the pain the travesty of the person that drove him to make a statement like that. I often think to myself, was tankman immensely brave aware of the consequences and ready to pay the ultimate price or was just so frustrated that he didn’t bother of anything. And that’s what I recalled when I saw the images of all those monks in Lhasa shouting slogans against the Chinese rule.

Free Tibet, is a phrase that seems to be plastered all across the globe. As the momentum for the 2008 Olympics in China gathers force, so does the movement by Tibetan protesters some asking for autonomy and some for freedom. There have been hot debates, whether politics should be linked to sports. But in all these debate and discussion, what we seem to forget is that around 5 million Tibetans are not only living in the fear for their lives and sustenance but also in danger of losing their identity.

In many ways, this incursion by China into the ‘roof of the world’ could be termed as ethnic cleansing. Sadly, while India has been a host to Tibetan refugees, it can never take a stance for them. So, thousands live into cramped quarters in Dharamsala, dreaming of the day when they will move freely and be able to live in the valleys of Amdo or Kham. It is not hard to understand the pain that the exiled Tibetan community is feeling and can be gauged from the way they are using Internet to connect and spread the message. Using this as an excuse, I did a story on the issue for Dataquest and it was published recently. I am uploading the story in the memory of the tankman (who supposedly is living in Taiwan or was killed within a fortnight by the PRC Army) and more importantly as a salute to the indomitable human spirit that yearns and pines for liberty and freedom. We were all born to be free and that is how we should be.

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The struggle for Tibet goes digital

While monks and protesters in Tibet are battling with the heavily armed Chinese forces, Tibetans across the world are using the Internet to connect and rally for their fellowmen back home.

The gloves were finally off, as a column of Chinese Type 59 tanks rolled down the Chang’an Avenue, near Tiananmen Square. It was the spring of 1989, and hundreds of thousands of students were protesting all across China and especially so in Beijing crusading for liberty and free speech. To make their voices heard, students huddled in Tiananmen Square went on a hunger strike. But instead of negotiations, the communist regime of China decided to crush the non-violent movement in the most virulent fashion. Army was sent in to break the protests. The battalion of tanks was part of the same effort.

As the tanks slowly rolled on, a single student decided to make a statement at the very risk of his life. Armed with two empty shopping bags, he stood right before the mighty tanks and brought the whole column to a halt. The tank right in front tried to dodge him, but the unknown rebel (as he would be dubbed for eternity) would not be dissuaded. He gesticulated with his arms and climbed on top of the tank to express his views to the soldier manning the tank. He was not ready to let go, but people (protesters probably) pulled him on the side before something untoward happened.

The whole incident was captured on video and beamed by the channels across the world, making it the most emotive image of the fight for liberty beck in 1989. The images raised international concerns and country after country lambasted the Chinese regime for the brutal reprisal. Other than that there is little that we know of the Tiananmen protest.

The world has changed infinitely much since then. Today China is a global power, both in economic and military terms. The country will be preening in front of the world by the Olympics this year. But there seems to be trouble brewing again, this time in the ‘roof of the world’, Tibet.

Last fortnight, near simultaneous protests started in Lhasa, and then spread to different cities of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. Monks and ordinary Tibetans supposedly attacked Chinese business. People were seen marching in different parts of Tibet, denouncing the oppression of the Chinese military. Once again the Chinese government decided to come down heavy again. The protesters were shot at, and all media access to the region was denied. But unlike in 1989, this time the protesters did not have to be physically present in Tibet to be counted. Thanks to the Internet, Tibetans across the world are taking part in the ongoing struggle.

While China has blocked Youtube and many other chat rooms in the bid to suppress news on the unrest, thousands of Tibetans across the world are using the Internet to connect and spread the word on the real picture on the ground. So when the Chinese officials claimed that the rioting had withered away, videos on Youtube showed the contrary. Also the claims made by officials that suppression was not brutal was shown to be hollow as images of dead monks and protesters were shown on different Tibetan websites.

Google “Free Tibet”, and you will see over seven hundred thousand results, there are around 1500 videos on Youtube on the same keyword, with over 500 added this week itself. Hundreds of pro-Tibetan websites provide links and forums for organizing mass protests against the Chinese rule, the chief ones are Freetibet.org, Tibet.org, Savetibet.org, and many others. In fact Tibetsites.com has a list of all the websites that raising the issue. The Tibetan government in exile has its official website on Tibet.com.

There is also much action on Secondlife.com as well; in fact, there is much talk about the rebuilding the Tibetan Potala Palace as a gift to the 14th Dalai Lama and preserving Tibetan History in virtual space.

So while the denizens within the Great Walls, might come across invalid links and blank pages when they search Tibet in the cyber world. The world outside is brimming with action; there is much talk of how to use the Olympic event as a platform for highlighting the Tibetan cause.

