The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Need for greater transparency in TRAI functioning stressed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Need for greater transparency in TRAI functioning stressed

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, MAY 17. The need for greater transparency and involvement of the public, especially consumers, in the work of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Adjudication Tribunal (TDSAT) was underscored by J. Chelameswar of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

He was delivering the inaugural address at a seminar on `Decade of Telecom Reforms in India,' organised by the Centre for Telecom Management and Studies (CTMS), the Institution of Engineers (IE) and the Institution of Electronic and Telecom Engineers (IETE), on the occasion of the World Telecom Day.

Mr. Justice Chelameswar said that of all the species, human beings were the most communicative and that it was in the communication of ideas through speech, text, images and graphics that the sum total of knowledge in the world increases.

Application of knowledge was what made every human activity less laborious, more productive and more beneficial, he said, recalling Arnold Toynbee, who said that to get to know each other on a worldwide scale was the urgent need of the human race today. And once mutual familiarity was established, there was some hope that everyone would become aware of the common humanity underlying the differences in local manners and customs.

The Director, CTMS, T.H. Chowdary, in his presidential address, recalled the words of Thomas Alva Edison that no other sector had experienced such transformation and `we will make electricity so cheap that only the rich can afford to burn candles.' He said that as an advisor to the late Dhirubhai Ambani, he had helped work on the telecommunications project with the punch line, `We will make telephoning cheaper than a post-card.'

Among those who participated in the day-long seminar were Y. Venkata Rami Reddi, Vice-Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Rekha Jain, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, T.V. Ramachandran, Director-General, Cellular Operators Association of India, V. Premsagar, Chairman, IETE, Wg. Cdr. V.L. Nanda Kumar, Chairman, IE and C. Govardhan, Principal General Manager, Hyderabad Telecom District, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited.

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