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ORGANIZATION: To ensure day to day coordination, operation and efficient
utilization we recommend establishing a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)
consisting of major stakeholders. Such an SPV should have professional experts
pooled from various stakeholder institutions for coordinating and guiding various
private vendors for speedy implementation. The policy, security and overall
management should be the responsibility of the SPV and the operational support
requirements should be met by the industry. One of the compelling reasons for
such a mechanism is to provide assurance that the use of cyber space will in no
way compromise the security concerns of the country.
OWNERSHIP: The Knowledge Network should be owned by the SPV consisting of
major stakeholders. Government ownership is not desirable, despite the fact that
substantial funding will be from the government because:
- It is the government’s policy to withdraw from direct operations and
maintenance activities in the ICT sector.
- The type of trained manpower needed, though not large, is in great
demand in the market, and therefore will require special remuneration
and incentives.
SPECIAL GROUP: We recommend setting up a special working group of experts to
finalize specifications, implementation plans, cost estimates, network plans as
well as to carry out the actual task of procurement and commissioning of the
network. This group will also establish the SPV needed for running the network
on a day to day basis.
We firmly believe that a National Knowledge Network interconnecting our knowledge
institutions and infrastructure with access speeds of 100 Mbps and more will give a major
push to collaborations and sharing, needed to enhance the quality of our education,
research and applications and at the same time will empower our people to be
competitive in the global economy. We hope therefore that this proposal will be
considered favorably and incorporated in the XIth plan.
Warm personal regards,
Sam Pitroda
Chairman,
The National Knowledge Commission
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