IMC Day 2: AtmaNirbhar 5G ecosystem, bridging digital divide, encouraging startups to innovate

Building a 5G ecosystem and working on the digital divide of the country, through initiatives and innovations was the central theme of conversations during the second-day sessions of India Mobile Congress 2021. The three-day-long India Mobile Congress is the largest telecom, media, and technology forum in South Asia, jointly organized by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

In his address, K Rajaraman, Chairman DCC & Secretary (T), Department of Telecommunications said, “The Indian Government wants to achieve self-reliance, especially in networking equipment’s and 5G therefore, the government wants to support both foreign and domestic investors to set up manufacturing bases in India. We have various domestic companies that have developed various components of the 5G ecosystem, also attracting foreign companies to set up R&D plants to create various components in India. Startups here play a major role in creating domestic use cases tailored for Indian problems, therefore, the government is keen to host various hackathons in order to get innovative solutions.” 

Adding to his thoughts, K Rajaraman said, “The government is helping various startups with schemes like Start-up India, such schemes help start-ups to innovate without suffering the financial disadvantages that are faced by the young companies in the early stage of their growth phase. A large number of telecom start-ups have already created innovative 5G solutions tailored for India, therefore, the government is very optimistic about creating an AtmaNirbhar 5G ecosystem in India”.

The second-day session for India Mobile Congress 2021 started with themes around shaping the vision of a connected India, shifting priorities to adapt to emerging trends and tackle future challenges, and tapped other topics such as the 5G era, customer experience, and cyber-security. The dignitaries who attended these sessions include K Rajaraman,  Chairman DCC & Secretary (T), Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communication, Government of India, Himanshu Kapania, Chairman, Vi (Vodafone Idea Ltd.), Akhil Gupta, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises Ltd., Sanjay Mashruwala, Managing Director, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Ravinder Takkar, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Vi (Vodafone Idea Ltd.), Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson Southeast Asia, Oceania, and India, Ericsson among others. 

Addressing the India Mobile Congress Sanjay Mashruwala, Managing Director, Reliance Jio Infocomm said, “Impact of Jio has assured that for India mobile internet base services are available at affordable rates. Agriculture is another industry where 5G can provide access to advanced tools and applications but those must be adapted to India’s specific policy i.e., climate, logistics, and economic norms”.

Sharing his views around the 5G ecosystem, Akhil Gupta, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises Ltd. mentioned, “With 5G we need to ensure that it is taken to every part of the country and is not just confined to the top cities, the pursuit of 5G remains a very important agenda for the Indian mobile industry in the years to come”.

“India’s demographic dividend of over 65% of population below the age of 35 years will fast forward the digital adoption across urban and rural India bridging the digital divide, India’s vision of the digital transformation is possible through India’s telecom industry as is the backbone and its high-speed wireless broadband network internet need to be strengthened,” added by, Himanshu Kapania, Chairman, Vi (Vodafone Idea Ltd.).

Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson Southeast Asia, Oceania, and India also mentioned, “5G can reduce the global carbon emissions to 15% by 2030, by reducing the energy consumption by radio network by 35%, we are creating partnerships with Hyperscalers and Cloud providers to explore various use cases for the successful implementation of 5G in India”.

Some of the other notable industry leaders at the second-day event include Lt General (Dr) Rajesh Pant (Retd), National Cyber Security Coordinator, Prime Minister’s Office Government of India, Erik Ekudden, SVP & CTO, Ericsson, Mritunjay Kapur, Executive Director: Head of Advisory Adv: Serv: National, KPMG, Pravin Kumar Purwar, CMD, BSNL, Darrell Jordan-Smith, Senior Vice President, Global Accounts & Target Industries, Red Hat Inc., Chris Rice, CEO – Access Solutions Business, STL, Ajay Puri, COO, Bharti Airtel Limited, Sanjay Malik, Senior Vice President Head of India Market, Nokia.

The premium partners at India Mobile Congress 2021 are Ericsson (Principal partner), Dell Technologies (Brought to you by partner), Intel (Power by partner), Red Hat (Enabled by 5G & Hybrid Cloud partner), STL (Digital network integrator), Meta (Social media partner), Ciena (Make in India partner), VMware (Platinum partner), Nokia (Platinum partner), Cisco (Platinum partner), Accenture, CommScope, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Mavenir and MediaTek (5G SoC Partner). CT Bureau