Dear Friends,
My broadband connectivity (ADSL) by BSNL was down for a month and a bit more hence couldn’t post any blogs. In account of road-work there had been digging and numerous accounts of stealing thick copper cables which can be resold to different people and even melted to extract copper. Optical fiber for communication prices have dropped tremendously , the only expensive and tricky part is splicing and termination of the strands. There is a lobby which has clout and incentives to continue with this outdated and outmoded technology, which is why it continues, although this take discussion from the main topic.
I could have cheated and made a blog post in bits and pieces, something I hope to do this week-end but there has been some encouraging news and views which prompted me to post this blog post –
Mumbai 24/7: Shop, dine and play all night long in the city from today
and
Hotels And Restaurants In Maharashtra To Remain Open 24×7
One of the motives apart from being part of Debconf itself which is a valuable incentive to learn new things, is to see Taiwan shopping 24×7, it is the night market bit that the Taiwan team has shared, something I looked up and was a bit hooked up when I saw what’s it all about.
Of course if things go my way would probably would have to do bit more of research than what I have shared above.
The real meat (figure of speech) of today’s announcements was a discussion on CNBC Awaaz
Posted the youtube link above of the discussion – is in Hindi, the crux of the discussion while was about Mumbai (while I live in Pune, about 250-300 kms. in the neighboring city) the implications are for all those places which have restaurants. small kirana stores which had been facing lot of competition from e-tailers. One of the things being envisaged are places to eat and shop at unearthly hours at discounted rates which will drive people interested in such products and services. Also lot of retail services which depend upon such services are also reckoned to grow bringing more stability and multiplier effects to the Indian economy. Maharashtra ( one of the 29 States/Provinces in India) has been a bit contributor to the Indian economy over decades but hasn’t had its share of investment vis-a-vis what it gives to the national exchequer in terms of various fees and taxes. There are figures and beliefs which both support the argument. I haven’t shared as the blog post would still balloon up without adding anything but if needed can still share it in comments.
It was also shared that it would increase tourism but that got mixed reviews that it might not unless and until liquor timings, licenses are loosened up a bit.
I would contend though that there should be substantial increase and flexibility in domestic tourism and businesses as people would be able to make amicable plans for both parties ( a giver and a receiver.)
If one were to specifically talk about Mumbai, both Marine Drive, Grandstand as well as some other places in Colaba and elsewhere have been/were open all night. But with this shift of policy the civic infrastructure which already was in deficit might increase more as it comes under more pressure while law and order would need to be more beefed up and adequately trained, both of which are under strain as well. What was shared this policy would also end the lower-rank corruption by police officials who used to ask for protection money if shops were even a little late in closing up.
There is also a possibility that traffic congestion might be in night as well but it may reflect into a bit less traffic congestion in the day-time. Again all of this is a bit of imagination, conjecture at this point in time. People like me who can’t stand Mumbai’s humidity in the day-time would find a bit more excuse to be there at night if more budget restaurants were to be open late at night.
Also it is not a blanket thing for everybody, there are restrictions on shops in residential areas which might be expected to be relaxed a bit once things happen in the open. One well-known name which cropped up was the ubiquitous 7-11 stores. There would certainly be lot of interest if such convenience stores opened up all across the city/state.
I am excited to see if this happens.
Although, this has happened in India years ago, just it was ‘illegal’ and now it is ‘legal’. When I was in my college, around 1993 – 1994 I had shared also in 2016 Debconf the net/web had just started in India and I was lucky to be able to see/view the net using a service called NIIT Computerdrome.
Just to be explicit, NIIT is and was a premium offering for students who wanted to learn about programming and various MS-Windows technologies as there were already signs that IT (Information Technology) would be a disruptive force. Although nowadays they have also moved into management and administration courses as local IT industry has yet to grow up and lot of H1B-Visas under scanner.
It was a fancy name for what is now known as a cyber-cafe but we used to get net access at discounted rates. Now this place was about 4-5 kms. from my place so I had to be really careful in planning, figuring out as I had to buy coupons which had an expiry date and everything.
Couple of years later, came to know of a service much closer to home, in the basement of a place called Sagar Arcade. Now for those of us who were addicted to web access either for porn, or net technologies, or net gaming, IRC, Video chatting all used to throng there. At that time, NIIT had an 8 Mbps leased line which was a big deal and still is.
While wholesale bulk bandwidth rates have hit rock-bottom, last-mile connectivity still seems to be an issue. Because of Reliance Jio’s aggressive pitches some of the retail bandwidth rates have softened up but still have miles to go before I could say we have adequate bandwidth. Dropped calls (on mobile and landline) are still an issue while bandwidth tapering off every now and then seems to be endemic behavior in both public and private sector ISPs (Internet Service Provider) most of which are Tier-3 ISPs, the only tier-1 ISP Indian ISP I know is Tatas, see this FAQ as well –
World’s largest wholly owned submarine fibre network – more than 500,000 km of subsea fibre, and more than 210,000 km of terrestrial fibre
Only Tier-1 provider that is in the top five in five continents – by internet routes
Over 24% of the world’s internet routes are on Tata Communications’ network
400+ PoPs reach more than 240 countries and territories
44 data centres and co-location centres with over one million sq. ft. of space
7600 petabytes of internet traffic travels over the Tata Communications’ internet backbone each month
15+ terabits/s of international bandwidth lit capacity
– From Tata Communications FAQ .
but came to know they are merging their end-user business with Airtel (another Tier-3 ISP) while their under-sea fibre optic cable business(see above) will still remain with them but this again is taking outside the current topic.
Back to topic on hand –
I am guessing that there was practically no work being done after hours so NIIT might have in-turn leased some of the capacity to the cyber-cafe.
The cybercafe owner had two rates, normal rates which were comparable to any other cyber-cafes and night rates which were half or one-fourth (happy hours) which extended from 2300 hrs – 0500 hours. In order to indulge into net curiosity/net addiction me and few of my friends used to go there. Few days/couple of weeks later a chinese take-away and then a juice/tea/coffee shop came to serve the cybercafe customers.
This whole setup was illegal as according to laws of the time, no commercial establishment (only exceptions being Railway stations, Police Stations, Hopitals, some specific Petrol Pumps and Medicine dispensations shops were allowed to remain open 24×7 ) But even in the case of Medicine shops and Petrol Pumps there were very few who had got permission (looking back might have a combo for Business/Political patronage to it which were not apparent when I was a teenager.) I also came to know much much later that what we were doing was illegal as in using a commercial establishment after hours even though it was in connivance with the owner. see The Bombay Shop Act, 1948.
Comically, the Bombay Shop Act which has now been superseded by the Maharashtra Shops and Establishments Act 2017 has never been in the syllabus of Commerce Students even when we were graduating with Business Administration as one of the optional subjects. The Act and surrounding topics should have been there in the books and creative discussions and consultations with students being taken up. This was in 1994, a full 46 years after the Act came into being.
But as has been shared on this blog before, this is a dream which seems shall not be realized at least in the immediate future.
While reading today’s newspaper I came across this editorial which also opens up a window what the elitist institutions have shrunk in their collective responsibility. While it only talks about social sciences, another article for students of UPSC Mains which was shared by a student friend of mine. It actually took me back to the term Dismal Science as I came across the term and understood the implications years ago.
While it is too early to state/predict whether it would change things in Pune and Maharashtra as a whole, but am hopeful as it would generate both direct and indirect employment. After years of jobless inflationary growth it would be welcome departure especially as youngsters without adequate job skills are joining the unemployed in millions.
Experiences in the community 