Question

Explain in detail the significance of transport and communication services.

Answer 1

Transport is a service or facility by which persons, manufactured goods, and property are physically carried from one location to another. It is an organised industry created to satisfy man’s basic need of mobility. Modern society requires speedy and efficient transport systems to assist in the production, distribution and consumption of goods. At every stage in this complex system, the value of the material is significantly enhanced by transportation. Transport activities are essential to carry out trade services. Transportation is also essential for defence purpose. It links different parts of country with each other and with other countries as well, which increases national and global linkage. It also links rural areas with urban areas and helps in ushering development even in rural and backward areas. It makes more places suitable for setting up industries and hence helps, in increasing job opportunities.

Communication services involve the transmission of words and messages, facts and ideas. Human beings have used different methods long distance communications of which the telegraph and the telephone were important. Even today, the telephone is the most commonly used mode. In developing countries, the use of cell phones, made possible by satellites, is important for rural connectivity. These allow large quantities of data to be transmitted rapidly, securely, and are virtually error-free. With the digitization of information in the 1990’s, telecommunication slowly merged with computers to form integrated networks termed as Internet.

Communication through satellites emerged as a new area in communication technology. These have rendered the unit cost and time of communication invariant in terms of distance. Cyberspace exists everywhere. It may be in an office, sailing boat, flying plane and virtually anywhere. As billions use the Internet each year, cyberspace will expand the contemporary economic and social space of humans through e-mail, e-commerce, e-learning and e-governance. Internet together with fax, television and radio will be accessible to more and more people cutting across place and time. It is these modern communication systems along with transportation that has made the concept of global village a reality.