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| Spectrum is a public property and a scarce resource and essential for nation's development | | | NIKHIL GUPTA | 3/15/2012 10:59:34 PM |
| There was a decision by supreme court in 1995 that radio waves or spectrum is a public property . When a thing is a public property then it means that it is not a private property and thus none can use it or dispose it in a private capacity . The public property is for the public of India and thus the public property can be used or disposed in the public interest only . And public interest will be decided by those who have supreme authority and this supreme authority in a democratic republic lies with the people of India .The preamble to Indian constitution clearly states that the supreme authority in India is collectively with all the people of India and with none else . All the governments at union , state or local municipal levels and all their elected or non elected components are in the broad definition of public servants i.e. they are to serve the people of India according to the laws of India and without any discrimination or prejudice against anyone . These are the broard guidelines under which the governments function throughout the world in a democratic set up . Thus the public property has to be used in public interest only . The Supreme Court judgement delivered in 1995 in the case between the Union of India & Cricket Association of Bengal stated that the airwaves or frequencies are a public property. Their use has to be controlled and regulated by a public authority in the interests of the public and to prevent the invasion of their rights. Since, the electronic media involves the use of the airwaves, this factor creates an in-built restriction on its use as in the case of any other public property. The judgement further stated that the right to impart and receive information is a species of the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution. A citizen has a fundamental right to use the best means of imparting and receiving information and as such to have an access to telecasting for the purpose. However, this right to have an access to telecasting has limitations on account of the use of the public property, viz, the airwaves, involved in the exercise of the right and can be controlled and regulated by the public authority. This limitation imposed by the nature of the public property involved in the use of the electronic media is in addition to the restriction imposed on the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 (2) of the Constitution.
To understand the radio frequency spectrum in a layman's language let's first understand that the human voice or sound fades out after a few meters . So what is to be done if the sound is to be sent over long distances . One way is to send this sound by way of a physical media from place to place . Thus we can see that there is a huge web of physical media like different types of cables , wires etc that connect different cities of India and even different countries by way of trans - oceanic cables .The cable TV also uses the coaxial cables for providing TV signals to the users . There is another way of sending the sound signals like human voice and even data over various places by way of radio waves and in this case the radio waves act as the carriers of voice or data . The sound or now a days even data is mounted over some kind of radio frequency spectrum that can travel to a much longer distance . The discoveries made by Einstein , Louis de Broglie and Heisenberg etc in the field of quantum mechanics were pioneering in the field of radio waves . Further discoveries proved that the radio waves travel over long distances and that these radio waves can be used for taking signals over long distances . Still further discoveries and inventions made it possible for the equipment designers to combine the voice and data at one place , piggybank or mount it on the radio spectrum and then send it for long distance destination . At the destination this combined voice and data would be dismounted from the radio spectrum and then decombined to obtain the original voice and data . This radio frequency spectrum thus became one of the important and scarce media for transmission of signals over long distances. Some of the radio frequencies (like short waves) can travel over continents. Another big advantage of the frequency spectrum is that its users are able to provide both point to point connection as well as point to multipoint connection . The physical media cannot provide point to unlimited multipoint connections . Thus the radio spectrum is very valuable resource . This radio frequency spectrum is not unlimited and a scarce and natural resource and it is the property of the public of India as per the supreme court judgement quoted above .Thus we can see that the spectrum is needed by all players who are in broadcasting or similiar fields .The radio frequency spectrum starts from 9 kilo hertz and the upper limit extends up to 3,000 Gega hertz . Thus it seems that the spectrum is in abundance but practically it is extremely limited because of various reasons and the major reason is the technological limit of the equipments .The equipment built worldover is able to operate for a certain range of spectrum only and there are competing requirements for various applications. As of now, spectrum of up to 70 GHz can be used practically and technologies for utilising higher frequency bands are still being developed. Therefore this spectrum is a limited and scarce resource .
Now the allocation of spectrum was not needed if there was only one player or one party that used this spectrum . But the fact is that there are a large number of players , parties and agencies that use this radio spectrum . The examples are government controlled radio and television , privately and publicly controlled TV channels , public telecommunication services , DTH services , maritime and aeronautical broadcasting, communications for defence, paramilitary, law and order agencies , transport, oil and electricity sectors, public utility services, health and environment , space applications etc . All these parties , players and agencies require spectrum thus making it even more scarce . As the spectrum can neither be created nor be destroyed thus its optimum usage is required at both international and national levels . With increasing wireless applications and technologies , the need to regulate and avoid conflicts in coexistence increases multifold . One can imagine what happens if multi parties and agencies start using same radio frequencies . This will cause electromagnatic holocast and the whole system will collapse . Therefore it is very important that different players, parties and agencies use different radio frequency spectrum so that the working of system is smooth and there is minimum interference . This also means that there must be a govenment controlled body at national level that will allocate different frequencies to different players for their different or similiar usages.
