New Delhi, India, September 29, 2019 : Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Government of India today said that India has the potential to become data refinery center for the world.
Speaking at ‘Invest Digicom 2019 – Propelling Digital Communications in India : Role of FDI’, on 24th September, organized jointly by FICCI and National Institute of Communication Finance, Ministry of Communications, Government of India, Prasad said that the world needs to appreciate India’s changing narrative from digital communication and software production to open source and electronic manufacturing.
“I want India to become the big centre of data refinery. Refining raw data, cleaning it and saving it in safe and secure conditions for further processing,” he said, adding India is a growing digital economy with leading presence on digital platforms.
“While data privacy debate is going on globally, India should work towards having a blend of data availability, data utility, data innovation and data privacy. If India is to offer all this, obviously you need FDI and getting high FDI would depend on how you present India’s case to global audience,” he added. He further said that while Indian government is committed to achieve $5 trillion economy, $1 trillion will come from India’s digital economy alone.
“India has everything going for it – good human resource, open society, democratic government, a very powerful global leader and a huge market. All of this with friendly policy initiatives has made India an attractive investment destination. From being the ninth biggest recipient of FDI, India can become the world?s top recipient,” he said.
Anshu Prakash, Chairman, Digital Communications Commission (DCC) and Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications said, “We are going to launch a National Broadband Mission. The mission will focus on increasing fibre density across the country, more towers and more telecom infrastructure. All these are areas where we can attract a lot of investment.”
P.K. Sinha, Member (Finance), DCC, Department of Telecommunications delivered the thematic address of the event and stressed on the importance of FDI in Indian telecom sector.
Dilip Padhye, Advisor (Finance), Department of Telecommunications said that the creation of digital infrastructure requires huge investment. Infrastructure, investment, innovation and inclusion are important for developing the digital economy, he added.
S.K. Gupta, Director General, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India talked about the FDI potential Indian telecom sector has and requires a collaborative effort in the same direction.
Virat Bhatia, Chairman, ICT and Digital Economy Committee, FICCI mentioned the importance of FICCI-NICF partnership in initiatives like development of the sector and further reinventing it for the Digital Era.
