India has several service providers and the universal service obligation fund. We have been in the business of providing data and voice connectivity to our people for a fairly long time, but we still have connectivity issues, even in dense locations like Delhi and Gurgaon. At the pace at which we are evolving when it comes to using technology, it is possible it will be the National Telecom Policy – (year “Neverland”) when the whole country will get access to the internet. 

However, Mark Zuckerberg has given me some hope. His dream to connect the whole world to the internet by beaming internet to the people from the sky through Drones sure seems like a scene from a fiction movie, but I sense some reality in this effort.

I am whole heartedly looking forward to seeing drones in the Indian sky, but as a lawyer in the technology space, I really wonder how many debates, consultation papers, recommendations,  licenses and registrations, a fantastic idea like this would take to establish itself in India. I really hope we start discussing this in our government committees and formulate an acceptance plan without much ado around fears and insecurities.   

Sometime back I was working with one of my friends on a project where our vision was to educate India through Google boards called Google classrooms. 

It is a different thing that we did not get funding for our project but while thinking through the whole project establishing the Google boards was the least of our worries, financially or operationally. The one major worry was connectivity.

If Mark, is committed enough to go the distance with the drones and his dream of connecting every person to the internet, I feel he will be able to redeem mankind and this would take us to another level of evolution.

Internet for everyone would mean education for everyone! Given his achievements in the past and his financial strength,  I feel he will achieve this dream as well.