SV project

Sir, - I read with interest your Editorial on Sankhya Vahini (May 5) and also its criticism by Mr. K. T. Narayana (May 12). While your Editorial presents a balanced perspective of the issue, unfortunately Mr. Narayana appears to operate from incomplete information and knowledge of the Sankhya Vahini (SV) project.

First, the data versus voice issue. The government required that SV be a data only network, focusing on building a state-of-the- art national data backbone, and not compete with the existing voice networks in the country. The Minister for Communications has stated this clearly in Parliament.

Second, Carnegie Mellon University's expertise and experience in networking. In 1969-70, Carnegie Mellon (CMU) was one of the early participants in ARPANET, the predecessor of today's Internet. CMU was the first to establish an optical fibre based campus network under the sponsorship of IBM in 1984-85. The university is a participant in the Internet2 project, which provides 100 times faster connectivity than standard commercial networks today and is also a partner in the Supernet project which aims at 1000 times faster connectivity than the present. Recently, CMU has been recognised as the most wired (networked) campus in America. It may interest Mr. Narayana and the readers of this paper to know that recently CMU, working together with Qwest and other partners, has demonstrated the first transcontinental end-to-end gigabit connectivity. This experience should be directly relevant for Sankhya Vahini, as it will be one of the first ventures in the world to offer gigabit connectivity. Incidentally, CMU also houses the world headquarters of the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), which provides critical inputs for making networks secure and survivable.

The vision of Sankhya Vahini transcends merely building the network. The network is only the starting point; a very important goal is to create and support novel applications that exploit high bandwidth connectivity and address important economic, social and developmental needs. Examples of this range from distance learning and Universal Digital Libraries, that can accelerate India's move to a knowledge-based society, to applications such as tele-medicine and tele-agriculture which could significantly enhance rural development. It is for this reason that Indian educational institutions are partners and stakeholders in the project, which is a unique and innovative aspect of the structure of the venture.

Mr. Narayana seems to assume that Inuit (sic) will subvert the design data to the U.S. If he means IUNet, I am a bit puzzled because from what I understand about the project, the operation and control of the network rests with an Indian company with a majority Indian stake in equity and board representation and subject to all the laws and regulations in the country. The network architecture and design is a collaborative effort, involving all the partners in the project, including IUNet, Department of Telecom Services, Ministry of IT and Indian educational institutions. I believe that India is technologically advanced and mature to assess security needs, and we should guard ourselves from overblown xenophobic concerns. If nothing else, Sankhya Vahini will ensure that domestic data traffic stays within the country, by routing it internally, rather than transporting it via the U.S. This, at least, should come as a relief to Mr. Narayana.

Anand Patwardhan,

Mumbai

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Previous : Fiscal autonomy for the judiciary
Next     : Proselytisation