Properly designed broadband can add 2% to GDP: Pitroda

Properly designed broadband can add 1-2% to gross domestic product (GDP) of India, adviser to Prime Minister Sam Pitroda today said.

"If we properly design broadband...I can assure you that we can add 1-2% to our GDP," Sam Pitroda, adviser to the PM on public information, infrastructure and innovation, said at an IETE event organised to grant him Honorary Fellowship of the Institution here.

Pitroda added that fixing infrastructure issues namely transport, power and broadband can lead to up to 14% GDP growth.

"The problem of poor can be only addressed if the countries growth is in double digit," he said.

Pitroda said in second era of telecom revolution around broadband, people need to change their mindset in using and adopt changes of new generation.

"Broadband is not only about connectivity bandwidth of application, it is about change in mindset, creating new paradigm, new busines model, products, services and delivery system," he said.

He mentioned that everything done today was being done in obsolete manner as it be done in better, faster and cheaper manner.

Citing example of change, Pitroda said that in education things have changed from the way it happened 60 years ago.

"I was told to focus but children today do not focus. They mutlitask. I have seen kids watching TV, listening to radio, sending sms, be on laptop still do their homework," Pitroda said.

Pitroda added that university of 2050 is going to be different from univesity of today.

"You dont need teacher to create and deliver content, college to go to classroom... Ask a young kid , there world is different. They are on net learnming, they could be in a cafeteria learning," he added.

However, Pitroda said he thought the government was not ready to respond to lot of changes in the country.

"The other day I was talking to Department of IT (DIT), I said how could you still have 'nada' (string) vali files. At least DIT should say no more paperwork everything should be done on internet," he said.

Pitroda expressed hope to celebrate death of nada files in India with use of broadband.

Headquarted in the capital, the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers (IETE) is a professional body working for the advancement in the fields of electronics, telecom and IT.

The body has given honorary fellowships to eminent personalities like APJ Abdul Akalam, Sunil Mittal, Ratan Tata, NR Narayana Murthy, E Sreedharan, among others. At present, IETE has 70,000 members, including student members.