Sometime back, John Gilmore, the co-founder and board member of Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) had spoken on the issue of using the Internet as a medium for freedom struggle.

“Every person is responsible to follow the laws of their own country; yet we can all work to change those laws. And when those laws are reprehensible, then passive or active opposition may be required. Mahatma Gandhi provided many useful lessons in how a populace can nonviolently free itself from oppressive rules and rulers. And many technologists have developed ways for citizens to evade information controls that they think are inappropriate,” he had stated.
So, back in 1989, the unknown rebel had to stand in front of a tank to make a statement, the Tibetans now use Blogspot and Youtube to do the same.

Shashwat DC

Among the few places in India that I really wish to settle down in; Lakshadweep would be right on the top. A chain of 30 odd islands in the Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep is truly a coastal paradise. Cut off from modernity, it still retains some of the old world charm, though computers and IT are reaching the remotest islands. Hopefully, before modernity spoils this idyllic paradise, I just hope to hang my boots somewhere in Kavaratti or even Bitra.
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Tiny Lakshadweep’s Giant Strides

The smallest union territory of India is eagerly embracing ICT and changing the lives of its citizens for the better, thus, becoming a role model for its bigger cousins on the mainland.

Khadim Miyan seldom makes a promise, but in the rare cases that he does, he goes to any length to live up to his words. Thus, when Miyan promised his niece, Hidmat, that he would bring her gifts on Eid ul-Adha, or Bakri Eid, he knew it would be impractical but not impossible. After all, he could not take more than 3-4 leaves from his work at the local tourist cottage in Kalpeni and the journey to his sisters house in Minicoy takes over 14 hours by sea. But, more than the time spent in traveling, it was the time spent on arranging a ticket in one of the five ships that linked the dozen odd islands in Lakshadweep that bothered Khadim.

Seats are scarce, especially during festivals like Eid, and there is no guarantee that one could find a berth on these ships. It is simply a matter of too many passengers and too few ships. There have been cases that aspirants for a berth on these ships have lined up a few days in advance in the hope of finding a seat. Considering the situation he was in, Miyan decided to play it safe. He decided to check the availability of tickets on Lakport.nic.in and then plan his trip accordingly. In a matter of minutes, Miyan zeroed in on MV Bharat Seema and booked for self a ticket to Minicoy. Stepping out of the port office, all that Miyan was concerned about was which toy should he purchase for his seven-year-old niece. At least he was sure that this time too he had managed to keep his promise and he had to thank technology for it.

Like Miyan, there are thousands of people on Lakshadweep whose lives are changing for the better, thanks to the miracles of technology.

Located some 200-300 km off the coast of Kerala in the Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep is the smallest union territory of India. The total land area of the territory is some 32 sq km. In 1956, Lakshadweep was designated as a union territory and brought under the direct authority of the Center. As the ecosystem of the islands is pretty fragile and not supportive to heavy industrialization, the territory lagged the rest of the nation in terms of economic growth. In fact, it was an isolated paradise where quite a few travelers wanted to go, but only a few did.

Over the past many years, the government seems to have woken up to the potential of the island paradise as a top tourist destination. Located close to the “Gods own country”, Kerala, Lakshadweep can be a big draw for people looking to be away from the madding crowd. This, in turn, has prompted much needed investment into physical infrastructure, thereby making the place attractive to visitors and tourists.

Bridging the remoteness
Fortunately, technology is a two-way sword and it always cuts both ways; so the very application of technology, namely, registration of seats on ships to and from Lakshadweep, has not only been a boon to tourists, but also to the local population like in the case of Miyan. Credit is due to a few individuals like the administrator of Lakshadweep, BV Selvaraj, and technical director and state information officer, NIC, Lakshadweep, Ajith Brahmanandan. Both have taken upon the cause of modernization and the result is robust and thriving ICT initiatives in the various islands. In fact, over the years, e-governance projects in Lakshadweep have received awards at different platforms in recognition of the path breaking efforts made by the smallest union territory.

“Technology needs to have a human face. ICT, for the sake of technological upgradation, is no good unless and until it raises the standard of living of people. In Lakshadweep, all the projects that we have completed or are working on, have a very strong focus on making life easier for the citizen,” says Brahmanandan.

Slew of innovative projects
Indeed this human focus has been the hallmark of all e-governance projects carried out in the union territory. Unlike other places in India, Lakshadweep has very unique problems and pain points. Thus the solutions that have worked well in the hinterland are not necessarily the best solution for it. Take the case of ship reservation itself, the 5 or so passenger ships connect the 11 inhabited islands. The total population of Lakshadweep is in the range of some 65,000 people. The population is also spread very unevenly, for instance the capital Kavaratti and Androth islands have a population of over 10,000, while Bitra has a mere 250 odd people living on it. From this problem came the genesis of the reservation system.

