Industry lauds PM's vision of 'techade'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to make this decade a "techade" for India and the push for 5G, semiconductors and transformation through digital services is going to boost the technology sector in the country, industry players said on Monday.

Modi, in his speech on the 76th Independence Day, touched upon all-round development of technology in the country, from 5G to push for electronic chips, laying of optical fibre cable (OFC) network across villages and enablement of digital entrepreneurship in villages through Common Services Centres, making the present decade as "techade" for India.

Homegrown mobile devices maker Lava International's Chairman and Managing Director Hari Om Rai said electronics and technology sectors create about $4 trillion of revenue.

"Its impact on the global GDP is about $17 trillion and its global market capitalization is about $23 trillion.

"Hon' PM has aptly recognised the future and crystallised his priority for the tech sector...," Rai said.

He said the electronics and tech industry envisions creating 6 crore direct and indirect jobs with more than $3 trillion contribution to the country's GDP by 2033.

Rai further said the prime minister expects to build global champions with the potential to fetch fair share of the worldwide GDP through goods and services exports.

Domestic telecom gear maker Vihaan Networks' chairman Rajiv Mehrotra said the Prime Minister's vision and message is straight and will surely help the nation to be self-sufficient.

"Push and significance of semiconductor chips is a welcoming effort. They are the basic building blocks that serve the modern electronics and information and communications technology products," Mehrotra added.

India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said while acknowledging the tremendous success in mobile phone manufacturing, the prime minister has spelled out a profound vision for the digital sector as a foundation of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

"Going by his vision the next decade will be a Techade - with GDP growth propelled by manufacturing and technology.

"We are upto the task but have a long way to go," Mohindroo said.

Electronic component industry body ELCINA said the Prime Minister's focus on emerging technologies, sustainability, renewable energy and natural chemical free agriculture gives a clear direction where we should progress for a bright sustainable future.

"Our initiatives in the domains of Digital India, start ups, are bringing forth new ideas, innovations which are enabling us to find solutions to our problems, overcoming challenges.

"We must take pride in our heritage and ancient sciences which have given us knowledge and technologies centuries ahead of their time," ELCINA secretary general Rajoo Goel said.

Telecom gear maker GX India said in the recent days there has been increased focus from the government to develop and design the semiconductor chips in the country.

"...development in the semiconductor industry will be a stepping stone towards the development and deployment of indigenous 5G technology for addressing the needs of the country and will open up new global opportunities for the home grown OEMs," GX India CEO Paritosh Prajapati said.

Tech Mahindra's chief strategy officer and head of growth, Jagdish Mitra tweeted that the prime minister's mention of the present decade being 'techade' and specific mention of 5G in India as an era of growth is a huge boost for the industry.

IT industry body Nasscom said combined with emerging technologies, India's technology innovation has impacted the world.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi added during his speech 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan, Jai Anusandhan' the need to emphasize technology innovation and research to steer the country's growth," Nasscom said.

IT company Comviva's chief executive officer Manoranjan Mohapatra said the PM's push for 5G has resulted in the timely onset of 5G services in India, which will be rolled out in a matter of weeks.

"5G is not just a next generation of telecommunication technology, it will also pave the way for a robust Digital India and value added services will play a huge role in driving the next level of customer adoption and experience for individuals and enterprises.

"Next level of growth will come from many enterprise centric use cases leveraging the speed and low latency of 5G," he said.

Bharti Airtel will start rolling out 5G services this month and cover all towns and key rural areas of the country by March 2024.

The country's largest telecom player Jio has completed 5G coverage planning in top 1,000 cities and conducted field trials of its home-grown 5G telecom gear.

Modi said the Digital India movement, where the government is taking steps towards 5G, treading towards semiconductors, laying of networks of optical fibre, is not only a sign of modernisation but there are three big powers embedded in it.

"Complete revolution in education is going to come through the digital medium.

"Revolution in health services is going to come from the digital medium.

"Any big revolution in life is going to come through the digital medium.

"A new world is getting ready. This decade is the time of techade for humanity. It is a decade of technology," he said.