Telenor contributed $366 million to India’s GDP between 2011, 2015

Telenor India began providing services in December 2009

As of Q3 2016, it had a share of approximately 5.4% of all connections in India  , and an 11.8% share in the geographies in which it is licensed to operate.

Between 2014 and 2015, Telenor signed up another 6 million subscribers, a 16% increase on the prior year. In 2015 26.0% of subscribers were active data users.

Telenor India originally began offering its services through its subsidiary Telewings Communications Services Pvt Ltd. operating under the brand name Uninor. On 17th October 2014, Telenor acquired 100% of this subsidiary and in September 2015 changed its brand name to Telenor.

There are 22 telecommunication circles in India, covering metro areas and other regions ranked by economic development, in which mobile network operators can attain licences to operate their services. Telenor

India has network operations in six of these circles including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar & Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra, UP East and UP West.

In 2014, Telenor India acquired additional spectrum in four circles in which it operates as well as an additional licence to operate in a seventh circle, Assam, in which it is working towards launching operations.

Telenor has obtained spectrum capable of supporting more advanced technologies such as 4G/LTE, and it launched 4G services in India in 2016.

Driving macro economic growth

Telenor generated approximately $346 million of GVA for the Indian economy in 2015.

Of its total GVA contribution in 2015, $42million of GVA was generated by Telenor directly.

However, in addition to its direct GVA, Telenor contributed a further $116 million of indirect GVA and $189 million of induced GVA through its purchasing from Indian suppliers and from the wider economic activity generated through employee spending.

Telenor accounted for 0.02% of India’s total national GVA in 2015.

Labour productivity is a measure of economic performance in a country.

The 2015 direct GVA generated by each full-time Telenor India employee was $11,058, which was lower than the national average ($15,689).

Contributing to employment

Telenor directly employed 3,825 staff in India in 2015. This is equivalent to the number of headcount employees in 2015.

Of these:

– 88.0% were male;

– 12.0% were female; and

– 99.8% were Indian nationals.

In addition, KPMG estimates that, in 2015, Telenor generated an additional 20,500 indirect jobs in India through its supply chain and a further 29,400 induced jobs linked to employee spending. This means that for every job that Telenor India generates directly, an additional 13 are created in the wider economy.

Over the last five years, Telenor has invested $1,009 million in the Indian economy, with $130 million of investments in 2015.

During 2015, Telenor India announced a programme to modernise its network. Starting in 2015, this involves upgrading and replacing its entire network of 23,625 base stations with new equipment by 2017.

This project is aimed at increasing network efficiency and supporting the launch of new technologies. By the end of 2015, more than 5,000 sites had been upgraded.

Capex intensity is a measure of the ratio of capex to the GVA generated. In 2015, Telenor India capex intensity was 307%, 273  percentage points higher than the national average of 34%.

Telenor’s role in public financing In 2014, Telenor India made a direct fiscal contribution of $56 million to the government through taxes and other regulatory payments including licence fees, frequency fees and numbering fees.

Telenor India’s direct fiscal contributions in 2014 accounted for 8% of its revenues.

Telenor India also makes additional fiscal contributions through the economic activity it generates through spending in the supply chain and that generated by employee spending.

As a result of its activities, a further fiscal contribution of $83 million was generated by Telenor India in 2015 as a result of:

– the economic activity Telenor India generates through spending in the supply chain;

– spending by (direct, indirect and induced) employees; and

– employees (direct, indirect and induced) paying taxes on their earnings.

The total fiscal contribution generated by Telenor India in 2015 of $139 million accounted for approximately 0.1% of total Indian government tax revenues.

Enabling the wider economy

As well as the contributions made directly through its operations, Telenor India makes a wider indirect contribution through its provision of mobile communication services. These services can drive economic growth through greater digital and financial inclusion and raise entrepreneurial activity and business productivity.

The wider positive socio-economic effects of Telenor’s impact on digital inclusion

A number of studies have identified a link between mobile penetration and economic growth. Increasing digital inclusion, through greater availability of services and customer usage, particularly of 3G telephony and mobile data use, can have positive socio-economic benefits.

