Senior Fellow, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Gp. Capt. Ajey Lele’s commentary on COVID-19 and internet services, titled ‘Could COVID- 19 Pandemic Lead to Long Term Disruption in Internet Services?’ has been published by Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict (SSPC) on March 25, 2020.
The Internet has become a lifeline for the world for the past few decades. At present, owing to the Covid-19 threat, the world is observing ‘social distancing’. However, at the same time, there has been a major increase in ‘digital closeness’. For all these years, the idea of ‘work from home’ had very limited relevance, but now all of a sudden, this is becoming a global reality. Unfortunately, this is also leading to the overcrowding of digital networks due to rapid traffic growth. Obviously, there is an increasing fear that possibly the Internet may not be able to handle this additional strain, writes Gp. Capt.Lele.