iSHAKTI Organises First Townhall Meeting For Stakeholders of Telecom Ecosystem

#Right2Connect, an initiative by iSHAKTI Foundation organises the first town hall meeting for brainstorming with key stakeholders of the Indian telecom ecosystem.

The initiative in collaboration with TEMA and Mavcomm Advisory aims to find ways and means to ensure a reliable, secure, sufficient, and ubiquitous telecom network  for all Indians.

iSHAKTI, a purpose-driven Foundation committed to promoting local entrepreneurship, held its first #Right2Connect town hall meeting on 21 July, 2022. The #Right2Connect Town hall meeting brought together key stakeholders of the Indian telecom ecosystem. The townhall was to brainstorm on how to connect all to the mainstream via technology, the challenges and opportunities of creating a truly ubiquitous network, and ensuring a healthy co-existence of the domestic and foreign manufacturers.

#Right2Connect, an initiative under the aegis of iSHAKTI endeavours to connect the unconnected, poorest of the poor, into a ubiquitous network to create and run a wholesome tech-driven ecosystem. In the process, connecting people into the mainstream so that they can contribute to nation-building and get the benefits from a wide array of government services and welfare schemes, including the direct benefit transfer (DBT).

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Bhalla, IAS (Retd), the chief enabler of the iSHAKTI Foundation spoke of the challenges, that are actually opportunities for growth. “The economic reforms have taken deep roots in India. And in the days to come, the economy will get only stronger because of the strong fundamentals. The need of the hour is the right policies formulations and their right execution to take the growth and its benefits to the very last man”.

India’s digital economy—has emerged as one of the biggest and fastest expanding in the world. The bedrock of this phenomenal story is 1.20 billion wireless subscribers in India. According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) figures,  only about 65% of users have subscribed to data services. There’s a big rural-urban divide; The rural wireless tele-density is 59.17% in comparison to 133.96% in cities in the year 2014. Last year, the rural tele-density jumped from 44% to 59.17%, a growth of 40% in one year.

“As India marches on to harness the telecom and technological revolution,  the pace of development of Satcom has become faster thanks to the recent reforms and IoT (internet of things) taking the centre stage to ensure integration of many many underserved segments in the development process.  I see an ushering of a phase of transformation in India for the Indians,” adds Anupam Shrivastava, Partner Mavcomm Advisory Pvt. Ltd and former Chairman of BSNL.

Siddharth Upadhyay, Chairman Mavcomm Advisory said, “Telecom and its growth process has many stakeholders, and a lot is at stake. And all concerned are doing their best, but they will do better if they join hands, and work in tandem for the larger goal of realising the ideals of Digital India in its true essence. We see ourselves as a platform where stakeholders can come and talk, and create strategies to ensure the meeting of the collective and individual goals and aspirations. To me, all problems are an opportunity to look within and grow.”

“I’m very heartened by the participation of the doyens from the telecom sector, they ushered the digital revolution in India and will guide us in the future to make quality connectivity ubiquitous. We will incorporate their views into a progressive document,  taking into account the concerns of all the stakeholders and realise the inherent potential of the telecom sector into making india a truly digital society as is envisioned by the honourable prime minister”, said Prof. N.K Goyal, President, Chairman Emeritus, CMAI, TEMA.

The town hall meeting was attended by key functionaries from the Government of India and the top leaders from the public as well as the private sector and was organised in collaboration with Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA) and Mavcomm Advisory.