HYDERABAD: Engineers in the field of electronics and telecommunications here on Tuesday pledged to make their knowledge available to people and join hands to strive for an equitable information society.

The occasion was a seminar on `Creating an equitable information society: Time for action' organised by the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE), Hyderabad to mark the 37th World Telecommunications Day.

At the inaugural, the Minister for School Education, N. Rajyalakshmi, said in the past decade, India had done as well as the developed nations in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), having launched 24 communication satellites and 600 televisions channels. However, more specific programmes to educate children were needed, she said.

With a 100 million fixed line and 54 million mobile phones, India was number five in the world, she said.

Reduced costs

It was good to see competition in fixed line and mobile telephony cutting down communication costs, she said, recalling how from Rs. 16 a minute a few years ago, the rates had come down to Rs. 1 for outgoing calls from mobiles.

The Chief General Manager, Andhra Pradesh Telecommunication, Sanjaya Kumar, said it was time for ICT professionals to come together and work at facilitating free flow of information and providing appropriate access, making ICT the driving force to develop the nation on all fronts. The IETE Hyderabad chairman, C. Govardhan, spoke of how apart from basic telephony, it was broadband access that was the focus area, a fact attested to by 125 nations world over. He said as far as India was concerned, the target for 2010 was to make broadband available to at least 20 million people.

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