GCF appoints COAI’s Vikram Tiwathia to its Board of Directors

NEW DELHI: Vikram Tiwathia, Deputy Director General of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), has been appointed to the Board of the Global Certification Forum as a non-executive director.

Tiwathia has been serving as COAI’s Deputy Director General since 2010 and brings deep and wide-ranging experience of the Indian telecommunications sector to GCF. Previously he was Chief of Regulatory Relations for the Tata Teleservices and Chief Information Officer at the Confederation of Indian Industry.

During a long and distinguished career in the Indian Army, Tiwathia rose to the rank of Colonel leading a unit for operations and planning, a role which included responsibility for communications and IT.

As the world’s second largest smartphone market, India is an increasingly important player in the global mobile industry. GCF supported by COAI are currently running a series of workshops with operators, manufacturers, test equipment vendors, test labs, regulators, government departments and other mobile industry stakeholders from India to discuss how the GCF certification framework can be leveraged for the benefit of the Indian telecommunications market. GCF device certification can help Indian mobile phone manufacturers open-up export markets by gaining traction with international operator groups and distribution partners. The next workshop in the series will take place in Bengaluru on 24-25 January 2017.

Welcoming Tiwathia’s appointment, Lars Nielsen, GCF General Manager, said, “COAI’s insights into the lessons that can be learned from high-growth markets such as India will be enormously valuable to developing the global strategies of GCF.”

“Through the collaboration with GCF, we see that device certification has the potential to reduce interoperability issues that are being experienced by consumers in India,” said Rajan S. Mathews, Director General, COAI.

“A stable regulatory-policy environment which is aligned with global standards is a prerequisite for the Indian telecommunication ecosystem. COAI is the singular voice of the Indian telecommunications industry working for a long-term stable policy environment which facilitates industrial growth and benefits consumers while attracting global investments to India. This appointment will further strengthen the links between the mobile industry in India and our peers in the global market," he added.

Tiwathia formally took up his post on 1 January 2017.