Internet gag continued in 2017

The frequent internet gags, which became a norm in 2016 with at a stretch 90-day complete communication ban, continued as a pesky problem for the businessmen, students and commoners alike in 2017.

In this age of technology, when the internet has become as important to business, education and governance as oxygen is to life, net blockades in Kashmir reached to a new level in 2017.

Despite governments (both centre and state) making all kinds of services, including banking, GST compliance, application submission and many more, only possible through the internet, this year Kashmir witnessed at least 60 times net blockades for both mobile internet and broadband, which is highest in a single year till now. In 2016, the internet was blocked 10 times, with a blanket 90-days communication ban on mobile telephone and interent after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

While the emerging sectors in Kashmir like IT services, e-commerce startups, travel agencies and other online service providers have been worst hit, the frequent internet bans have equally impacted the traditional businesses as well. All in all, traders say, the Kashmir economy due to these net gags could not come out of the slump which it was facing due to the 2016 unrest.  

“On one hand government has made all the legal compliance, like GST filing, and services only online available and on other hand, it is banning the internet at the drop of a hat,” says Farhan Kitab, spokesman of Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Federation (KTMF).

Kitab, who runs a shoe store in the city centre, says the net blockades adversely affect even general trade and businesses, which do not seem to be dependent on the internet per se.  

“We lose a huge clientele as soon as the net is down. PoS machines stop working, we cannot make any online payments,” he adds.  

The onslaught of frequent internet suspension has also hit almost half a dozen mobile service providers operating in this region. While Kashmir proved to be a lucrative and promising market for mobile service providers (as they added 12 lakh new subscribers in 7 months of 2017), internet gags took a toll on these telcos as well. 

According to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), an umbrella body of GSM mobile operators, losses of almost Rs 160 crore during the 90-day complete communication gag in 2016 unrest was suffered by mobile service providers, who continue to bleed in 2017.

Young entrepreneur Muheet Mehraj, who runs an e-commerce venture ‘Kashmir Box’ says, the internet is the heart and soul of this kind of business and any communication gag is ‘brutal’ for any e-commerce business especially startups. 

“Whenever internet is suspended, we are in complete disarray. It is not just losses but the negative publicity of our business as we are not able to update our customers and fulfil our commitments,” says Mehraj. Frequent internet suspensions have forced Mehraj to set-up an office in Delhi. “I had to bear the extra operational costs but it was important to have this office as I don’t anymore trust internet connectivity in Kashmir,” he says.

Such has been the cascading effect of internet gags that many local Information Technology companies have either shut shop or temporarily moved their base outside Kashmir. 

According to Jahangir Raina, president of Information and Communications Technology Association – an amalgam of almost 45 local IT companies – 3000 freelance technology individuals from Kashmir are worst affected due to these frequent internet gags.

“Web developers, web designers and individuals who do online data entry from home are severely hit whenever internet suspension takes place,” says Raina, adding, these individuals won’t be able to achieve any success even outside Kashmir due to massive competition over there.