The forward propulsion towards enhancing Goa’s IT infrastructure which in turn will be the foundation of the state’s start up push needs a very critical launch pad. The future of Goa’s IT and start-up bandwidth scaling to international standards depends entirely on a phenomenon called fibre optics which will carry oceans of data through large tubes to deliver seamless and buffering-less connectivity.
Unless Goa develops an eco system which allows fibre optics to penetrate panchayats and villages and municipalities and larger towns and supported with effective tower network, start-up hubs will not deliver efficiency.
The policy itself like the investment policy and others needs to kick-start a massive push towards making Goa 100% covered by fibre optics. This has to be coupled with panchayats allowing the setting up of mobile towers, albeit keeping all safety precautions in mind.
According to a major internet and data giant also in the business of telephony, laying fibre throughout Goa has been a humongous challenge. Throughout India, technology allows fibre cables to survive cuts during other digging operations where the data is diverted through a different route.
The terminology used is “one cut not out” and “two cuts not out”, where the fibre can survive one or two cuts. In Goa, where rampant digging takes place, it is not possible to divert fibre through different routes mainly due to local political objection, especially in municipal areas. This has hampered significant progress.
Similarly, several panchayats, especially in South Goa have passed resolutions against installing mobile towers due to purported radiation after effects. In one panchayat, a resolution was taken to actually dismantle an existing tower. However, there is hope since even in the villages of Goa, the youth are taking a different course. In Loutolim for instance, almost 400 people signed on a resolution demanding that mobile towers be installed in the village.
Without towers and with erratic fibre connectivity, the engine of the start-up vehicle will not kick-start easily. Which is why, the start-up policy must give way to directives on building the infrastructure to carry data and voice, in that order. The net speeds in Goa are one of the lowest among states which are aiming to be on the super technology highway. Even in start-up incubation centres, the biggest peeve of start-ups was IT connectivity, which affected businesses.
The IT and the Industry departments must first create high speed data corridors around industrial estates and start-up hubs. This has to be complemented with almost the same level of data and telephony speeds and connectivity in homes, because the big idea of the start-up policy is to be able to start your new firm from home.
And finally, there has to be sensitisation drive to ensure that panchayats and municipal bodies act as facilitators and not bottlenecks. The decision to allow fibre optics to be laid or mobile towers to be installed, has to flow from a policy and not a general decision taken by panchayats . And yet the panchayats cannot be blamed since there has been no connect between government and the panchayats and the gram sabhas.
While the policy will dictate permissions, and not panchayat resolutions, the effort has to be to convince the people through logic and argument and buy into Goa’s progress, not by force but through will.