Similarly, employment is a big issue in Lakshadweep. As there isn’t much industrialization, there is a high level of unemployment amongst the youth. For these people the only hope is the employment exchange, and close to 20% of the population has registered themselves with the bureau. In not so distant past, people had to travel to Kavaratti employment exchange for registering and other facilities. Keeping in mind the geographic spread and inadequate transport facilities, it would anything between 8 days during normal season and around 15 days in monsoon for the job aspirant to travel to Kavaratti and back to his island.

To cut down on this unnecessary travel and trouble caused to the islanders, the administration of Lakshadweep and National Informatics Center put together “total digitization of employment services”. Under this, all the data relating to some 15,000 registrants was digitized and re-codified, virtual employment exchanges were opened up in all the islands and the same were connected through the bandwidth provided by NICNET and BSNL. The project, launched in 2007, has been a roaring success with hundreds of job aspirants registering themselves in the new employment exchanges that have been set up on their islands.

“Additionally, the process has become transparent and free from any kind of manipulation that could have been easily done in the past. It has also touched the lives of many people as they no longer have to spend money or their valuable time just for mundane registration process. But, according to me, the biggest benefit has been the spread of awareness of the benefits of ICT among the poor and the uneducated people who live in far flung and isolated islands,” adds Brahmanandan with a touch of pride.

The project was recently bestowed with the Manthan Award, and, accepting the same, Selvaraj said, “The administration, along with all the political representatives, namely, members of Parliament, and members of the District and Village (Dweep) Panchayats, has been working toward effective administrative reforms through aggressive e-governance. We are going to have a basket of e-governance projects and compete for the best e-administered State/UT of the country shortly.”

Another project that has received a lot of applause has been the Web-enabling of the Lakshadweep electricity department (read Selvarajs column for more on that). Lakshadweep also has the unique distinction of being the first union territory/state in the whole country to have universal electricity. And due to the efficient materials management and transportation of fuel and effective maintenance of power houses there has been no instance of load shedding in the past year.

Not only that, the administration has also refurbished the Lakshadweep (lakshadweep.nic.in) Web portal, providing vital information about the islands and also giving a link to over 20 different administrative departments. The portal also has links for citizen charter and even an online photo gallery that showcases the beauty and serenity of the island paradise. Little wonder, the portal is referred to as the ‘electronic window’ to the union territory.

Future beckons
Going ahead, Lakshadweep has decided to implement a state level SWAN Implementation Committee that will formulate the technology to be adopted and various other aspects of the implementation of state wide area network. As of now, the SWAN project is in proposal stage and the implementation committee will aid in faster completion of project, the deadline for which is September 2008. The members of the committee have been derived from NIC, BSNL and ISRO and the project will be funded by the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) and jointly implemented by NIC and the IT society of the Administration

Additionally Selvaraj is also keen on improving the Web connectivity in the different islands. In this regard, he has asked BSNL to augment the bandwidth of the BSNL satellite earth station, Kavaratti to 16 Mbps from the present 8 Mbps immediately. Once the SWAN is in place, a slew of e-governance applications, like digitizing of land records or payments of taxes, etc. would be rolled according to officials.

Through all this, Selvaraj also emphasizes the need for structural reforms. “Technology is important, but e-government projects by themselves will not bear fruits unless they are coupled and integrated with structural reforms,” he says. He has also appointed a committee on administrative reforms that harmonizes the functioning of different departments and looks at bringing in transparency.

With these and many other Lakshadweep is finally coming out of the isolation that geography has bestowed on it. Like any other place in the country, mobile phones have also made a huge impact in the lives of the islanders. In was in 2003, when BSNL had launched it services in Kavaratti and today there are more than 10,000 mobile subscribers in Lakshadweep. In fact private operators are also on the anvil and Airtel supposedly does provide connectivity on Kavaratti.

Little wonder, people like Miyan no longer feel left out in the race to modernization, and there lives have been enriched in ways they would have scarcely believed. Using the portnet online system, Miyan was not only able to visit his niece on distant Minicoy but also ensure that he did not waste any time in the process and was back to his job on the promised day. He is quite happy, that he was able to live up to his word and has ICT to thank for it. The best part is that stories like Miyan are no more mere anomalies or exceptions but are steadily becoming the norm. And by this benchmark alone, tiny Lakshadweep has made giant strides towards a better and wholesome future. Something its larger cousin states on the mainland could take a few pointers on.

