At the start of the India Mobile Congress today, Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, in his address, highlighted PM Narendra Modi’s vision and said, “Technology will bridge multiple divides in the country.” The minister added, “It is technology and communications that will provide a platform of opportunities to every single citizen across the length and breadth of the country.”
Exactly how that will happen was explained by the minister when he said, “It is communications and networks that will bring together people from the first village of India to people in the central villages of India.”
The minister said that this vision has translated, over the last decade, into “Revolutionary changes in the telecommunications space across the country.”
The minister also explained what it took to bring the country to this stage. Accoriding to the minister, “It was the focus on digital infrastructure, focus on policy reforms, the focus on ensuring that we bring to bear our domestic capabilities. These three elements together, are forging our country’s digital future.”
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The minister said that, “Based on policy reforms, we are able to harness our domestic talent and showcase that talent on the world stage. And the last 10 years has seen that inflexion point, that paradigm change take place in India.”
The minister highlighted another big achievement that India is no longer just a consumer of technology, but also a supplier of technology via the Digital India Mission. “That development, of the fastest developed telecom market in the world, the fastest 5G deployment in the world, has brought to bear the fact that India no longer is only a consumer of global technology but India can also be. a supplier of global technology.”
“With this as the backdrop,” the minister averred, “2024 will be a hallmark year, when for the first time, on our soil, we will be hosting, not one, but two events concurrently – the India Mobile Congress 2024 and the World Telecommunications Standardisation Assembly 2024.”
“This confluence or sangam of two events will really position India on the global stage of the telecom market,” the minister added.
The minister also promised to launch BSNL and MTNL 4G and 5G services. This will happen “at the earliest”, he added. He said that the government is extremely focused on ensuring the turnaround of these state-run telcos. For that their progress is being monitored on a daily basis.
The minister also sad that the government stands behind the Sovereign Guarantee Bonds of MTNL. As such there will be no defaults even as its operations are moved to BSNL and that monetisation of assets will happen in order to pay off liabilities.
The minister also indicated that the new Telecom Act provisions will be notified within the next 180 days.
Indicating how seriosuly the government is taking its plans, the minister added that the department will set up a performance management unit consisting of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), C-DoT, Tejas Networks and TCS. This unit will set daily targets for setting up the networks for launch of 4G services by the state telco. The telecom secretary has been tasked with monitoring these targets.
Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has indicated that the new Telecom Act provisions will be notified within the next 180 days. Biz News Business News – Personal Finance News, Share Market News, BSE/NSE News, Stock Exchange News Today
