Caught in the web

But India has a bigger digital divide than most countries

Forty years back, no one could have imagined that a quarter of the world's six billion people would be surfing the internet. Till as recently as the early 1990s, the benefits of the internet were restricted to military agencies and research institutions. What made the internet all-pervasive was the introduction of the World Wide Web and the browser (later named Nexus) by British physicist Tim Berners-Lee and the emergence of service providers like America Online which connected millions of people for the first time. Browsers like Netscape and Internet Explorer have helped countless users make sense of the internet. Who, for instance, remembers the last time s/he sent a postcard or birthday greeting by snail mail? Emails and online greetings now do the trick. People surf encyclopedias digitally, and search engines like Google and Yahoo ferret out rich data. Social interaction has both increased and been challenged by social networking sites. Youngsters prefer to interact with online avataars (versions) on Second Life and play massively multi-player online games for hours on end. Small and big businesses alike have benefited or (like newspapers) been challenged by a global online audience.

Huge sums of money are raised online to provide succour to tsunami, riot and earthquake victims; awareness campaigns have been mounted against corrupt politicians; and Barack Obama won his presidential election by going digital with a vengeance. There are also cyber-criminals who have swindled netizens of their hard-earned money. And far too many employees spend time surfing the web when at work (known as cyberslacking) and chatting (using instant messengers or IMs).

India has been a late starter. It has only 80 million internet users (the number of active users is 20-30 per cent smaller). China, on the other hand, has nearly 300 million internet users while the US has around 275 million. However, India has over 350 million mobile phones, of which almost 30 per cent are general packet radio service (GPRS)-enabled. This means that mobile users can surf the net. And with tariff plans by telcos getting cheaper, this practice will pick up. The advent of 3G technology and WiMax will further the cause. The internet, thus, is being and will increasingly be accessed through mobile internet devices.

Issues like the internet running out of addresses and net neutrality arguments (weaning away cyberspace from the might of telcos) need to be addressed. These, however, are global concerns. At home, the government has to increase broadband penetration which reaches only six million users. It has to take a stand on technologies like Voice-over-Internet Protocol, which can benefit internet users by making calls almost free — which telcos will not like. Meanwhile, the freewheeling culture of the web is coming under attack in many countries, including India. The IT Amendment Act of 2008, if notified, will give the government blanket power to block news portals and other websites for “offensive” content. These rules could end up violating the rights of internet users.