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dated November 3, 1953: Wiring Up India

Editorial: The modern slogan "Don't Write — Telegraph" may have adverse effects on the art of letter-writing. But wire and cable have brought great benefits to commerce and industry, and to the common man. India is regarded as a country in slow motion; yet, over a century ago, we were among the pioneers for telegraphic communication. Today India possesses the third longest channel mileage in the world. Telegraphic money orders were sent in India five years before they were introduced in Britain. It was decided quite early that telegraph service should be a public utility, and it is claimed that the Indian Posts and Telegraphs is the oldest government owned public utility in the world; next to the Railways, it is also the largest utility in the country, employing 220,000 persons and a thousand gazetted officers. Unlike many nationalised industries, it has usually shown a comfortable margin of profit which permits further expansion. Large profits were earned during World War II. There has been a phenomenal increase in India's telegraph, telephones and wireless services in the years since independence was won in 1947. The Five Year Plan now being worked out provides for opening a post office in every village of 2,000 people or more, and a telegraph office in every town of 5,000 or more. Telegraph is to connect every sub divisional headquarters and every police station irrespective of size. By 1956, it is hoped that every district headquarters and every town of 30,000 or more will have a telephone exchange. Ultimately, the idea is to have a telephone in every village so that nobody will have to go more than five miles to make a telephone call. This seems a distant ideal at the present moment, when shortage of telephones is felt very acutely even in the cities where the Own Your Own Telephone scheme has had to be introduced. The progress of the telephone factory near Bangalore should help alleviate shortage of equipment. A new development of great assistance to business firms and newspapers is the introduction of teleprinter services. These make possible direct communication between offices in big centres without the intervention of the Central Telegraph Exchange. It is proposed to install high-power wireless transmitters in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, and New Delhi to facilitate direct communication by radio with all foreign countries. We have had radio-telephone service between India and Britain since 1933; now radio-telephone calls can be made to Japan, Indonesia. America, Persia, Egypt and several European countries through London. In addition to the telephone industries factory at Bangalore, a teleprinter factory is also to be started; telephone cables are to be made at Chittaranjan in Bengal. In the early days of long-distance tele-communication, many difficulties were encountered. Crows and flying foxes settled down on telegraph wires and interrupted communication. Nowadays trunk cables laid underground and will soon link the main cities.

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