Shashwat DC

Imagine, if you could fold your computer screen like paper. Would we then ever need paper at all? For the past many years there has been a lot of work going along on foldable displays and other things like that with limited success. The good news is that there is an Indian researcher at Bell Labs is not only working on the prospect of foldable screens, but is seeing frution of his work. He was one of the TR35 winners, and profiling him was a challenge for me.

Chemistry was always something that I was mighty uncomfortable with, in fact, after mathematics, if there is anything that I really disliked, it would be chemistry. I could never understand why we roted those weird molecular diagrams of ethyl alcohol or Benzene. So I was literally grappling with Organic Electronics, much work went into understanding the basics first. And by the time I was done with the story, I had developed a healthy respect for chemistry in general and Organic Electronics in specific. Here goes the fourth part of the 6 TR35 series.

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Of foldable screens and printed electronics

Ashok Maliakal for the past three years has been toiling at ways to revolutionize the computing world with the use of organic electronics. Going by the signs, it does not seem to be as far-fetched, as it may sound.

Much as we dislike it, plastic or polymer has nevertheless permeated everything in our lives. This organic substance seems to be fairly ubiquitous from white goods to textiles; polymer is an undisputed king. While it rules on the macro level, somehow it has not made headway on the nano scale. That all could very well change with the emergence of organic electronics.

Revolution seems like understatement, when one refers to the change that has occurred in the computing industry. Everything has dramatically and drastically changed; the processing power has increased hundred times over, applications have changed, newer devices have emerged. The only thing that has remained more or less untouched is the display device, or the unassuming monitor.

To be fair, the green monitor screen has been replaced by a much vibrant color screen; much slimmer and sleeker. In spite of these cosmetic changes, monitors have remained bulky and big. Take the case of a laptop display screen, in all these years; it has remained much as it was.

There is a ray of hope breaking on the horizon. A hope that in the future, display screens would not be as bulky as they are, they would not be limited to current materials, etc. All in all, the displays will be not only be sleeker but also more flexible in nature. A researcher at Bell Laboraties in the U.S. is earnestly working at making that dream come true and his name is Ashok Maliakal. He is a researcher in organic electronics.

Organic electronics (plastic electronics) is basically a branch of electronics that deals with conductive polymers, or plastics. The term ‘organic’ is used as the molecules in the polymer are carbon-based, like they are in every living or organic thing. Organic electronics differs from traditional electronics as the latter relies on inorganic conductors such as copper or silicon. “Since my doctoral work, I’ve been interested in how molecular structure affects a materials properties. Organic electronics is a wonderful place to explore these interactions,” says Maliakal.

The singular biggest application of organic electronics can be seen in what is popularly termed as ‘printed electronics’. This is an emerging technology that talks about printing of electronics on common media such as paper, plastic, and textile using current printing processes, just like we print a newspaper for instance. This printing utilizes common press equipment in the graphics arts industry, such as screen-printing, flexography, gravure, and offset lithography. Though, instead of the regular printing inks, families of electrically functional electronic inks are used to print active devices, such as thin film transistors, or RFID tags.

Once, printing electronics picks up, there is going to be an explosion of low-cost electronics useful for applications not typically associated with conventional (i.e., silicon-based) electronics, such as flexible displays, smart labels, animated posters, and active clothing. “Conventional ways of creating electronic circuitry are not only complicated but costly as well, with printed electronics there would be large scale upsurge in low cost devices. It would be quite dramatic,” says Maliakal.

One of the biggest application of printing electronics could be in the production of flexible electronic displays. As the current displays are quite rigid in nature, printed electronics could help in the invention of a low-cost, foldable, bendable display devices that can be mass produced for applications such as large area sensor networks, lightweight viewing screens for various handheld devices like PDAs, etc. Philips last year displayed a device with a rollable display known as Readius, that is fairly similar in design but quite different in the way it is manufactured. “My work could help enable a practical printing process for generating flexible display technologies,” says Maliakal.

Maliakal´s work at Bell Labs focuses on the design and development of nano-structured organic and hybrid materials for advanced electronic applications. His research is paving the way for design and development of functional electronic materials that will lead to new, fully integrated devices and sub-systems, as well as low-cost fabrication methodologies and increased functionality. Maliakal has made a breakthrough in the development of a new printable hybrid organic-inorganic material that formed good films with triple the permittivity of known polymers. “In it, I have mixed the certain properties of polymers (plastic) with that of titanium dioxide (ceramic) to achieve the new functional nano particle,” he says.

The beauty of Malaikal’s invention is that it not only allows inventive usage but at much lesser power consumption. “Prototype circuits made with the material operate at one-third the voltage of those made with the polymer alone. That could mean displays that consume a lot less power, “ he adds.

For his pioneering work, Maliakal was recently awarded the prestigious TR35 Award. It is an award given annually by MIT’s Technology Review to a selection of 35 of the world’s leading high-tech innovators under the age of 35. And all that Maliakal would say is, “Excellent! It is a great honor.”

