Representatives from 28 countries from South Asia, South-East Asia, Caribbean, Latin America and Africa take part in India Telecom 2016 meet
Communications minister Manoj Sinha has said that the government of India will do everything to ensure that Indian telecom products and services become the first choice of anyone’s telecom needs. Inaugurating the 8th Telecom Export Promotion Council’s Buyer-Seller meet in Delhi, he said if one is looking for secure ICT products, they should rely on Indian products and our industry is eager to share “ Know how” and “Know why”. He said that Indian manufacturers have already made significant strides in exports of IT and telecom products to several countries and established that Indian IT and telecom products are of world-class quality and globally competitive on technology and price. Sinha added that India has all the ingredients of a globally competitive telecom industry like large domestic market, world class talent, focus on R&D and IPR creation beside a robust framework for electronic manufacturing.
Sinha told the representatives from 28 participating countries from South Asia, South-East Asia, Caribbean, Latin America and Africa that India also holds the distinction of being the fastest growing telecom network especially with advent of increased broadband penetration. This large telecom network requires equipment and technology that is second to none in the world, yet India offers the lowest telephony tariffs in the world. The minister said, with this background, the foreign delegates can be assured that when they buy telecom products and services from India, they will be buying the best technology at competitive costs.
Sinha said that Indian telecom sector has been growing at a phenomenal pace and is considered as the fastest growing telecom market in the world with the second largest subscriber base with more than 1,060 million connectivity, 160 million broadband connections and 350 million plus internet users. He said the rapid growth of the sector has fuelled the demand for telecom equipment including mobile phones which is about 20 billion US dollars in 2015-16 and is estimated to exceed 30 billion US dollars by 2020.
Referring to the prime minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Digital India to bridge the digital divide, Sinha said with massive thrust on Make in India and Digital India initiatives, a large opportunity for innovative products and services has been created and India is poised for another digital and data revolution.
In his address, secretary telecom, JS Deepak said that Indian telecom sector in the last one month has witnessed some major developments like the major launch of a telecom operator, big mergers and India’s largest ever spectrum auction which is now on. He said Indian companies have exported more than 110 billion US dollars of ICT products mostly to advanced countries, which is likely to witness a big spurt in near future. He said through Digital India we are empowering the common man by giving them choice to choose best products and services and by giving voice that is the opportunity to give feedback on government schemes.
Speaking on the occasion, secretary, DIPP, Ramesh Abhisek said that this is very good time to do business in India and business with India as the initiatives taken in the last two and half years are transformative in nature, be it Make in India or the game changer tax regime called GST. He said laws like bankruptcy and insolvency code, where exit mechanism for companies are there are helping toward ease of doing business in India.
