kochi finance minister tm thomas isaacs assertion in his budget speech that the state will make access to internet a citizens right is a bold idea ahead of its time this is something thats possibly out of the comfort zone of the central governmentconsider the timeline of recent global developments in this sphere of human rights in 2010 finland made internet 1mbps connection a basic right for citizens and spain france finland costa rica estonia and greece followed suitsensing the global mood over 70 nations voted to pass a un human rights council resolution that declared internet as a basic human right in june 2016 india and a handful of nations including russia china and saudi arabia voted against it this was ironic in indias case because the government had been relentlessly driving home the message of digital india and forcing citizens to adopt internetdriven ecash ways to overcome the pains of demonetisation keralas road map to make internet a right starting sensibly with the lessadvantaged sections and setting an 18month timeline to create a statewide fibre optic network is unlikely to be replicated by other states or the centre anytime soonthat in itself is enough to go ahead why because isaacs vision which has been elaborated by it secretary m sivasankar is consistent with what kerala has been working towards for over a decadein 2003 at the first unsponsored global summit on the information society in geneva secretary general kofi annan for the first time mooted the idea of the internet as the biggest social catalyst capable of empowering everyone on earth standing beside him in support was tim bernerslee the father of the world wide web and shashi tharoor then un under secretary general in the audience were the then it minister pk kunhalikutty and it secretary aruna sundararajan the kerala team found itself fielding many questions from officials of other developing nations about the logistics of its eliteracy programme akshaya due to happenstance that programme captured huge attention in genevas cavernous palexpo conference venuethis correspondent was at the event on the strength of his news story in an indian paper that reported on indias first computerliterate village chamravattom in malappuram the photo accompanying my story of a housewife shantakumari taking her final computer literacy etest with her child cradled in her arms was widely distributed albeit in a presocial media way as a symbolkeralas reps at wsis came back with renewed determination to hitch the state to the internet and the bipartisan success story of akshaya is a visible result the sustained thrust for internet training across a spectrum of institutions from itschool is another examplesometimes intent is not enough it takes a rare combination of likeminded people to take any programme to the next level and kerala might just have the perfect combo today to deliver on isaacs promise i heard him articulate his ideas about what internet could do for india a decade ago in a crowded classroom at university college in the capitalm sivasankar