FDI in telecom jumped to $ 6.2 billion: Manoj Sinha

The FDI in telecom sector has jumped nearly five times in the last 3 years – from $ 1.3 Billion in 2015-16 to $ 6.2 Billion in 2017-18, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said on Tuesday.

“India needs massive investment in developing newer technologies which are accessible and affordable to the people and at the same time creates productive employment. For India to utilize its demographic dividend, it is absolutely necessary to create semi-skilled jobs in short run and the Telecom sector will play an important role in creating those employment opportunities, Sinha said at an event.

We move from telecom India to digital India, it is pertinent to mention that the draft National Digital Communications Policy 2018 aims to attract investment of $ 100 billion or about Rs.6.5 lakh crore in the digital communications sector. India will also launch 5G networks by the year 2020 and this will provide a big opportunity for investing in the newer emerging technologies like 5G, AI, IoT, Data analytics etc, he said.

Though the telecom sector saw upheaval in the past few years, the consolidation in the sector will strengthen it as the worst is behind us, he said adding that a number of steps have been taken in this period to promote the ease of doing business, particularly in the Telecom Sector. To mitigate the stress in the Telecom Sector, an Inter-Ministerial Group was established and most of their recommendations have been accepted and are under various stages of implementation.

The National Digital Communications Policy 2018 will be the new platform for convergence of all the stakeholders, where we will be working with growth-oriented investment perspective rather than with fiscal perspective alone, said Aruna Sundarajan, Telecom Secretary.