The National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) is finally taking off. Thirteen state governments and three union territories (UTs) have signed tripartite Memorandums of Understanding for free Right of Way (RoW) with the central government and Bharat Broadband Network Limited. About 140,727 Gram Panchayats are expected to receive coverage by optical fiber network in these states and UTs. The central government, through Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), will fund the project while state governments would provide free RoW for laying optical fiber cable.

In an effort to encourage indigenous manufacturing of telecom products and keeping in view the security concerns of the country, the union government has approved the Preferential Market Access (PMA) Policy to support domestic manufacturers and give preference to domestically manufactured telecom and electronic products.

In furtherance to this approval, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has notified all ministries (except the Ministry of Defense), departments, and government agencies to give preference in their procurements to those electronic products, including telecom products, that have gone through a minimum of 25 percent of value addition in India in the first year. DeitY has also clarified that the products procured by the ministries and departments have to be utilized by the ministries, departments, and agencies themselves for government-funded telecom projects and cannot be resold commercially. The policy is expected to be in force for a period of 10 years.

DeitY will also notify from time to time the formula for the calculation of value addition for telecom products. All telecom products that do not meet the minimum value addition criterion for that year shall be treated as imported telecom products and dealt accordingly.

This policy may help leverage the domestic demand and provide a volume base that is expected to help in reducing the production cost. Concurrently, domestic manufacturers require government intervention in terms of long-term finance at low interest rates and export-related benefits.

– Anju Arora