COAI bats for telecom R&D, entrepreneurship development fund

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) The Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) - the GSM lobby - endorsed the call for setting up and operationalising a Telecom Research and Development Fund (TRDF) and a Telecom Entrepreneurship Development Fund (TEDF) to encourage research and entrepreneurship in the sector.

In a letter to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), 35 faculties from premier academic institutions have urged the government to take immediate steps to operationalize TRDF and TEDF to help catalyse the manufacturing eco-system and make India a global leader in telecom technology for commercial and national strategic use.

"As the second largest market in telecommunications, India also needs to ensure that the technological advancements in the country are at par with the leading markets across the world. It is essential that proper proactive support be provided from the government as well as industry for a joint effort towards facilitating this much required ecosystem. COAI is committed to support any such Govt initiatives in building the ecosystem," Rajan S Mathews, director general, COAI said.

At present, India has a teledensity of 75 percent and revenue in excess of Rs.170,000 crore per year. However, India's contributions towards telecom technology development like intellectual property rights (IPR), innovations, patents and standards is negligible.