Communication and IT miniser Mr. Kapil Sibal has released 2 key policy documents in a span of 3 days. The vision and intent has far reaching impact on the high tech industry and economic growth in general. It could also be considered as UPA governments desperate attempt to over come the scandal taints its suffering from.
The last significant document on telecom came out in 1999 in the form of National telecom Policy of 1999 which opened up the circle level spectrum auction mechanism and technology priroties around GSM and also the foreign direct investment related directives. What followed was nothing but a revolution in India's communication sector, taking the telecom density from 2% to roughly 50% today. This policy at least in intent is similar. I cant see the elements of the plan in it - only a vision. But so far so good.
IT Policy-2011
I captured 2 major initiatives apart from the usual bits on e-governance and SME investments
India's IT service professional pool from current 2.5 million to 10 million by 2020!!
India's IT & ITES industry revenue to triple from current $88 Billion to $300 Billion
At least one e-literate indian in each household (we dont have one literate indian at each home save the e-literate part, but this is vision)
Telecom Policy-2011
In line with a demanding industry and direct competition from countries like China this document have evolved a much more strategic. It doesnt sounds as muc sound bytes as the above one.
Broadband Penetration
1. The new policy has set a traget of 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million connections by 2020.
2. It has also revised broadband download speed from 256 Kbps to 512 Kbps and subsequently to 2 Mbps by 2015.
3. Even broadband connectivity to all 2.5 lakh village panchayats through optical fiber cable has been extended from 2012 (as per government of India's Bharat Nirman Program) to 2014.
4. The rual teledensity is planned to increase from 35 to 60 by 2017 and 100 by 2020.
5. IPV4 to IPV6 migraiton by 2020 in India
Boost for Manufacturing of Telecom Equipments and User Devices
1. The draft policy on manufacturing aims to meet 80 percent of Indian telecom sector demand through domestic manufacturing with a value addition of 65 percent by the year 2020.
2. Plans are to also create a corpus fund for promoting indigenous R&D, intellectual property right (IPR), and entrepreneurship.
3. Telecom Finance Corporation as a vehicle to mobilize and channelize financing for telecom projects in order to facilitate investment in the telecom sector.
Spectrum & Licensing
1. the government has made available additional 300 MHz spectrum for IMT services by the year 2017 and another 200 MHz by 2020.
2. Overall to bring a roadmap for spectrum releases, spectrum trading, spectrum usage efficiencies. Acknowledgement that this is the critical resources in government hands
3. "One Nation, One license" across service and service areas.
4. The policy also talks about making Roaming free.
5. The concept of full mobile number portability is also taking shape in the draft policy.
Other interesting clauses
1. undertaking legislative measures to bring disputes between telecom consumers and service providers within the jurisdiction of consumer forums and consumer protection act.
2. Deploying cloud computing technology, the government is identifying areas where existing regulations may impose unnecessary burden and is planning to take consequential remedial steps for propelling India to emerge as a global leader in the development and provision of cloud services which will help in benefiting enterprises (including central and state governments) and consumer
3. The emergence of new service formats such as Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications (e.g. remotely operated irrigation pumps, smart grid etc.) represent tremendous opportunities, especially as their roll-out becomes more widespread.
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