The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (“TRAI”) has released a Consultation paper on encouraging R&D in Telecom, Broadcasting and IT (Information and Communication Technology) Sectors. Comments are invited from all stakeholders by 23rd October, 2023 with counter comments invited till 6th November 2023.
The comments and counter-comments may be sent preferably in electronic form over emails addressed to advisorit@trai.gov.in and jacadiv@trai.gov.in. Further, for any clarification/information, Shri Anand Kumar Singh, Advisor (CA,IT& TD) may be contacted at Tel.No.+91-11-23210990.
Background:
India has made remarkable progress in R&D and innovation, emerging as the highest ranked economy in the “Central and Southern Asia” region and 40th in the Global Innovation Index 2022. The country has experienced significant growth in the generation of Intellectual Property Rights (“IPRs”) by the residents. The government’s initiatives such as “National Education Policy 2020”, “National Policy on Electronics 2019”, “National Digital Communications Policy 2018”, “Make in India”, “Digital India”, “Startup India” etc. have played significant roles in strengthening R&D ecosystem in the Country. Further, recent initiatives like “Atmanirbhar Bharat”, “Telecom Product-Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme”, “Digital Communication Innovation Square” have also been encouraging steps in this direction.
However, in the existing R&D ecosystem in India, there are areas of further improvement in promoting R&D in Information and Communication Technology (“ICT”) sector. Learning from the international best practices in R&D have to be implemented in India and issues which require interventions in terms of policies and incentives to improve the R&D in the lCT sector are to be identified in order to help India emerge as a world leader. As a result, in accordance with the TRAI Act 1997 on measures for orderly growth of ICT industry with indigenously developed products and services, TRAI has decided to take measures for encouraging R&D ecosystem for lCT sector in the country on suo-moto basis.
A copy of the Consultation Paper is attached for ease of reference.
Source: Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India
