I do not agree with the concept ''network is the computer''. I think the network is everything. Sample this: The sale of networking products doubled in 1999-2000 compared to the previous year to touch the Rs 1,500-crore mark!

A few years ago, while attending a seminar on networking, the only thing I heard speakers talk of was LAN. They talked about peer-to-peer connectivity, printer sharing, Arcnet and Ethernet, and UTP cabling. That was 1992.

The entire meaning of networking has undergone a sea change since then. Today, we talk of thin clients and Applications Service Providers (ASPs). Business demands and powerful applications are necessitating the need for networks that can handle huge amount of secure and efficient information flow. Network is going well beyond business needs. It will decide the future of education, health, justice, law and order, and governance. It is much more than a few computers connected to each other. If network is poised to be such a big influence then are we gearing up to take advantage of this emerging phenomenon?

A close look at all the research that has gone into making our annual, Networking Masters 2000, reveals that while on one hand there is a lot of networking happening in India, there are a lot of areas which seem to have been ignored on the other. Bandwidth, for instance, on which the fate of networking will depend, is far below the desired level. The Government, which traditionally has been the sole provider and controller of bandwidth is yet to wake up. This is highly de-motivating not just for the users, but also for investors who are eager to set up communications-enabled services. According to the NASSCOM-McKinsey study, inadequate bandwidth will result in a loss of $22.5 billion worth of export revenues! It will lead to a loss of job opportunities for about 3,50,000 people.

It''s not just the Government that is proving to be the stumbling block. The users as well as the network integrators are also to be blamed. The project management and network-planning skills of a large number of these integrators are questionable. Project management is very crucial to the right networking deployment and its effective utilization. Further, the users get confused with a range of networking products available and are not clear about the intricacies of issues like network services and maintenance. Plus, there is a total uncertainty about network security.

A recent TV advertisement that I saw focussed on the importance of networking in all walks of life. At the end the commercial a girl asks, "Are you ready"? Not me, but I think people in the communications and IT ministry, infotech industry, and more importantly, the enterprises, need to answer this question.

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