Catapulting India

Strategic policy interventions like the NDCP 2018 are expected to usher in long-term stability to the Indian telecom and reap the dividends of consolidation

The year went by saw the Indian telecom industry going through one of the toughest as well as the most opportunistic in terms of large-scale digital transformation initiatives that calls for the need for state of the art connectivity services.

Empowering Digital India Through NDCP 2018

If one looks at 2018, the National Digital Communications Policy-2018 (NDCP-2018) and re-designation of the Telecom Commission as the “Digital Communications Commission” is a right step aimed at making connectivity as a utility and laying a strong foundation for digital India.

The NDCP-2018 envisions supporting India’s transition to a digitally empowered economy and society by fulfilling the information and Communications needs of citizens and enterprises by the establishment of a ubiquitous, resilient and affordable Digital Communications Infrastructure and Services. The key objectives of the policy are provisioning of Broadband for all; creating 4 Million additional jobs in the Digital Communications sector; enhancing the contribution of the Digital Communications sector to 8% of India’s GDP from ~ 6% in 2017; propelling India to the Top 50 Nations in the ICT Development Index of ITU from 134 in 2017; enhancing India’s contribution to Global Value Chains; and ensuring Digital Sovereignty. These objectives are to be achieved by 2022.

The policy, inter-alia, aims to provide universal broadband connectivity at 50Mbps to every citizen; provide 1 Gbps connectivity to all Gram Panchayats of India by 2020 and 10 Gbps by 2022; ensure connectivity to all uncovered areas; attract investments of USD 100 Billion in the Digital Communications Sector; train 1 Million manpower for building New Age Skill; expand IoT ecosystem to 5 Billion connected devices; establish a comprehensive data protection regime for digital communications that safeguards the privacy, autonomy and choice of individuals and facilitates India’s effective participation in the global digital economy; and Enforce accountability through appropriate institutional mechanisms to assure citizens of safe and secure digital communications infrastructure and services.

The policy further advocates for establishment of a National Digital Grid by creating a National Fibre Authority; establishing Common Service Ducts and utility corridors in all new city and highway road projects; creating a collaborative institutional mechanism between Centre, States and Local Bodies for Common Rights of Way, standardization of costs and timelines; removal of barriers to approvals; and facilitating development of Open Access Next Generation Networks.

The Much Needed Uptick

The road ahead looks positive as the $100 bn investment envisioned by NDCP 2018 is expected to result in an increase of $1.21 trillion to India’s GDP on a cumulative basis according to a joint report Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations and Broadband India Forum. Right now India is a $2.4 trillion economy, and a 10% uptick in the country’s telecom sector will result in a 3.3% increase in country’s GDP on an average, the report said. “The multiplier effect of investment in communications implies that the $100 billion investment envisioned in the new policy could cumulatively add $1.21 trillion (Rs. 78,90,711 crore) to the GDP over the duration of the proposed investment,” the report said. These are significant impacts and yet could be underestimated given that penetration of Internet is still below international levels,” the report said.

Reflecting on the report, Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications said: “While the first wave of mobile revolution heralded a new age of growth and dynamism to the economy, the second wave is now being led by the growth of internet subscribers and investments in telecommunication infrastructure, leading to exponential benefits to the economy and GDP growth.”

Up Ahead

Despite the cautious optimism and the outlook, with the advent of Jio, the telecom industry has seen a dramatic shift. Credit rating agency ICRA has recently in its outlook has stated that the entry of Reliance Jio has greatly impacted the revenue earnings of the operators and resulted in industry consolidation. ICRA indicated that consolidation will ultimately pave the way for recovery with industry orienting towards better pricing on data usage. ICRA also cautioned that recovery will not be short-term and will percolate over a period of time.

But the present world has entered the era of modern technological advancements in the Telecom Sector such as 5G, IoT, M2M etc., a need was being felt to introduce a ‘customer focused’ and ‘application driven’ policy for the Indian Telecom Sector which can form the main pillar of Digital India by addressing emerging opportunities for expanding not only the availability of Telecom services but also Telecom based services. Accordingly, NDCP 2018 has been formulated, in place of the existing National Telecom Policy-2012, to cater to the modern needs of the digital Communications Sector of India. This will act as a big catalyst for the Indian telecom sector back to buoyancy in the year ahead.

Shrikanth G

shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in