The state government has constituted an advisory body, Commission on People’s Empowerment (COPE), with former Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal as its chairman. The commission will focus on controlling corruption in government services and advice the government in simplifying laws, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu told reporters here on Wednesday.
According to Naidu, the COPE would also make recommendations for effective implementation of people-centred administrative reforms in the state. “Anyone can approach COPE on matters of corruption,” he said, pointing out that the government would certainly take action on the commission’s recommendations.
MCR HRD institute director P V R K Prasad, Visakhapatnam Port Trust chairman S R Rao, Centre for Good Governance executive director P K Mohanty, Indian School of Business dean Vijay Mahajan, McKinsey & Company principal Pramath Sinha, and Infosys Leadership Institute director G K Jayaram are the members of the COPE, while secretary (coordination) J C Mohanty will act as its member-secretary.
The commission will have its first meeting in Hyderabad on Thursday, and it will meet periodically. The COPE members can visit any place in the state and are empowered to make independent enquiries on allegations of corruption and suggest methods to the government on effective disposal of public grievances.

PUNE: Refuting the notion that technologies cannot coexist, former chief vigilance commissioner N. Vittal on Sunday said exploring technologies that would make telecom services viable, especially in the rural sector, was the need of the hour.

He was addressing the 6th national telecom seminar in the city, titled ‘The Wireless Conclave’, organised by the Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management.

Vittal suggested that a combination of wireless technology and direct inward dialling could make rural telephony viable. He cited Bangladesh’s grameen (rural) phone scheme, which has not only succeeded in taking telephony to the rural areas, but worked towards the empowerment of women.

Joining the great debate over the relative superiority of the European global system for mobile communications (GSM) and the American code division multiple access (CDMA) technology, Vittal voted for CDMA.

Vittal, who has also served in the telecom commission, however, cautioned against jettisoning GSM, saying endusers were the best judges.

Vittal criticised the classification of wireless telephony into mobile and limited mobility: “Actually, there are only two types - fixed lines and wireless. Vittal strongly criticised the bureaucracy’s obsession with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) approvals that prevented the emergence of new technologies.

“By the time the ITU approves a certain technology, the market might have already jettisoned it for a better one,” he said.

Listing technology, political will, regulatory activities and market dynamics as the four critical drivers of the telecom sector, Vittal called for a closer look at national security in the light of new frequencies and bandwidths.

The only way to ensure that telecom operations, especially the cellular ones, remained profitable, was to adopt infrastructure sharing, Vittal said. He also joined many other experts on Sunday in criticising the N.K. Singh panel on foreign direct investment (FDI) for not opening the tap fully and allowing it in doses.

This reflected a lack of political will and all we have to do is to look at China, which has its priorities clear, he said.