Telecom industry is expected to generate revenue of $ 38.25 bn by 2017 : Manoj Sinha

Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said that telecom industry is expected to generate revenue of $ 38.25 billion by 2017, registering a CAGR of 5.2 percent during the period 2014 to 2017.

He said that investment into the sector has increased by approximately 220 percent in last four years and to enhance and expand mobile coverage, operators have rolled out more than 0.2 million sites in the last 15 months and every 3 minutes a new site is being put up.

Sinha added, "India is the second largest telecom market in the world with 1.2 billion telecom users and 450 million internet users."

The telecom industry generates 4 million direct and indirect employment.

"In the past few years, the government has put the spotlight formally on technology. The government has already started stakeholders' consultations on the new telecom policy. IT and telecom currently contribute 16.5 percent to the GDP and there are immense possibilities of increasing its share," Sinha pointed out that.

Traffic from mobile devices contributes to 70 percent of overall e-commerce traffic. Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow 2.8 times by 2021 to USD 125 billion and mobile devices will drive this growth.

He said, fundamental to the goals of digital India is the country's communications industry that has not just connected people, but also created jobs, become a tool for knowledge, contributed to the exchequer and the economic growth and amplified financial inclusion. There are three key visions areas of the Government's Digital India plan are digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, governance & services on demand and digital empowerment of citizens.

Sinha pointed out that, India is at the cusp of a next generation of wireless technology 5G. 5G has been conceived as a foundation for expanding the potential of the Networked Society. A digital transformation brought about through the power of connectivity is taking place in almost every industry. The landscape is expanding to include massive scale of "smart things" to be interconnected. Therefore, the manner in which future networks will cope with massively varied demands and a business landscape will be significantly different from today.