07 Jul 2015|Noida | Amity Campus
Telecom Industry Leaders avers that Digital India can rev up the Indian Telecom Industry during ‘Amity Telecom Vision Board Meeting’
Keeping in view the market dynamics, fast changing technologies & applications and regulatory environment in the Telecom Sector, Amity Institute of Telecom Engineering Management (AITEM) organized ‘Amity Telecom Vision Board Meeting’ at Amity University, Sector 125 Noida which was attended by Corporate Leaders and CEO’s including Mr. Akhil Gupta, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises & Executive Chairman, Bharti Infratel; Mr. Bhagwan D Khuranna, CMD, Newgen Holdings; Mr. R K Arnold,Former Member TRAI; Mr. T R Dua Director General-Tower And Infrastructure Providers Association(TAIPA); Mr. T.R. Dua – Senior Director, TAIPA.
The board meeting was presided over by Dr. Ashok K Chauhan, FounderPresident, Amity Group along with Lt Gen P D Bhargava, Advisor, AITEM &Group Deputy Vice Chancellor and senior officials of Amity.
Presenting an overview on Forecast of growth of Telecom in next Five Years, Mr. M Bhagwan D Khuranna said that India has reached 1 billion telecom connections and this growth has been achieved in almost two decades at the rate of 35%. He further added that Internet has made tremendous progress and it is expected to have 500 million Internet users by end of year 2015. Outlining the employment generation in Telecom Industry, he apprised that in present scenario, Telecom Industry is the 5th largest employer in the country and atleast 5 million new jobs will be created in next five years. Highlighting the ways for the growth of the industry, he said thateasy access to the market by private sector, deregulating FDI and last,regulatory authority has given light and fair regulation to market which resulted in completion globally. Mr. Khuranna stated that PM’s project “Digital India” and “Smart Cities” will be the major driver for industry. He further added that another area is local manufacturing of infra and handset that constitute much larger revenue that we have at present. He informed that electronics is second largest importer after petroleum; hence educational institutes need to produce skilled people for the sector.
. Sharing his views on Expectation of Industry from Academia providing knowledge workers& Skill workers to meet the future challenges, Mr. Akhil Gupta said that Digital India, Smart City and Data Revolution involves inclusive growth and greater opportunities for people associated with the sector. He opined that educational institutes should encourage students towards research and innovation to gain competence in the industry. Mr. Gupta commended Amity for its efforts to bridge the gap between Telecom Industry and Academia and ensure the smooth transition of students from academia to professional world.
During the discussion, Mr.Vikas Sehgal said that the current overall revenue of telecom industry is 30 billion US dollars and by year 2020, it is expected to be 43 billion US Dollars. He added that the additional revenue will be generated from traditional services and majorly from data services. Stating this, Mr. Sehgal raised the issue of industry requirement for different skill set such as cloud computing, to meet the need of new generation market. He mentioned Analytics and Data Scientists as major skill sets which will be required by the budding professionals. He stressed that industry needs data scientists to churn the data and conceptualize or texture it. He suggested for industry- academia collaboration by developing a curriculum in accordance to the potential industry needs.
Sharing his views, Dr.Ashok K Chauhan said that Telecom services have been acknowledged globally as an essential tool for the socio-economic development of a nation. He further added Telecommunications is one of the prime support services needed for rapid growth and modernization of various sectors of the economy. Stressing on PM’s initiative Digital India, Dr. Chauhan mentioned that with the government’s favorable regulation policies rapid growth is expected in the future for Indian telecom sector. He also emphasized that with fast pacing developments in this sector, services such as security and surveillance, remote monitoring of ATM machines, home automation,traffic management, retail, logistics and grid energy could eventually facilitate optimization of resources. Dr Chauhan assured the industry experts that the points raised during the deliberations will be worked upon by Amity.
During the discussion, industry board members suggested various points such as development of Entrepreneur course to nurture the talent which will be the future of telecom businesses, to imbibe the thought of customer needs at academic level, training of Optical engineers and Switching Engineers,including skills of Energy Sources and Energy Management in the academic curriculum and focusing on entrepreneurship opportunities at rural areas and/or tier 2 or 3 areas. Mr. Sriram T V highlighted Radio-Frequency Engineering as the major requirement of the industry.
The meeting was also attended by Mr. Jagdish Mitra – CEO ,Canvas M; Mr. Vikas Sehgal, Director- Telecom Business, IBM; Mr Sameer Khanna, Chief HR,Ericsson India Ltd; Air Commodore S S Motial, Chairman DECT Forum India & Member, Board of Directors, ESSJAY Ericsson; Mr. Hitesh Mehta, MD, Eagle Photonics Pvt Ltd, Mumbai; Mr. Sridhar Krish, COO, Tikona Infinite; Mr. Satya N Gupta, Country GM, Blue Town, Norway; Mr. Chandan Kumar, Director-Marketing & Integrated Solutions, Huawei; Mr. Dinesh Chand Sharma, Director-Standardization, Policy & Regulation (Seconded European Standerdization Expert in India); Mr. Tarvinder Singh, Head Strategy & Business Operations and Mr. Amit Marwah, CTO, Nokia India.