Telecom secretary K Rajaraman calls for collaborative work for innovation

Telecom secretary K Rajaraman on Friday appealed to industry players to set aside their petty differences and work in collaboration for innovation.

While speaking at the National Workshop on Enhancing Indian Participation in Telecom Global Standards Bodies, Rajaraman said that India needs to follow the path of frugal innovation as the company has limited resources.

"We can extract far more outcome than what we are doing even now if we are able to put our heads and heart together. It is very important to set aside petty differences, put in place some framework for collaboration," he said.

Rajaraman said India needs to do a lot of things to become a major producer of technology.

He said that India is not a country that can afford to throw away tens and hundreds of billions of dollars as many other countries are doing.

"Like in the case of America. America has borrowed tens of trillions of dollars in the world market and it is making available hundreds of billions of dollars to its research establishments. I think it is a very risky thing to do. They are imperiling the nation, they are imperiling the future of the country. That's how I think. India cannot afford that," Rajaraman said.

He said that standards development takes a lot of effort and collaborative and synergistic way of working is called for to enhance the outcome.

Citing example of technology development at C-DoT, Rajaraman said India has to always follow the path of frugal research and development.

"C-DoT's own investment made in the 4G core and other work that I have seen, which would have taken millions and billions of dollars for a private company to develop, has probably taken a few Rs 100 crore for C-DoT to develop," he said.

Rajaraman said that to make an impact as a nation, there is a need to work together.