The India Telecom 2009 saw the participation of over 300
companies from more than sixty countries. The theme for this edition of the
event was 'Telecom for inclusive growth'.
The event was graced by former President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Thiru A
Raja, Union Minister of communications and information technology. The landmark
event had the closing address by the Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh.
The event had industry experts debating the burning issues of the telecom
industry.
Some very important announcements and insights were given at the event. If
Raja promised during the inaugural ceremony that the 3G auction will be held as
per schedule, the Prime Minister expressed concern over the digital divide
between rural and urban India: "Our rural teledensity is 20% as compared to over
100% for our towns and cities. We must therefore double our rural teledensity in
the next three years."
For this to happen, the Prime Minister called for using various fiscal
incentives provided by the government to attract potential investors. Dr Singh
also pointed out the slow growth in the telecom manufacturing sector, and
announced an ambitious project of connecting 2.5 lakh villages with high-speed
broadband across the country by 2012.
The Indian telecom sector is contributing 5.6% to the gross domestic product
of the nation as was notified by Raja at the closing day of the premier
conference. He also said that the major achievement of the telecom department
has been the scaling up to 500 mn subscribers, well ahead of time.
The two day event saw debates, discussions, and questions from all the
sections of the gathering. There was expert participation from members of DoT,
Trai, DIT who explored all the aspects of India as a telecom marketplace. On the
first day subjects like rural telecom, bridging the telecom divide; India as a
'hub' for telecom equipment manufacturing; and exports were discussed by the
leading professionals. As the panelists pondered over these hot issues, the
media and the audience questioned them about the future policies and the present
scenario. The second day had regulatory and policy issues. And of course, topics
like MNP, VAS, mobile banking, m-commerce, future generation networks were also
discussed.
The event gave an active platform to all the movers and shakers of the
telecom fraternity-policy makers, investors, vendors, industrial leaders to
share their views, showcase the new innovations, and seek new business
opportunities.
Archana Singh
archanasi@cybermedia.co.in
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