Maliakal is a first generation American, as his parents had migrated from India a few decades back. He currently holds five patents awarded or pending and has published more than 16 papers. He completed his Bachelor´s degree in Chemistry from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Columbia University. His interests range from going out with family (wife and son) to music and running. He admits to occasionally see a Hindi movie, now and then.
Since, his parents are from Kerala, is he conversant in Malayalam? “I can understand it, but can’t speak fluently. I will certainly not win awards with my Malayalam,” he says. He occasionally visits India, and feels that “India certainly is improving in terms of scientific contributions. The number of research papers I read originating from India has been increasing.”

Maliakal also does not believe in astrology or sun signs and would not share his birthdate, as one could discern his sun sign and would judge him accordingly. On a lighter note, that seems a rather obstinate trait; now which sign could that be, any guesses?

Shashwat DC

Go to any part of India, and it is hard not to find a cell phone. If there is one revolution that has truly taken off in India, it is the mobile revolution. Indeed India has the fastest going mobile population in the world.So while we seem to be truly addicted to our Nokias and Motorolas, we are also completely oblivious to the challenges and the dangers it presents. The biggest challenge is data loss. I remember Swapnil Raje, a dear friend of mine, who had lost his mobile phone, was disconsolate not because of the hi-end cell but for the low end SD card that had pictures of all the wonderful places that he visits and other personal data. We could argue till doomsdays, about how and why should you back up the data on the phone, but the reality is no one really does. It is here that MOSES could come to our aid.

This is the third part of the 6 series on TR35, in this piece I wrote on Anand Raghunathan and his endeavor to make mobiles much secure. He is a proud IIT’ian and is surely making his almameter swell with pride as well.

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MOSES’ second coming

This time to make mobile devices more secure; lest you think it to be blasphemous, we are talking about Anand Raghunathan and his team at NEC Labs have invented MObile SEcurity processor System (MOSES).

From fridges that place order for fruits over the Internet, to cars that pay toll tax wirelessly or phones that perform bank transactions, computers, rather embedded chips have become an integral part of our lives in ways we can barely imagine. Little wonder the phenomenon is called as ubiquitous computing. All these chips in myriad of products have made our lives more easier and if these companies are to be believed more productive. Yet, at the same time they also make us more vulnerable. The risk is often as grave as the convenience it offers. And the risk is from the small piece of code that infringes our PC and wrecks havoc on the system, a virus.

Rich Skrenta, a programmer by vocation is credited for creating the first computer virus “to appear in the wild”. In 1982, Skrenta created “Elk Cloner” that attached itself to Apple DOS operating system. The whole thing started of from a prank and has become a problem of mammoth dimensions. Every year billions of dollars are lost due to problems caused by computer viruses and more billions are spent protecting against them. It is an ending war fought on the PC front. And now, the war could just get murkier.

Device independent viruses are an eventuality many fear and few comprehend. Increasingly, the devices we use are communicating with each other in myriad ways through means like cables, Blue-tooth or even infrared. The phone connects to the MP3 player, the player to the PC, the PC to the phone, the phone to television. With the increase in this interconnect the threat levels also grow manifold.

What if a virus infected one of the devices, it could easily spread to other connected gadgets. Till now, there have been viruses that infect PCs and there have been bugs that attack mobile phones. But with the same OS running on our PC and PDA, the chances of a debilitating virus attack on both are quite a possibility. As more and more chips are being embedded into devices, the chances are increasing that a bug in one could affect another. There has been a lot of work done by software companies to safeguard against such attacks. Somehow, things seem to be spiraling a bit out of control.

Anand Raghunathan is a scientist working with NEC-Labs (America) for the past nine years or so. He has been grappling with idea of making mobile devices more secure. Raghunathan and his team are responsible for a paradigm shift in the battle with malicious code. He has invented a supplementary processor, called as MOSES (MObile SEcurity processor System) to safeguard critical data on a mobile device. This supplementary processor refurbishes security by separating it from the rest of the procession power.

“MOSES is a flexible hardware and software solution that can be integrated into chips for mobile appliances, and used to deploy a wide range of security functions. MOSES is based on the philosophy that any effective security solution must be based on a foundation that is isolated from, and not subject to the same vulnerabilities as, the system that is to be secured,” says Raghunathan, before adding, “at the core of MOSES is a separate processor that can execute a device’s most sensitive functions in an isolated manner, rendering them secure from arbitrary software attacks including compromises of the operating system. Functions that can be executed on MOSES include cryptographic algorithms, key generation and management, and verification of the operating system, applications, and communications firmware that execute on the mobile appliance.”

