Rani Ramakrishnan's Blog, page 4

Coming Soon: Regulation Raj of the Data Era

If all goes well for India’s telcos, you could soon be locked out of your favourite websites/apps. Yes, you read the line right. Soon, telecom companies, our Internet Service Providers (ISPs) could dictate what we can and cannot access via the internet.

Today, we pay for the data plan of our choice and access what we need at free will. Unfortunately, for us, the telecom giants feel cheated. They have paid licence fees, followed regulatory norms and set up the infrastructure to provide us with the connectivity we enjoy today. We, the consumers, have gone and pledged our allegiance to apps and what not, that piggy back their services on their network and often eat into their revenue streams. So they are crying foul and TRAI (Telecom Regularity Authority of India), the referee in this matter, is obliged to take note.

In reality, India has been a huge market for every telecom company. The market has grown from zero to 800 plus million mobile phones in the past decade or so and all the service providers have been making money. The catch here is that they concentrated on voice calling. While they were busy counting money, others innovated. The likes of WhatsApp, Skype etc happened. Now, the consumers can message, call and video chat without actually tapping into the ISP’s services, except for data connectivity. The telecom companies feel that they have been unfairly given a raw deal. They fail to fathom why these new companies, that are not regulated, do not pay any fees and who have no ownership of the bandwidth they use, should continue to enjoy a free run. Many of them have millions of users and are valued in billions. The telecom companies want their share of this pie and their solution is ‘differential tariff’ though which they will charge differently for usage of different sites / apps.

This means that we, the consumers could end up paying more for using the same amount of data, depending on what we access. It would be similar to viewing TV channels; you get what you pay for. This is in direct conflict with Net Neutrality, according to which ISPs and governments should treat all data on the internet equally. There should be no discrimination or differential charging based on user, content, site, platform, application, type of equipment or mode of communication. The whole world is following this protocol and today, India is at the verge of deciding whether there is any merit in abandoning it.

Moreover, there should be no reason to bail out telecom companies in this manner. First of all, they are not going to become loss making just because of what services other companies provide via the internet. There may be a dip in margins and that is because of ill advised business strategy on the part of the telecom majors. They did not innovate and keep up with the changing times. Besides, for all the fuss that is being made, they are still custodians (temporarily, as long as they have the license) of the connectivity and are still charging for it. If profit margins have fallen, end consumers should not be penalised for it.

TRAI has published a Consultation Paper on the subject on 27 Mar 2015. It has invited comments from stake holders. One can email them at advqos@trai.gov.in and present one’s case. The deadline is, Friday, 24 Apr 2015. Alternatively one can sign a petition, in favour of maintaining net neutrality, in India, at, https://www.change.org/p/rsprasad-trai-don-t-allow-differential-pricing-of-services-let-consumers-choose-how-they-want-to-use-internet-netneutrality .  We can still hope to enjoy using the internet, as we do today, in the months to come, but there is urgent need to act to save our rights. Let’s do our bit, before it’s too late.

Mission Impossible: Finding 966 women directors in 1 year

1st April is around the corner. It’s April Fools’ Day. It is also the first day of the financial year, in India. This year, 2015, it is promising to be a date to look forward to, for Indian Women. Yes, that’s right, on fools’ day, Indian Women are gearing up to break the glass ceiling and get a foot into the doors of Company Boards. Thrust into the scene, thanks to a legislation demanding their presence on every listed company’s board, women are on the verge of making their presence felt in the highest ranks of corporate India. It may not be the best way through the door. After all, companies are being forced, their arms have been literally twisted and the deadline is like a noose around their necks. There could have been more pleasant and probably more satisfying ways for women, who have always deserved yet been denied, to waltz into the board room.

On 17th April, 2014, almost a year to the day, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issued a circular making it mandatory for listed companies, in India, to appoint at least ONE woman director, by 31st March 2015. A full year for the companies to ponder, comply and find 966 women directors! SEBI’s action was the direct outcome of section 149 of the Companies Act 2013. So, it was not a sudden move. Yet, as the day of reckoning draws close, companies are yet to confirm compliance.  In fact the deadline was initially set at 1st Oct 2014 but was extended to its current date. In a country of over a billion people, one would think that 966 women would be considered a microscopic minuscule number. Unfortunately, that is quite unlike the case. 966 qualified women candidate could not be found and the deadline was extended. Now as the second deadline approaches, things are not very different. There are 1478 companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and 355 are yet to find women directors, according to NSE’s InfoBase.

Apparently, although a large number of India women have taken to working, they are yet to breach the ‘glass ceiling’ so to speak, to the extent that they have experience ideal for such roles. Head-hunters are finding it very difficult to identify ideal women candidates, it is said. Many companies have found solutions by appointing family members. Wives, daughters, step mothers, have all found their way into the board room. Many women are on as many as 7 boards (which, by the way is the ceiling on the number of boards one can be an independent director in).

Where has once seen such scenes unfold before? In the political arena, of course. From the gram pacnayats upwards, seats reserved for women are usually handed to women of the head honcho’s family. Yet this system of reserving seats for women has been in place for a while and some women have been empowered in the process. Likewise, one hopes that despite the unorthodox manner in which women are currently being appointed to Indian Corporate Boards, if not in the short-term, at least in the long-term, there will be better diversity and representation. That alone is reason to cheer and endorse the speedy implementation of this legislation. The only worry is that, with such a large portion of companies yet to comply, will this year’s deadline have to be extended? Will this year’s 1st of April make fools out of Indian women or empower them?