India keen to share tech expertise with nations: DoT Secy

India is keen to become an end-to-end partner to countries that are looking to empower citizens through low-cost communication solutions and digital infrastructure, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said today.
Sundararajan said that while deployment of physical infrastructure takes longer at times, the digital infrastructure can help overcome such deficits.
Building a robust telecom infrastructure has become a necessity for countries as they look for ways to empower citizens with communications access.
Citing India's prowess in software services, laying down digital infrastructure, and design capabilities, Sundararajan said the country is keen to share technology, training expertise, and know-how with other nations that face "similar challenges".

"India is willing to share technology and the expertise in training people because we want to ensure that this is a full-fledged partnership, not a buyer-supplier arrangement," she said addressing India Telecom 2018, an international ICT expo.
India has significant capabilities and is willing to handhold other countries that are looking for low-cost solutions in telecom, she added.

"We have to do frugal innovation...we have solutions that are extremely affordable," she said, adding that Bharat Net project, which is the world's largest rural broadband deployment, has been a showcase of affordable technological innovation.
The Indian telecom market, the second-largest in the world after China in terms of subscriber base, had 1.19 billion users, both wireline and wireless, at the end of December 2017.

Of these 1.16 billion were mobile consumers while 23.23 million were subscribers of landline phones.
Further, to provide hi-speed broadband connectivity to all parts of the country, the government has initiated Bharat Net project under which over one lakh gram panchayats (GPs) have been connected with optical fibre. In the second phase another 1.5 lakh gram panchayats, will be connected by March 2019.
The infrastructure that is being created will catalyse digital delivery of services for the rural poor in crucial areas like health, education, livelihood, skills, e-agriculture and e-commerce.
Besides services, electronics manufacturing in the country has grown exponentially over the last few years, with surge in production of mobile handsets, Televisions, and other devices.