For his work, Raghunathan was recently awarded the prestigious TR35 Award. It is an award given annually by MIT’s Technology Review to a selection of 35 of the world’s leading high-tech innovators under the age of 35. “I feel very fortunate to be a part of this group. I have followed the TR35 and TR100 lists in the past, and of course did not imagine that I would be selected for this honor,” says Raghunathan modestly.

The genesis of MOSES happened around six years back, when Raghunathan and the team started examining the issue, especially from the perspective of mobile appliances like cellphones and PDAs. “We observed that mobile appliances were starting to evolve from simple devices that were used to perform a single function (e.g., make telephone calls) to highly complex, networked, multi-functional devices that contain our personal data, identity, and even our purchasing power. It was clear from looking at mobile application trends that information security would be an important problem. Today, a wide range of mobile applications and services are security sensitive, including mobile commerce (shopping, bill payment, and banking), location-based services, playback of copyrighted content, connection to corporate networks, etc.,” he says.

According to estimates over 1 billion handsets will be sold in 2006 alone, many of them capable of performing mobile commerce, and communicating with nearby Bluetooth-enabled devices. Even in developing countries, mobile appliances are far more pervasive (e.g., India has six times more mobile phones than PCs), making them an attractive platform to bridge the “digital divide”. Due to their widespread use, the consequences of security attacks on mobile phones can be catastrophic.

“The first mobile phone virus, Cabir, was first discovered two years back, and has since affected thousands of users across over 20 countries. We have really seen only the tip of the iceberg in terms of software attacks on mobile phones. There is also an emerging concern that, due to technologies such as Bluetooth, viruses can hop from cell phones to other electronic systems such as automotive electronics or home appliances,” says Raghunathan. He cites the instance of certain cases, where virus has been found to jump from a mobile phone to a car system. MOSES has already made an appearance in mobile phones and could be soon found RFID tags, set-top boxes, and automotive systems.

Raghunathan holds 20 U.S. patents in the field of integrated circuit and chip design. He did his schooling in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, and Pune and his undergraduate degree was from IIT Madras. “I feel especially proud of my association with IIT-M, and the opportunity to interact with and learn from the people I met there,” he says.

In ancient Egypt, Moses protected the Hebrews from the wrath of the Pharaohs. Moses then was a protector, and thanks to Raghunathan, still is, albeit on the small device that you tag along all day.

Shashwat DC

Sitting there in auditorium of Taj Hotel, for some brief moments I found myself transmitted to Her Majesty’s land, good ol’ England. The Oxford University had organized an event in the city, wherein you had prominent Englishman talking on everything in general and nothing in particular. I have always admired the English wit and humour, and it is with a profound sadness that I see the coming extinction of it (the Americanization of British culture). Starting from the chivalrous knights on Arthur’s round table, to profoundly sarcistic Shaw to the rather eccentric Sir Branson, Englishmen have always stood out as a race.

What impresses me the most, is the English art of subtely poking fun at every one, including themselves. So, when I saw all those English gents talking in humorous phrases, I was really enjoying myself. It was here that I bumped into Lord Chris Patten. I remember as a youngster, seeing those images on television of Hong Kong being handed over to China. The whole ceremony wherein the Union Jack was lowered and the Chinese flag was unfurled. In some ways the whole ceremony reminded me of India’s independence from Great Britain. I imagined how it would have been some 30 odd years before I was even born. Lord Patten reminded me of the immensely famous Lord Mountbatten, the last English Governor General of India. Thus in some strange ways, India does indeed connect to Lord Patten (one of the ways is through films as well, his daughter played a central character in the hit Indian movie Rang De Basanti).

At the conference, I was able to wean Lord Patten away for a few precious moments and posed a few questions. His respones were characteristically English, namely, candid and witty. The best way is to judge it yourself, so read on.

Patten had recently come down to India for the Oxford India Business Forum and regaled the audience with his wit and humor. He refers to self as a historian and thus has a lot to share on India and its ‘spectacular’ journey so far. This is just what he did with Shashwat Chaturvedi from CyberMedia News. By the way, he also has an interesting connection with India, more appropriately Indian cinema, as his youngest daughter (Alice Patten) was the leading lady of the Bollywood hit, Range De Basanti. Excerpts.

There is a feeling among many in India has just become a low value destination for measly jobs. That it is a case of new imperialism, this time it is money instead of ammunition.

That is surely not a correct observation. Over the years, Indian economy has grown in ways that had not been imagined. Today, the nation is renowned for its IT strength. In many ways, India has become a global back office. That does not mean dealing with low value added occupations only, a lot of high value jobs are being shifted to India and being done out of India. That is something to be pleased about not to be criticized. The challenge for India, as I see it, is to develop the manufacturing, food processing and agriculture, in the same ways it has done with IT, telecommunications and so on. And there is no reason, intellectually, why India should not be just as successful in those areas, just as it has been successful in the services industry.

