As infrastructure develops, India will most likely emerge as one of the world’s major centres for high-technology activities in the 21st century.

Ratan Tata, Chairman

The Tata Group, like the rest of corporate India, is endeavouring to revitalise itself to meet the challenges of a new world without boundaries where goods and services will traverse freely and where world-class competition will eliminate the weak and inefficient. The group is therefore undertaking a restructuring exercise to provide greater focus, business rationalisation and synergy in its enterprises. Simultaneously, the group is actively expanding its footprint in the fast-growing areas of information technology and communications. It is expected that this will result in a leaner, more aggressive and more focused Tata Group, which would be quick to change course and be in sync with the rapidly changing environment in which we now live.

Rapid technological changes, particularly in information technology and communications, have significantly impacted the way people live and conduct business. I only have to cast my mind on what it meant to call home in the 1960s when I was a student in the US – the endless wait for the operator to put the call through, the uncertainty about when the connection would mature – and compare it with the ease with which we can now connect to the world even from the remote parts of India by direct dialing. As Bill Clinton reminisced in a recent lecture, when he became President in 1993, there were a mere 50 websites in existence but when he left office eight years later, there were 350 million of them, and rising.

The revolution in connectivity has been the binding force and facilitator in this information age. The Internet has connected millions of people in a manner that could never have previously been conceived; with an e-mail address you are online to the world – and nobody need know in which country you live or from where you are communicating. The cellular phone has enabled personal voice communication between people wherever they may be. This level of connectivity has virtually shrunk our world.

In the period ahead, improvements in connectivity will bring about still more significant changes in the way people work and live. Companies will receive data in real-time, turnaround times will be faster, and the quality of information will be better-leading to superior decision-making. Virtual meeting via video conferencing will become commonplace and individuals will interact with each other effortlessly through voice telephony, the internet and e-mail via cellular phones. At home, people will increasingly put more products and services as well as conduct their financial transactions online. Instant communications will enable greater remote medical treatment and enhanced communications will speed the transfer of data for research. Advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology could make an immense difference to the health and well-being of human beings.

India’s passage to the 21st century has been greatly aided by its adoption of state-of-the-art technologies in its telecommunications infrastructure. In personal communication and in commerce, Indians utilise many of the same tools in use elsewhere in the world. Indian companies and their senior executives are reorienting themselves to make the greatest use of these new technologies in their business transactions and their personal communications.

Looking ahead, improvements in connectivity will be one of the important foundations

To enable India to be part of the modern world. Connectivity will be in two forms physical connectivity, in the form of highways, ports, bridges, tunnels, and the like and electronic connectivity, in the form of telephony, video, computers and internet. The India of tomorrow will see enormous investment in projects to enhance connectivity within the country, and this will change the quality of life or most of the Indian people when such infrastructure becomes freely available.

The challenge for India will be to ensure that the country makes the necessary investments in infrastructure, in improving its business climate and in research and development. In the recent times, several Indian engineers and entrepreneurs have made their mark overseas, where the opportunity and market potential have been far greater than in India. However, as the infrastructure develops to support technology applications, India will most likely emerge as one of the major centres for high technology activities in the 21^st century.