The government and administration find banning internet for the entire day or few hours to conduct cheating free exams, spreading of rumours during any clash etc, but nobody thinks as how much the work suffers due to shutting down the internet services.
India is moving towards Digital India and shutting down entire internet to control the information flow for one event is not accepted.
Today, maximum work is done using internet on mobile phones and when the internet is banned people are caught in web of problems. For example, if a passenger reaches the airport with his boarding pass on his email, but cannot access it because the internet is down. Even one cannot think of ordering food online, book cab or movie tickets. Although, the government and administration say that only mobile internet is closed while the internet on broadband works, but still broadband connections are not available at every household unlike the having internet on mobile phones.
Ajay Data CEO and owner of Data Infosys said instead of blocking services en masse, the sites you want shut down can be selectively directed to be shut down. There are simpler ways to block sites and apps so that the internet doesn’t get hampered and services don’t get disrupted. There are ways to shut down social media sites and apps like WhatsApp, Facebook and others.
He said that shutting down internet is understandable when there is a security issue, but it is not acceptable during exams to prevent copying. In such examinations, jammers can be installed, he added.
Data said, “It’s time to sit down with stake holders, internet service providers and device a solution so that we can achieve the goals. There are simpler ways to block sites and apps so that the internet doesn’t get hampered and services don’t get disrupted.”
He further added, “In Dubai, the WhatsApp calling service does not work. When they can discontinue or drop a built-in service within an application, what we are looking at is actually doable. It’s a blanket ban on the sites you don’t want used. And it doesn’t require any skill.”
Meanwhile, Jaipur divisional commissioner KC Verma recently had called a meeting to discuss on alternatives looking to the problems faced by the common man when internet services are temporarily banned.
He said many times situation arises to ban internet services temporarily and various services are run on the internet in this era of internet and general public using these services have to face lot of problems.
Verma said health, transport, business, communication services run through internet and it has become very important that instead of shutting down the entire net, the few social media sites can be blocked for which technique has to be fixed. He said with this, general public can use other facilities on internet platform without getting disturbed.
The divisional commissioner after discussing with various telecom companies said that prima facie it is clear that such technique is possible. He said a working group has been constituted for fixing technical alternative for banning internet in which deputy general manager of BSNL will be the convener and one representative from each internet service provider company will be the member including senior technical representative from Telecom department, Government of India. The group will submit its report on January 20 this year.
