India’s Telecom Commission is now the Digital Communications Commission
National Digital Communications Policy-2018 approved
The Union Cabinet of the Government of India has approved the National Digital Communications Policy-2018 (NDCP-2018) and the re-designation of the Telecom Commission as the “Digital Communications Commission”.
The “Telecom Commission” was originally set up by the Government of India in 1989 (vide the Resolution dated 11th April, 1989) with administrative and financial powers to deal with various aspects of telecommunications.
The NDCP-2018 envisions supporting India’s transition to a digitally empowered economy and society by fulfilling the information and communications needs of citizens and enterprises by establishment of a ubiquitous, resilient and affordable digital communications infrastructure and services.
The National Digital Communications Policy — 2018 replaces the National Telecom Policy-2012.
“As the present world has entered the era of modern technological advancements in the Telecom Sector such as 5G, loT, M2M etc., a need was being felt to introduce a ‘customer focused’ and ‘application driven’ policy for the Indian Telecom Sector, which can form the main pillar of Digital India by addressing emerging opportunities for expanding not only the availability of telecom services but also telecom based services,” the Ministry said in statement.
The policy advocates the establishment of a National Digital Grid by creating a National Fibre Authority; Establishing Common Service Ducts and utility corridors in all new city and highway road projects; Creating a collaborative institutional mechanism between Centre, States and Local Bodies for Common Rights of Way, standardization of costs and timelines; Removal of barriers to approvals; and Facilitating development of Open Access Next Generation Networks.
The government hopes to place India in the Top 50 Nations in the ICT Development Index of ITU (India was at 134 in 2017) by 2022. It is also expected to provide broadband for all and create four million additional jobs in the Digital Communications sector. This could result in the contribution of the Digital Communications sector to India’s GDP rising from arounf 6 per cent in 2017 to 8 per cent by 2022. Digital Sovereignty is also a key aspect of the policy.
The policy aims to
- Provide universal broadband connectivity at 50 Mbps to every citizen;
- Provide 1 Gbps connectivity to all Gram Panchayats by 2020 and 10 Gbps by 2022;
- Ensure connectivity to all uncovered areas;
- Attract investments of USD 100 billion in the Digital Communications Sector;
- Train one million manpower for building New Age Skill;
- Expand IoT ecosystem to 5 billion connected devices;
- Establish a comprehensive data protection regime for digital communications that safeguards the privacy, autonomy and choice of individuals
- Facilitate India’s effective participation in the global digital economy;
- Enforce accountability through appropriate institutional mechanisms to assure citizens of safe and
- Secure digital communications infrastructure and services.
