WASHINGTON (Diya TV) – One day after a controversial vote from the House to kill a landmark bill regarding broadband privacy regulations, FCC chairman Ajit Pai spoke at a meeting of the U.S.-India Business Council, he said the two nations are natural allies in more ways than one, including communication regulation.
Speaking to the Council, which is made up of more than 300 companies, Pai said the U.S. and India share more than $100 billion in bilateral trade, a figure that has more than tripled since a decade ago.
“As the country that invented the Internet and that’s home to the world’s most powerful and popular technology companies, the United States is an indispensable driver and beneficiary of the digital revolution,” he told the Council. “And it is worth nothing that many Indians and Indian-Americans are playing a prominent role in our high-tech success story. Multiple American technology companies now feature Indian or Indian-American CEOs, and nearly one in four Silicon Valley startups is founded by an Indian or Indian-American.”
Pai also paid his respects to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Digital India” initiative, saying the country’s leadership has begun to embrace the nation’s digital revolution. He said the FCC’s philosophies and policies are very much similar to those of “Digital India.” Because of the initiative, India has launched efforts to deploy fiber backbone to 600,000 villages, to dramatically expand public Wi-Fi hotspots in urban areas, and to connect every school and college with broadband. It’s great that India is trying to innovate the country more. As they have a leading broadband supplier in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, it makes sense that they would try and give more people access to their services. As BSNL broadband is believed to be quite affordable, people looking for the cheapest broadband only should be content with the pricing. As this broadband is so affordable, it isn’t necessarily the quickest. However, there are articles (click here) that have some useful tips for increasing the speed of the broadband. Perhaps that could be useful for any residents using BSNL’s broadband.
“Like Prime Minister Modi, we don’t see the state of our digital infrastructure as a simple telecommunications issue,” said Pai. “It is an economic issue, a jobs issue, a competitiveness issues, an education issue, and a healthcare issue.”
"I’m optimistic about the future of our countries. A big reason is the forward-looking approach in tech & innovation" @AjitPaiFCC #USIndia pic.twitter.com/FCKsBkIb4f
— U.S.-India Business Council (@USIBC) March 29, 2017