The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has formed four task forces to recommend measures to the government that will boost the domestic telecom manufacturing ecosystem and remove the bottlenecks. The development follows a round table between Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology and Railways, and 42 chiefs of telecom gear makers in early December 2022, where he identified the need for creating a task force to resolve issues that the companies raised before him.
Under one of the task forces, the DoT has sought recommendations for a phased manufacturing programme for telecom gear manufacturing to boost the domestic component supply chain ecosystem as well as attract global players. This task force will be co-chaired by Dr. Rajkumar Upadhyay, chief executive officer (CEO), Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT).
Another task force under the chairmanship of Sanjay Nayak, CEO, Tejas Networks, will study the present ecosystem and recommend to the government potential four to five chip developments under schemes such as Telecom Technology Development Fund, Semicon Policy and policy intervention required for reducing dependence on imports.
Further, the third task force will perform a study on the time taken in custom clearance and air cargo movement, the infrastructure available and suggest measures for improving lead time and reducing inventory in production and sales, and setting up free trade warehousing zones at key airports to resolve logistics issues.
Another task force set up under the chairmanship of R K Bhatnagar, director general, Voice of Indian Communication Technology Enterprises (VoICE), will identify new opportunities for the development and manufacturing of 5G products in the country that will be required under Digital India, data centres, railway modernisation etc.
As per an official memorandum, these task forces shall submit their reports within 45 days.
