Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 4 : Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said India must transition from being a services-led telecom nation to a product-led manufacturing hub, asserting that the country's next phase of growth will depend on increasing value addition, creating intellectual property (IP), and expanding exports of telecom equipment.
Addressing the Strategic Roundtable on Capitalising India's Telecom Decade during the Telecom Manufacturing Zone (TMZ) Investors' Meet in Mumbai, Scindia said the government is creating an ecosystem that enables Indian companies to innovate, manufacture and compete globally.
"The Prime Minister has always said that India has to move from being a services-led nation to a product-led nation. And if we have to move from a services-led nation to a product nation, the three steps in sequence that we have to take is first, we have to ensure value addition. Second, we have to ensure IP creation. And after we do the first and the second, then we have to make sure that our flag flies very high on the global firmament in terms of our products going to the corners of the world," Scindia said.
He said the government is working to build a facilitative ecosystem that supports innovators, entrepreneurs and manufacturers in developing globally competitive telecom products.
Scindia highlighted India's transformation in mobile phone manufacturing over the past decade, saying the country has moved from being largely dependent on imports to becoming a major global production and export hub.
"From a country that used to produce only 5 crore phones, from a country that used to import 85 per cent of its requirements of phones, today that country is producing 33 crore phones. Twenty per cent or 15 per cent of Apple's full production worldwide today happens in India," he said.
He added that mobile phones have now become India's largest export item, reflecting the success of the country's manufacturing push.
The minister said the government now wants to replicate this success in telecom equipment manufacturing through India's first Telecom Manufacturing Zone (TMZ) in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh.
Drawing a comparison with Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Scindia said the Telecom Manufacturing Zone has been designed as a dedicated ecosystem for the telecom industry.
"If you've seen an SEZ, why can we not see a TMZ? Which is a vertical devoted only to the telecom industry. And it must be an ecosystem end to end," he said.
According to the government, the Mumbai Investors' Meet is aimed at attracting fresh investments into the Gwalior Telecom Manufacturing Zone.
The government expects investments in the project to exceed Rs 10,000 crore. Earlier, at the first investors' roundtable held in New Delhi following the launch of the zone, investment commitments worth Rs 3,500 crore were announced, with the potential to generate nearly 14,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The Telecom Manufacturing Zone aims to create an integrated ecosystem covering manufacturing, research and development, design, testing and innovation.
The initiative is expected to strengthen domestic value chains, reduce import dependence, promote indigenous manufacturing, boost exports and position India as a global hub for telecom products and next-generation technologies.
The Mumbai investors' meet brought together leading telecom manufacturers, technology companies, infrastructure providers, component manufacturers and investors as the government seeks to accelerate investment in India's telecom manufacturing ecosystem under the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.