Government Initiatives

The Government has fast-tracked reforms in the telecom sector and continues to be proactive in providing room for growth for telecom companies. Some of the key initiatives taken by the Government are as follows:

• In Union Budget 2023-24, the Department of Telecommunications was allocated Rs. 97,579.05 crore (US$ 11.92 billion). Of this, US$ 48.88 million (Rs. 400 crore) is for Research and Development, US$ 611.1 million (Rs. 5,000 crore) is for Bharatnet.
• RailTel, a mini Ratna PSU launched Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI) to access its Public WiFi services across 100 railway stations having 2,384 WiFi hotspots in 22 states.
• Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) officially launched Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) Scheme on October 01st, 2022.
• The government plans to update extant regulatory framework with the Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022.
• Up to July 2022, 5,84,747 km length of Open Fiber Control (OFC) is laid connecting 1, 87,245 Gram Panchayats. In 1,81,888 Gram Panchayats the service is ready on fiber and satellite.
• Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi launched 5G services on October 1, 2022.
• On December 2022, 42 companies have committed an investment US$ 502.95 million (Rs. 4,115 crore) comprising 28 MSMEs and 14 Non-MSMEs (eight domestic and seven global companies) have been approved under the Production-linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme
• Dedicated government schemes BharatNet Project Scheme, Telecom Development Plan, Aspirational District Scheme, initiatives in North-Eastern Region through Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan (CTDP), etc. resulted in a 200% increase in rural internet subscriptions between 2015 to 2021
• To drive the development of 6G technology, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has developed a sixth generation (6G) innovation group.
• In October 2021, Telecom Secretary Mr. K. Rajaraman inaugurated the Quantum Communication Lab at the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), Delhi, and unveiled the indigenously developed Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) solution by C-DOT. QKD can support a distance of >100 kms on standard optical fibre.
• In August 2021, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) initiated discussions with banks to address financial stress in the telecom sector, particularly Vodafone Idea Ltd. (VIL) that urgently requires fund infusion to stay afloat.
• FDI cap in the telecom sector has been increased to 100% from 74%; out of 100%. In October 2021, the government notified 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) via the automatic route from previous 49% in the telecommunications sector. FDI of up to 100% is permitted for infrastructure providers offering dark fibre, electronic mail and voice mail.
• Following are the achievements of the Government in the past four years:
  • Department of Telecommunication launched ‘Tarang Sanchar’ - a web portal sharing information on mobile towers and EMF Emission Compliances.
  • Payments on unified payments interface (UPI) hit an all-time high of 3.65 billion (by volume), with transactions worth ~Rs. 6.54 trillion (US$ 87.11 billion) in September 2021.
  • Over 75% increase in internet coveragefrom 251 million users to 446 million.