The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has kept its order for expanding the list of telecom products a government entity must procure only from local manufacturers in abeyance until further orders.
The order issued on August 31, 2021 stated that the list included SD-WAN routers and switches used to connect remote branches and data centres, and two dozen other telecom gears in the Public Procurement (Preference of Make in India), Order 2017 and permitted use of imported components in them.
As stated in the August 31 order, only local manufacturers were permitted to participate in procurement tenders because of “sufficient local capacity and local competition”. However, it allowed imported components to be used in telecom products, so foreign vendors could qualify as local vendors as well despite small amounts of local value added.
In addition to SD-WAN routers, other products included in the order were wireline PABXs, IP-based soft switches, leased-line modems, wireless access controllers, radio systems, satellite phones, optical fibre, and telecom batteries.
