TETE-A-TETE WITH A PIONEER IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
V.C. ROY
They say that a man with passion never settles with just a handful of achievements. True passion leads to a thirst for success that can never be quenched. To be able to exchange a few words with people who possess such a thirst instill a want of finding a purpose in yourself too. We recently had the pleasure of interviewing such a man, Mr. V.C. Roy, a man with countless achievements and an undying urge to do more. His far-sighted vision and an eye for pulling the correct strings have made him a person of great stature.
Mr. Roy is a marketing strategist and broadband applications & distribution expert with more than 20 years of experience. He was Consultant & Advisor to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. He has also been a Government Spokesperson on Conditional Access Systems. He pioneered the launch of the DTH market and the services of the converged medium in India. Alongside, he worked towards the future of DTH, Triple play, IPTV with an aim to make use of the huge market potential of India. He headed WBCL (World Broadband Communications Ltd.) as the CEO for 15 years. He was a special advisor to the Internet exchange in launching the domain “.in” for India. He was leading India's first digital channel in Bangalore and was also Project co-coordinator for Motorola in 2004-05.
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What were the challenges that you faced as the director of VIPL? How did you overcome them? Way back when I started this project and introduced it on Indian soil, people here had no idea about data centers and edge computing so it was quite difficult to make the people understand what they would be working on. Coordinating with a team that has absolutely no idea about a certain subject is very hard and it took a lot of patience to train the people.We converted all our presentations to laymanlanguage explanations about the project. Proper training and lectures about the basics of the technology in question were given. Thankfully the team was quick to learn and picked up everything with ease. This is how we tackled the initial problems that we faced with our projects.
How did your interest in broadband and edge computing developed? I used to take a lot of interest in music and when it got digital I had to start studying it deeper. Studying digital music opened up the world to digital technology and everything related to it. This led me to broadband and the technology surrounding it. All my thoughts and actions became related to mathematics. My head was full of calculations and theories.
It also gave me the power to look at the need of the hour instead of trying to think ahead into the future. I started relating everything to the actual situation of the country as all the projects in my mind had to be in sync with the pace of development of the country. What is the net worth of VIPL? The latest census showed the company to be worth 12 Cr.
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Has VIPL gone international? One of our achievements is that VIPL has recently signed a contract with the Bulgarian government for data centers. Talks with Dubai and Singapore are also underway and we are expecting a positive result from both these countries very soon. There are many other countries we have on our list but we are going step by step and not rushing things. What is your biggest career achievement according to you? Well, so I guess one of the achievements I could talk about is that I pioneered the launch of broadband in the country. I used to hold training programs and give lectures to the corporate sector and the government since the concept was unheard of in this country. At that time I was also acting as an advisor to TRAI (Telecommunication Regulation Authority of India).
How do you manage to balance your professional and personal life? You see with such a job my mind is mostly engrossed with the matters of the data center and ideas about the latest projects but from time to time I do make sure I plan trips with my family depending upon the amount of free time I can afford to shell out. When I can't take too many days off I take the family for a 1 or 2 day trip to nearby locations like Agra. This small change in routine not only helps me but also helps the family get together and spend quality time.
Even though my family and I recently decided that we need to start planning longer trips to further destinations, we are sadly not getting time for such vacations. But I'm very thankful that my family understands and they realize the importance of the work that I do so they don't really make a fuss about it.
What drastic change in technology do you predict in the near future? The biggest change will be in the television sector. The companies like Dish T.V. and Tata Sky will be going through a very intense change. Transmission systems and distribution networks are likely to go through a huge change. We would be looking at wireless transmissions without the help of bulky dishes on rooftops. Also, the routers or modems being used for Wi-Fi and internet routing will also be gone. Antennas will be replaced by a different kind of transmission which will be in sync with the future. The EDGE data centers will make it possible for easier upload of data by placing the transmission sites in closer proximity to users. The common problems like latency will be done away with.