DoT may follow Chinese model to boost telecom manufacturing

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) may follow the Chinese model for encouraging innovation and boosting telecom manufacturing in the country.

Top institutions in India have advised DoT to adopt the Chinese development model to use around Rs 17,000 crore of central funds, proposed for encouraging innovation and boosting telecom product manufacturing, media reports said.

DoT is looking into the suggestions of Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad among others to engage in "proactive government funding along the Chinese lines" for research and development, IPR and product development, the reports added.

Last year, DoT had said: "It is imperative to operationalize these (dormant) funds to strengthen India's local manufacturing ecosystem and its pool of telecom IPRs, which in turn will have long-term fiscal benefits."

DoT has termed India's contribution to global telecom intellectual property rights (IPRs) as "practically nil" in an internal note.

DoT's latest moves are in tandem with the new government’s plans to incentivize chip-fabrication units and make India a global telecom gear manufacturing hub.

The govenment feels that the telecom industry imports a lot of equipment, resulting in forex outflows and so it is motivating manufacturing of telecom products here in India.