The telecom sector has the potential to play a tremendous role in bringing about inclusive growth In the country as it marches onwards to become, as predicted by many international organizations, the world’s biggest economic power, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman Dr J S Sarma has said.
According Sarma, “digital dividend” enjoyed by India, in addition to the demographic dividend of a large work force, was a strong factor in its favour.
“We know how easily Indians take to technology,” he said, adding that this was seen first in Green Revolution and now in telecom and digital technology.
Dr Sarma was speaking at the valedictory session of National Telecom Summit 2011 organised by Confederation of India Industry (CII) in the Indian capital on Friday.
Stressing upon the role of ICT, Dr Sarma said the two requirements in this regard were an infrastructure and an ability to use this infrastructure. Here, the need was for both wireline and wireless infrastructure, he added. Speaking about the remarkable growth registered by telecom sector, he said if the incentives given by TRAI for rural outreach were accepted, it would be even faster.
He saw need for both wireless and wireline growth going hand in hand for the spectrum is finite.
Bringing in the topic of inclusion here, Dr Sarma said the telecom sector could help in inclusive growth by helping make quality of life in rural areas same as that enjoyed by people in cities. This, he said could be done by extending education, health care and financial inclusion to rural areas. In this regard, he said ICT and mobile phone applications could b developed to play a crucial role in extension of credit facility to farmers.
