While convergence holds great potential for developing nations and has the capacity to increase their income, it could end up contradicting the objectives of government control. This was the essence of the experience shared by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Ravi S. Prasad who was chairing a discussion between panelists at a seminar on Legal issues arising from convergence organised by Inter-Pacific Bar Association. While the fears of ‘contents and control’ were highlighted by Prasad, the opportunities of convergence were laid down by member of Planning Commission N. K. Singh. Taking the example of attack on Akshardham temple being shown by TV channels, Prasad said: ‘‘each manoeuvre like commandos entering the temple and their strategies was being telecast live. That could alert the enemy and make them come out with counter-attack strategies.’’ Hence exercise of self-control over content is crucial to protect national sovereignty. Indeed self-control can be the only possible way out of this dilemma as the Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express Shekhar Gupta drove home the point with another example that inspite of the fact that India and Pakistan were on the verge of a war recently, information and communication between the two countries never came to a halt. ‘‘Convergence defies the very basis of government control’’, Gupta added while elaborating how convergence has really changed the way of sending across information by the journalists. Taking a dig at the politicians, Gupta said that in most countries including India, politicians are the last one to understand technology. While laying down the fruits of convergence, Singh said that the challenge to a smooth convergence regime would rest on issues like technology neutrality, definition of level playing field, intellectual property rights and drawing the right symmetry between social and economic needs of the country. Nasscom president Kiran Karnik showed concern that the proposed Convergence Bill envisages formation of mega infocomm corporations leading towards monopoly. He said: ‘‘It would be a prospect not very exciting. It is a cause of concern that a single organisation controlling vast amount of inputs’’.
