Innovation in regulation is needed: Farooqui

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Setting out key imperatives for the telecom sector, the telecom secretary, MF Farooqui, believes that the industry had undergone through turbulence during the last couple of years, and is now poised for healthy growth.

"Going forward, data-driven growth is expected and VAS providers have a role in it," he said. The National Telecom Policy (NTP 2012) projects 600 million broadband connections by 2020, therefore it would be growth driver, Farooqui added.

The broadband segment, he said would generate an estimated Rs. 200,000-crore revenue, while there could be nearly Rs. 100,000 investment in equipment. Farooqui informed that they are working on M&A guidelines that would come up in next couple of months.

"Frugal manufacturing is going to be another key growth area and we need to look at how to forge alliances with other countries and take manufacturers along with defined standards," he said.

Farooqui believes that innovation in manufacturing sector would be game changer, and design services, he said, needs to be encouraged in India. The vendors do not invest much in design, research and IPR creation in India.

"Innovation in regulation is also important though legacy issues are there," he said. Farooqui added that there were complex legacy issues involved in order to fix unpredictability and ambiguity in the regulatory regime.