Just a few years ago, e-governance was a phrase known to only experts. Today, we can see how it operates. Digital technology has changed the way the city functions, but many of the old ways persist, writes Pradyuman Maheshwari.
We tend to forget the various hardships we’ve experienced over the years – be it standing outside the American consulate for hours for your turn to submit visa application papers, or the long queues to pay electricity and phone bills, buying railway or movie tickets, or the endless wait to connect long-distance via trunk calls.
Thanks to what someone aptly described as the ‘digit-ikaran’ of India, many of the services have been eased. But there are still a few, which are quite a pain, like, getting a driving licence. Touts and agents flourish despite assurances to the contrary.
So what would make for the turning points in Digital Mumbai? In a connected world, three months makes for a year, or so they say. The last two decades for us mortals would hence be equal to 80 years in Digital Mumbai. To my mind, there are at least five distinct turning points that we’ve seen in the last 20, er, 80 years.
Turning Point #1: In the mid- to late-1980s, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was mocked at for championing computerisation – primarily of his own party’s records and elsewhere too. Like the railways and nationalised banks. But on November 15, 1985, when the Integrated Multiple Train Passenger Reservation System (IMPRESS) took off in New Delhi and subsequently in 1987 in Mumbai and three other cities, life changed. No more of serpentine queues at Mumbai Central and CST. While the entire country was covered by a networked system by 1999, bookings could be done on the internet from 2002. Today, you can even reserve a seat on an air-conditioned Shivneri bus from Mumbai to Pune on the Net. No queues.
Turning Point #2: In August 1995, the then public sector Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) – now Tata-owned – launched the Gateway Internet Access Service (GIAS). It started off with two offerings – one which would give you browser displays and the other with ‘shell’ access that required some bizarre geeky commands. Both worked though. My first modem gave me speed at 9.6kpbs. The modem cost me nearly Rs 10,000 (or 10k, as everything in thousands is abbreviated to). The TCIP/IP account cost Rs 25k for 250 hours. Today, broadband connectivity is under 1k per month for 4 MBPS and with a wifi router being less than 2k. Mails from Business India’s internet service were sent in packets every four to six hours. Today they are transmitted instantly.
Turning Point #3: Cellular phones may have been conceived in 1947, but in Mumbai, they arrived fifty years later. The tariff for peak hours calling was Rs 16.80 per minute and half that in off-peak hours. On Sundays and national holidays, it was Rs 4.20 per minute. The price point has come down much and pre-paid telephony has indeed transformed the usage of cellular phones. Cellphones have become near-ubiquitous and they have become essential commodity for nearly every Mumbaikar, especially under the age of 60.
Turning Point #4: Mumbai has always been a socially active city. From the kattas and the gardens to kitty parties and laughter clubs, the Rotary Clubs and Young Presidents’ Organisations to social clubs and suburban train mandalis – connectivity facilitated by the internet has taken the city by storm. What started as scrapping on Orkut has now become a part of one’s daily living. If Facebook is hot with the digitally inclined, WhatsApp has led the transformation. A fisherwoman sends pictures of her catch from Versova, a driver sends pictures of the stock at the neighbourhood fruitseller to his sa’ab so that he can decide on what to buy. A coaching class asks students not to take notes as it will send students screenshots via WhatsApp, as a routine. Suddenly it’s the new communication tool and has almost got the Blackberry Messenger extinct.
Thankfully, we now have a vigilant media, and Facebook and Twitter to vent our sentiments. And, you never know, these could also lead to a Mumbai Spring!
Turning Point #5: I still remember how journalists would flock to a hotel in Nariman Point to check out the Gulf War coverage on CNN. That was in 1991-92. After two decades of Doordarshan rule in the city, Star and Zee started beaming to Indian skies. But it’s the digitisation process effected by the government starting 2012 that has been a real game-changer. Some of us had already switched to digital cable or Direct-to-Home. A phase-wise implementation of digital transmission of television signals is happening across the country. While digitisations helps the economies of the broadcast eco system improve considerably, the real benefit is on the variety of software available to all consumers. Yes, it could get a shade expensive, but a hundred rupees more for a wealth of content is just a little two plates of idli-sambar at an Udupi restaurant. Even if it’s Dog TV.
Digital technology has transformed much of Mumbai, and in the next five years, this would even get more pronounced. Not all has changed despite the modernisation attempts. So, if you were to get your apartment agreement registered, while it’s heartening to see the computerisation of the registrar’s office, the brokers haven’t vanished. You still need to pay them speed money.
The problem is with our political masters and their neglect of our infrastructure and the utility services. If only that were to improve, Mumbai would be a much better place to live in. Thankfully, we now have a vigilant media, and Facebook and Twitter to vent our sentiments. And, you never know, these could also lead to a Mumbai Spring!