And as the spectrum is a public property , it is expected that its allocation is done in an impartial and justifiable way . It should be ensured that the scarce resource of spectrum is alloted to the players , parties and agencies in a fair manner and some of the spectrum should be kept by the nation for the use in defence , space and other applications . Few suggestions that can be put to good use for the development of our nation are to appoint firstly a technical person as the minister in charge of the technical ministries . This will ensure that the public servant and the government servants in the concerned sections fully understand the utility of the national resources and thus do the needful so that rules of natural justice and equitable sharing are adhered to . Secondly in pure science areas the reservation and quota system should be done away with and only pure merit should be the criteria in fields of scientific research and development . Because of lack of research and development our nation will not become technical power that it should be . Even now when any exam results are seen , one can find that the merit in the SCHEDULE TRIBE category is very low and this is the case even in exams for posts in the technical and research institutions . The propensity of governments to grant ST category to whole regions is also not conducive for encouraging merit . For example in our state the people of regions of Ladhakh , Kargil etc have been given the ST category and now this demand is there for people from Pahari regions also . In all this the merit is lost somewhere and the loss is to the nation of India and the governments across the nation must try to find some other ways and means for affirmative action in such a way that the merit doesnot go away from the nation . The low merit can be there in exams for administration etc because not much knowledge is required in those areas but in technical and pure science areas there should never be low merit . Without the respect for merit our nation cannot develop .
The mad rush of technical geniuses into the administrative exams should be controlled . It is a criminal waste of national talent if best scientists , engineers , agriculturists etc go to administrative fields . This can be done if the technical cadres are given due respect and are never subordinated to non technical cadres like administration whose role should change drasticaly if our nation is to develop . A nation that has no respect for technical persons and keeps discretionery powers with the people in administrative fields can never develop and will remain poor and backward . The railway board in India has never allowed any non technical person to be its chairman and one can see that the technical engineering service in railways is one of the best services in India and it has always delivered be it the project in Konkan or in Kashmir . Across the public sector , hire and fire policy should be implemented so that non performers can be shunted out and the performers can be rewarded and this should be done in humane manner so that the employees are not harassed . VRS etc can be implemented in such a manner that both the organisation and the employees benefit and there is no heart burn on any side . There should be lateral entry into various services across the nation in such a way that the nation benefits as it is seen now a days that the passing of various exams has become an industry in itself . People go to Delhi etc for various coachings , mug up the things and somehow pass some exams . But this doesn't mean that they become more intelligent or become more useful to the nation . There may be many more people who over the years have developed into much more intelligent persons and such people can be given opportunity to join various services at a much later date . Another benefit of this scheme is that the lateral entry persons will bring their own experience and may become valuable to the organisation . The scientific temper should be encouraged in the people and its the duty of people themselves to get educated and acquire knowlwdge and rid themselves of the superstitions . I strongly advise people not to get carried away by the daily , weekly or yearly forecasts by various kinds of astrologers . These astrologers or jyotshies may not know about their own future and how can they tell future of the people ? One should trust one's own karma and not depend on these astrologers . Even now in rural areas of our country many people are seen going to various kinds of astrologers and pandits for their janamkundlies or horoscopes etc and seek advise for somehow getting rid of troubles in their lives . Such gullible people play into hands of murky astrologers who don't know their own future ! Then there should be knowledge commissions at national and state levels that can provide cost effective innovations for the benefit of common people . Because of the recognition given to technical fields , the western countries attract best people for research and development and these same people from India and various nations develop the new technologies for the western nations and this is due to shoddy treatment to their talent in their home countries. India has a vast reserve of traditional knowlwdge and skills from generation to generation and this must be put to good use . The best innovative people like professor A. K. GUPTA of the National Innovative Foundation or SAM PITRODA of Knowledge Commission must be made incharge of the technical ministries so that they can deliver the things for the nation's development . India needs scientists in nuclear science field so that India can develop nuclear weapons on a large scale and make their effective delivery equipments . Our nation shouldnot forget that for many centuries India remained under foreigners who came running from foreign lands and by defeating local native Indians set up their rule in India . Thus India should develop more nuclear and hydrogen bombs for scaring away any misadventure again on holy Indian land . India should also develop neutron bombs for tactical battlefield usage . Only such drastic steps can ensure that the national resources like spectrum , petroleum , iron and steel , water , uranium , thorium etc are put to judicious use and our country remains free and democratic country .
The content has no bearing on any person or any organisation and the author is guided by the motto " The ROYALE GUPTA WARRIORS NEVER FIGHT FOR THEMSELVES BUT FIGHT FOR A BIGGER CAUSE ". Vande Matram and Jai Hind. |
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