In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Milind Deora, minister of state for communications and IT has said that the country has imported telecom equipment worth Rs 390 billion in the first three quarters of the financial year 2012-13.
The country had to import telecom equipment as it lacks manufacturing capability for producing value-added products. Deora added that as part of the National Telecom Policy 2012, the government will create a corpus to promote indigenous research and development, intellectual property right creation, manufacturing, commercialisation and development of telecom products and services.
Further, in view of the security of the country?s telecommunication system, the government will give preference to domestically manufactured telecom equipment.
