Telecom sector: Indigenous manufacturing key to ensure security

Sai Nikesh | The Dollar Business The Telecom Department of India on Thursday called for a frequent exchange of ideas among manufacturers, industry operators, industry and the R&D institutes, so as to overcome the shortcomings being faced by the Indian Telecom sector. Speaking at the Make in India Telecom conclave, Rakesh Garg, Secretary, Department of Telecom(DoT), said, “India, despite having huge talent source, is depending heavily on imports especially in Electronics and Telecom sector.” “Research is being done in India, but the Intellectual Property Rights are lying with foreign countries,” said Garg, while raising concerns over the issues being faced by the Research and Development (R&D) team of the sector. He went on to say that even after manufacturing products locally, India is opting to buy the same from the other countries, that too, at higher costs. In this regard, he called for a mechanism where the interaction should happen with the industry only before developing some product instead of having it post-development. Meanwhile, Rita Teotia, Special Secretary, DoT, said, “In the current scenario where the communication has become a lifeline rather than a luxury, there is a need to consider the security as a key factor.” Indigeneous manufacturing is the only tool that can address the issues pertaining to security concerns in the communication sector. Referring to Prime Minister’s slogan of ‘zero defect, zero effect’, Teotia said that India should develop and manufacture products with high standards with ‘zero defect’ and should ensure that it will have ‘zero effect’ on environment. Addressing the conclave, Vipin Tyagi, Executive Director, Centre for Development of Telematics, said that Make in India is like special reference for C-DoT, which has been into indigenous R&D. The Department had earlier emphasized on the need for aggressive marketing of products of C-DoT in indigenous manufacturing. In view of growing foreign exchange outflow on the account of electronic imports increase, it is a need of the hour to promote indigenous technologies and manufacturing. In the light of the Government of India’s recent move like Preferential Market Access to give new boost to the Indian Telecom sector, this Make in India Conclave is expected to pave way for indigenous development of new technologies and products in the telecom sector, thereby reducing the number of imports in the sector.  

This article was published on February 12, 2015.