The phenomenal increase in the import of cellular mobile handsets to the tune of $1 billion is shocking. It has become a craze even with ordinary people with meager income, hardly making the two ends meet.
It is the fastest and one of the most profitable businesses with unlimited resources at the disposal of multinationals for advertising the most luring handsets and cheap call rates, the expensive western life style of consumerism, hitting hard on our poor country.
One may, though, agree that it is now more a necessity for a common man to own a telephone. However, the cellphones offered in the market today at fabulous prices is sheer luxury and akin to robbing the poor and illiterate people who can hardly afford expensive handsets with multi gadget facilities. But one must own a mobile phone with any means, fair or foul.
Undoubtedly this has led to thriving mafia business for second-hand mobile phones, acquired through pilferage and snatching from ordinary citizens, often at gunpoint.
For decelerating the heavy imports of cellular mobile handsets, incentive to leading manufacturers of the handsets to manufacture cheap models with most essential features of dialing, receiving calls, CLI, choice of two ringers tones, with 10 memory numbers and 10 miscalls only at an affordable price of say Rs 1,000/- per set.
This will cater to the needs of the masses and save millions in foreign currency for the country besides discouraging pilferage and snatching. Our fragile economy with US $5.578 billion trade deficit for July-October last and foreign exchange reserve of US $16.373 only for the year ended June-2007 with rampant import of cellphones and equipment as well as most luxurious cars can hardly survive and we are destined to be doomed as a failed state.
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