Isn’t shift of jobs a big concern for people in the western countries like the U.K. and the U.S. There have been so many reports of backlash and hostility on the issue. Your views.
It is much less a problem with services sector, than in manufacturing, take for instance textile. A real appalling example of protectionism in the developed countries can be found in those sectors. I believe the way we behaved when the multi-fiber agreement was stopped, was very bad. The subsidies that we gave to more expensive agricultural communities like cotton are extremely bad too. I believe if we are to promote more open trade globally then we have to be much tougher on dismantling protectionism among the developed countries

You have voiced you support to India vis-à-vis China, due to the democratic institutions in place in India. How do you think the future will pan out?
The world should want both India and China to be a success. The point I make, is that you cannot see economic and social development without making political adjustment and if you open up the economy it is increasingly difficult for you to keep an iron grip on politics. As India has a political system that increasingly incorporates what is happening economically, it is better placed. China, sooner or later, will have to change its political system in order to bring it in line with the economic development. The question is whether it can do that without sacrificing stability.

You stated that the ‘world is not flat’, what makes you say so?
There is an implication and many people who must have read that book must have taken this message that technology has made us all equals. But it hasn’t. There are terrible mountains that poor people and poor countries have to climb and I don’t think it is enough to say that information technology revolution, even though it has made problems more solvable, but haven’t actually solved them. I mentioned about traveling to the incredibly impressive Infosys campus in Bangalore on the way you notice evidence to the fact that the world is not actually flat, you see very poor people and you travel on very poor infrastructure. I think we have a very long way to go before we can truly claim that the world is really flat. And it never will be entirely, though I wish we were doing more to decrease global inequity in wealth and opportunities.

Shashwat DC

Here goes the second part of the 6 series on TR35 Winner. This time I talk about ad hoc networks , believe me it was one tough nut to crack. I earnestly thank Prithwish in helping me understand ad hoc in around an hour that we spoke. Check the article for yourself.

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Networking the ‘ad hoc’ way

Ad hoc networks are the current talk of the town with scores of companies working on the standards and applications. Pritwish Basu a scientist at BBN Technologies has won an award for his work on ad hoc networks.

Boxing day (December 26) of 2004 will be forever be etched in our memories. It was the day, when human misery hit a crescendo, a day when nature unleashed its fury on the South Asian shores of Indonesia, India, Srilanka and others. It was the day when the Tsunami stuck. While innumerable people died in the wake of the flooding waters, thousands died in the aftermath, for want of medicine and food.

There was no real paucity of medicine and food packages, what was lacking was a communication structure over which the relief process could be coordinated. But how can relief agencies communicate, when the whole infrastructure has been ripped apart? Satellite communication is quite dear (cost wise) and often unreliable in cases of far-flung locations.

An alumnus from Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi), based in the U.S., is currently working on a technology that will make all such concerns (communications without infrastructure) redundant. And, he recently received a prestigious award for his work. Pritwish Basu a scientist at BBN Technologies has developed algorithms that enable wireless devices to interconnect with each other (ad hoc networks) with very low drop rates. For his work, Basu recently awarded the prestigious TR35 Award. It is an award given annually by MIT’s Technology Review to a selection of 35 of the world’s leading high-tech innovators under the age of 35.

Thirty-one year old Basu is pretty gung-ho on being selected for this award and terms it to be a ‘pleasant surprise’. He describes ad hoc networks as wireless networks that can be set up quickly for communication between nodes and do not need any infrastructural support from satellites, cellular towers or base stations.

Ad hoc is a term borrowed from Latin and can be loosely translated as, “for this purpose only”. The term aptly describes the way the whole network is configured. Unlike a traditional network, in which, all the devices are linked to a central hub, in an ad hoc network, all the devices communicate with each other and relay data forward.

It may seem fairly similar to the Wi-Fi network that is common nowadays. Basu clarifies. “The similarity with Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11a/b/g) or WiMax is that an ad hoc network also may use similar wireless radio transceivers. However the difference is that in the case of Wi-Fi etc., there is a static base station that is established a priori and that allows wireless nodes to access the Internet; in case of ad hoc networks, there is no base station and nodes communicate directly with other nodes in their transmission (radio) range, and they can help in cooperatively forwarding packets to remote nodes that are not in direct communication range of the source node. There are several well-known ad hoc routing protocols that can perform this task,” he says.

In a way, Game theory finally makes an appearance in the ICT domain. For the past few decades, Game theory has been used as a tool for understanding the way people, communities, or nations interact with each other. Basically speaking, Game theory talks about interplay of different people, wherein each desires to maximize his benefit. All these people cooperate to a level, till such state is reached (maximum benefits for all). This is cooperation at its best. Ad hoc networks symbolize cooperation, wherein one device collaborates with another for transmitting data.

