Appendix 32. India - National Knowledge Commission
Letter to the Prime Minister
21st December 2006
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) strongly feels that to optimally utilise the potential
of institutions engaged in generation and dissemination of knowledge in various areas, such as
research laboratories, universities and other institutions of higher learning, including professional
institutions, it is important to connect them through a high speed broadband network. In order to
explore the feasibility of establishing broadband connectivity among such institutions, NKC spent
six months studying various issues and alternatives. We conducted extensive consultations with
experts, potential users, telecom service providers, government officials and various educational
and research institutions (list attached) to understand the requirements, implementation issues and
benefits of creating an integrated National Knowledge Network.
The purpose of such a knowledge network goes to the very heart of the country's quest to build
quality institutions with requisite research facilities and create a pool of highly trained persons.
Considering the enormity of the challenge, NKC believes an immediate objective of the network
will be to share the existing content, coursework, expertise, ideas, innovations, equipment and
facilities available in the limited number of centers of excellence, with a wider group of
institutions, educators and students. Globally, research and development activities and
innovations are increasingly multidisciplinary, collaborative, and require substantial
computational power. The key to successful research today demands live consultations, data
sharing and resource sharing. Therefore it is essential to provide broadband connectivity to our
knowledge institutions to improve access, quality and quantity of R&D activities.
The primary objective is to interconnect all our knowledge institutions in various fields, and at
various locations throughout the country, through an electronic digital broadband network with
adequate capabilities (minimum access speed of 100mbps or more) to encourage sharing of
resources and collaborative research.
We commissioned an expert to examine what it would take to create a National Knowledge
Network. NKC also held detailed discussions with the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor
(PSA) to the Government of India. The discussions yielded a consensus on the optimal approach
to be adopted for setting up such a network, whether it is for a broad range of institutions as
envisaged by the NKC or a specific community of S&T research institutions. A detailed report by
the expert outlining the need for such a network, the optimal architecture and the organizational
structure required to manage this network, is being circulated separately to the concerned
ministries. Based on the various discussions NKC recommends the following:
1.0 NATIONAL KNOWLEDGE NETWORK:
Build a National Knowledge Network with gigabit capabilities to connect all universities,
libraries, laboratories, hospitals and agricultural institutions to share data and resources across the
country. This will require us to ultimately provide connectivity to around 5,000 nodes covering
all major institutions. The actual implementation could be in phases targeting 500 to a 1,000
nodes in the first phase. However, the design of the network will have to be based on the final
network. The prioritization of the nodes for implementation purposes should be on the basis of
the institutions which are most likely to use the network from day one and which would be able to
demonstrate the benefits of such a network. Based on a detailed analysis of the country's existing
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