As a mobile provider in India, with almost 40 million subscriptions and a strong programme of investment in its network, Telenor India’s services have positive impacts on the Indian economy.

Drawing on results from an econometric model developed for the GSMA, KPMG estimates that the increase in mobile penetration overall of Telenor India between 2011 and 2015 contributed an additional $1,769 million to GDP growth.This is in addition to the GVA contribution outlined in the previous section.

The benefits of enhanced digital inclusion are not only economic. Social benefits are also captured. Telenor India has taken actions to improve digital literacy in India. For example, it has pioneered its

WebWise campaign India which was initially started in February 2014, reaching 15,000 children in its initial phase. This programme involves ambassadors from Telenor India meeting children, teachers and parents to help them all better understand the needs and behaviour of young internet users, with a focus of encouraging online safety for children. In 2015, the programme was expanded in order to reach 22,000 children.

Telenor’s impact on financial inclusion Mobile communications generally support financial inclusion as they give smartphone users the means to access mobile banking, mobile payments and other mobile financial services.

KPMG estimates that through the use of Telenor India’s services, subscribers made a total of $359 million of mobile financial transactions in 2015.

Telenor is expanding its financial services products continually. In 2015, it launched Telenor Suraksha, a life insurance product focused on low and middle-income customers. The initiative had insured more than 6 million customers by December 2015.

During 2015, Telenor was granted a payments bank license in India together with two partners, IDFC and Dilip Shanghvi, which will allow it to further expand its provision of financial services.

Telenor’s contribution to boosting entrepreneurship, innovation and productivity

The provision of mobile services can impact positively on entrepreneurial activity and business productivity and innovation in a number of ways. These include increasing the ease of access to markets and consumers, lowering the costs of business start-ups and business operation and supporting greater efficiency.

More widely, Telenor has launched further initiatives to support entrepreneurship and innovation. For example Digital Winners India is an annual event created by Telenor to recognise young innovators, entrepreneurs and software developers by giving them a platform to explain how the mobile internet can solve social problems.

The winner of Digital Winners India gets an opportunity to represent India at the Digital Winners Conference in Oslo to compete with representatives from Telenor’s other Asian markets to win a prize of NOK 100,000.

Supporting improved gender equality Gender equality is seen as a priority across the globe. Across its operations, Telenor Group has focussed on diversity. It has the objective of attracting and retaining the best leaders and experts from diverse backgrounds and developing more women leaders.

Telenor India employed 3,825 people 2015, 12.0% of whom were women. This is 12 percentage points lower than the national average for India, which is 24%.

Through its provision of mobile services, Telenor India is helping to promote gender equality through enabling women in India to access mobile communication services. The use of mobile services by women supports economic growth. KPMG estimates that through increased digital access (through increased 2G, 3G and 4G mobile penetration rates) for female subscribers in India, Telenor in India contributed $366 million to India’s GDP between 2011 and 2015.

This figure does not capture the wider societal benefits that are generated through providing women in developing countries with mobile services, such as:

– improved safety and security;

– enhanced abilities to connect with friends and family; and

– increased independence

Telenor India also runs other initiatives to support women’s access to mobile telecommunications, such as Project Sampark.

Sustainability in the supply chain It is estimated that through Telenor’s supply chain sustainability policy, 629,400 people are employed in participating businesses who meet the standards.

As of 2015, 2,109 of Telenor India’s suppliers had signed an Agreement of Responsible Business Conduct (ABC)289, thereby agreeing to abide by Telenor’s supply chain principles.

During the course of 2015, Telenor India conducted a wide ranging monitoring exercise of these suppliers to ensure conformity with the requirements. During the year:

– 1,303 inspections took place of which 71% were unannounced;

– the inspections covered 88 companies, with a combined total of

184,835 employees;

– 19 major non-conformity findings were recorded; and

– working closely with its suppliers, Telenor India mitigated 79% of major non-conformity findings within 12 months of the inspection taking place.

KPMG estimates that 629,400 employees, across its 2,109 suppliers that have signed up to the ABC, benefit from working conditions in line with the high standards required by Telenor’s supply chain sustainability policy.