Considering the nature of these networks, military applications come naturally to mind. But as of now, defense forces use satellite communications extensively. What is the real benefit they can derive from this emerging technology? “Indeed, the military uses satellite networks for a lot of their communication needs. But the bandwidth that is available over satellite channels is usually inadequate to satisfy the communication needs of all soldiers in the armed forces. Ad hoc networks are extremely useful when the nodes are localized (within a few kms or tens of kms of each other) and have to communicate with each other. Then they can get higher data rates with lower delays,” says Basu, adding, “Also satellite signals are often inaccessible indoors and in dense foliage. Needless to say, access to a satellite communication link often costs several dollars per minute whereas ad hoc wireless links are free.”

“Ad hoc networking has forced designers to rethink different layers of the network protocol stack above the physical layer, i.e., medium access control (MAC), network (routing), transport, and application layers. The MAC and routing problems are what make ad hoc networking very different from traditional wired IP networking or even wireless cellular or Wi-Fi networks,” emphasizes Basu.

According to him, in an ad hoc network, the MAC layer has to coordinate the order in which different nodes transmit in a distributed manner because there is no luxury of a central authority like the base station for computing the transmission schedule. The routing layer too has a more difficult task. Whereas in wired IP networks, hierarchical routing is feasible because nodes have static IP addresses which can be aggregated into hierarchical sub-network addresses. This is not possible in mobile ad hoc networks since nodes could be moving around and hence it is not as easy to aggregate their addresses into subnet addresses. One mechanism of computing routes is by periodically broadcasting the status of all current neighboring links to all other nodes in the network. “A lot of research has occurred in the last decade for optimizing this process since the wireless channel is much more resource-limited than a wired network. Recently people have been rethinking even the design of physical layers to benefit ad hoc networking (e.g., techniques such as cooperative diversity),” he says.

Amazingly, ad hoc networks can play a major role in our everyday lives. For instance, Basu talks about networking parking meters that could be configured through an ad-hoc network. “One could have a transmitters on each parking meter; then you add a sensor that can tell whether there is a car in that spot. Thus if a user wants a parking slot near his building all he does is to query on the console in his car. The query is sent to the nearest parking meter, and if it isn’t empty, the request would be forwarded to the next meter till it finds a free spot, and then even reserves it, if possible,” he says. Buildings could also be networked on such sensorized mesh ad hoc networks, he says. “If it is a bit chilly, the sensors in different windows transmit a message, and they are closed automatically, thereby saving heat,” adds Basu.

“Blue tooth is the first truly ad hoc product. It can support up to 80 nodes, sadly till date it has only been used for cable or wire replacement. It is a cool application, so is Zigbee,” he says.
Battery life is one of the biggest challenges faced by the industry. “Since the devices are constantly transmitting data, the battery life could be a big issue. For that one needs to develop better protocols or dramatic gains in the battery technology is required,” Basu says.
Ironically, for a man who is at the forefront of designing new networks, could have been a doctor as he had passed a few medical entrance exams. But his love for maths scored over his interests in medicine. “I do not regret that choice,” he says. His father is a retired civil servant and mother a housewife, both currently reside in Delhi. Basu considers Boston University to be his Alma meter, where he did his MS and PhD. He has also graduated from his love for cricket to soccer and baseball and continues to visit India regularly.

In the years to come, Basu hopes to see a lot more ad hoc networks, even in India. “The potential of ad hoc networks is mind boggling. From saving lives in case of natural disasters like tsunami or earthquake, to making our lives easier and more happier. The future could be quite like the science fiction movies that we often see. We are getting closer to that future with ad hoc networks,” signs off an optimistic Basu.

Q&A
India is regarded as an IT Powerhouse, do you think, there is enough innovation happening out of India?
There is innovation happening in India in institutions like IISc but I don’t think that it is enough considering how much progress India has made in the IT sector recently. I believe this is primarily due to the lack of research funding from the Indian IT industry. The government funding is inadequate as well. There is a direct relationship between R&D funding and research/innovation output. I believe if the IT sector invests some of its profits towards fundamental and applied research (and not just proven products), then we will see several innovations happen in India. The other roadblock is the highly structured educational system in most schools and colleges. There is much more emphasis on consistency over all subjects rather than creativity or innovation.

Can ad-hoc networks make an appearance in India?
Mesh networks and sensor networks are forms of ad hoc networks that could easily make an appearance in India. Asset tracking and monitoring applications could motivate the use of sensor networks in India. The deployment challenges and business models may be slightly different though.

Shashwat DC