Government committed to promote telecom manufacturing: India

NEW DELHI: India's Telecom Secretary J.S. Deepak said that government is fully committed to promote telecom manufacturing and exports.

"India is now getting recognized globally as a centre for developing innovative, cost-competitive yet high-quality products in the Telecom Sector.Telecom equipment is increasingly being differentiated by design and software- areas in which India has very strong and proven capabilities," said Deepak at 7th international buyer-seller meet, organized by Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC) in New Delhi.

He is also chairman of TEPC.

"India is a highly competitive market and telecom products that succeed in India, will certainly be very attractive for developing countries which can benefit by sourcing such innovative, yet affordable products from India. He assured that the Government is fully committed to promote telecom manufacturing and exports," he added.

Rita Teaotia, Commerce Secretary said that we have a huge trade deficit on account of telecom products, since we have large imports but modest exports. As a part of the Government’s Make-in-India and Digital India initiative, it is our priority to promote and create a vibrant domestic telecom manufacturing industry that can not only cater to the domestic demand but can also become a major contributor to our exports.

"We have identified Telecom exports as a focus area and we are actively supporting the Indian industry to win business from customers in emerging markets such as Africa, Latin America and SE Asia since they have the highest growth potential in the coming years," said Teaotia.

Sanjay Nayak, Vice Chairman TEPC and MD Tejas Networks, described this as a very successful event that has generated significant export business for the Indian industry.

He estimated that more than 80% of the visitors from previous year’s TEPC events have been converted into buyers of Indian telecom products and services, making the TEPC Buyer-Seller meet as the most impactful event for domestic industry. Once potential customers come to India, they get a lot of confidence in Indian products after meeting the leaders of local industry, visiting their R&D labs and manufacturing facilities and getting positive references from satisfied customers.

Talking about the event, Rajiv Mehrotra, Chairman, Vihaan Networks, said “This is a proactive initiative of TEPC promoting integrated solutions being provided by domestic telecom equipment providers among the overseas buyers, domestic industry and government officials. Indian products are highly innovative and competitive especially for telecom service providers in the emerging market countries.”

Mehrotra added, “VNL has been instrumental in launching the biggest ‘Green Telecom’ project powered with solar energy, executed by BSNL and funded by the Department of Telecom. Given the capability of these areas, no other telecom operator has entered in a remote inaccessible region since the last 20 years. At VNL, we are eager to share our technological know-how and design expertise by opening up centers globally to cater to the vast telecom equipment market. We are geared up to provide telecom solutions in over 100,000 villages in the next 3 years.”

The event was inaugurated by Teaotia and  Deepak.Other dignitaries present at the event included N. Sivasailam, Additional Secretary Telecom & Co-Chairman TEPC; D. Malik, Deputy Managing Director EXIM Bank of India and several industry leaders and government officials from the telecom sector.