Tech investments will be harder to find, TRAI chief

It will be harder to find money to invest in technology as more tech disruptions make investment cycles shorter, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman PD Vaghela said on February 20.

Speaking at the India Digital Summit organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Vaghela said that the government will also find it difficult to attract tech investments as more frugal technologies come up quickly one after another.

The TRAI chairman also noted that India’s focus must remain on using tech to enable social and inclusive development, unlike developed countries where the focus is more towards making monetary gains.

“We have seen that with each advancement such as 2G, 3G and 4G, the prices of phones got cheaper. However, 5G phones are costlier and we don’t know when they will start getting cheaper,” he said.

“As more than 70 percent of employment in India is due to MSMEs, we have to ensure that they adopt the latest tech. Their 4G adoption has not been so good… We also have to ensure that there are more budgetary allocations for tech adoption by the MSME sector,” he said.

Vaghela informed the gathering about TRAI’s recent papers and recommendations on telecom technology adoption, cyber fraud prevention, and other topics.

He also highlighted that the telecom regulator is developing a system to prevent telemarketing spam calls using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology.

Vaghela also lauded the Union Budget 2023 for allocating funds to establish centres of excellence for AI innovation and the creation of a telecom technology development fund. Moneycontrol