Regulatory Structure Needs Overhaul To Allow Technology Development: Telecom Minister

Government aims to overhaul the regulatory structure to allow technology development and encourage interaction with industry as a partner and not as adversaries, telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Sunday.

Addressing the inaugural session of a TDSAT seminar, Mr Vaishnaw said that the system entangled everybody and some people who did not have sufficiently strong values created a mess which defamed the telecom market in the past.

"Can we have one regulator for the entire digital world? Those kinds of things are happening. We need to really overhaul our entire regulatory set-up in terms of the legal structure, regulatory execution structure, the way our government bodies think, people are trained, the way we interact with the industry - not as adversaries but as partners. That's the next big thing that we have to do," Mr Vaishnaw said.

The telecom minister further said that not much has been done as of now but need to work in a direction to continue the development of the technology stack and adding more and more start-ups to it because this is a market which can create future generations of entrepreneurs.

"We were lagging when it was 2G and 3G. We are trying to catch up with 4G. We should at least run together in 5G but in 6G we should take the lead. Otherwise what's the point of being a nation which is today called a talent nation. A talented nation should be thinking in that way where it takes the lead, sets the goal and sets the direction for the whole world," the minister exhorted.

He said that a consortium of 11 institutions including IIT Chennai, IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay, IISc Bangalore has created 4G technology in 14 months with expenditure of about $30 million which is a very small fraction of the cost at which dominant players in the telecom sector have created the technology.

The minister said that 35 Indian telecom companies are now looking to export their products overseas. He mentioned that most important study groups for future development of 5G and 6G under the International Telecommunications Union are now being chaired by Indian delegates.