FDI in telecom at $10 bn during Apr-Nov period: Telecom Secy

Moneycontrol BureauIndia’s telecom sector has attracted an over USD10-billion foreign direct investment in the first eight months on FY17, Telecom Secretary JS Deepak said on Wednesday. The figure is a 6-7-fold increase from USD 2.9 billion and USD 1.3 billion FDI seen in FY16 and FY15, respectively.

The investment is a “resounding acknowledgment” of reforms and policies implemented by   Department of Telecommuncations (DoT), he said.

The minister said he was hopeful of popularising cashless payments to aid citizens who have been affected by demonetisation drive. Considering about 97 percent of population is covered by the 2G network, there is a need to both popularise and simplify USSD (unstructured supplementary service data), he added.

“We need to work on a push USSD rather than a pull USSD, merchants should be able to push in a message to feature phone users where-in you just have to ok it for a transaction and it goes back and completes the transaction,” said Deepak at an Assocham event in Delhi.

Meanwhile, “The country needs 5-7 crore merchant devices to make India a cashless society,” said P P Chaudhary, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology.

“We need to invest time and money in promoting digital skill and awareness,” Chaudhary said.  “Merchants should be able to push in a message to feature phone users wherein you just have to ok it for a transaction and it goes back and completes the transaction,” he added.