This will facilitate faster growth of internet services and the consequent growth in e-commerce in India, said Datapro CMD and Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) chairman Rajeev Arora.

Arora said bandwidth sharing should be allowed between two service providers and also between gateway service providers and internet service providers. "This can streamline businesses to a large extent", said Arora.

Making a presentation on `Hurdles to the Internet' at IT/Comdex here on Thursday, Arora said the government policy has to be attuned to faster growth of the internet in the country. "We have to gear up to work electronically," he added.

Referring to a survey, Arora said half of the executives worldwide believe that the internet will have a major impact on the global market place by the year 2003. Of those surveyed, 40 per cent believe that it will transform the global market place, said Arora. "Can India afford not to be a part of the global market place," he added.

Regarding the hurdles, Arora said as far as the policy front is concerned, the leased line rentals are very high, there are double leases line rentals, lack of availability of infrastructure and no VSAT connectivity. Also, there are the issues of license fee, port charges, lack of regular/strong regulator and inter-connectivity only through GEMS and 400 gateways.

On the other hand, added Arora, there are hurdles such as low PC penetration, lack of technology penetration (computer literacy), language issues, local content and applications.

"None of these problems are insoluble. It needs political will and commitment," said Arora.

Arora said India needs to put its act together if it wants to reap the benefits of the internet revolution. Last year, globally e-commerce was worth $ 40 billion. The figure is expected to increase to $1.3 trillion in year 2003, he added.

Arora said, besides VSNL, there should be another two or three international gateway service providers in the country which can also work as an internet exchange.