Bangalore, 18 Jan
Knowledge Commission chairman Sam Pitroda, who revolutionized the
Indian telecom sector in the eighties, Thursday pitched for
"made-in-India" mobile handsets to capitalize on the rapid growth in
the communications space.
"Indian telecom manufacturers should grab a major share of the
fastest growing mobile handsets market in the world, as no other
country is witnessing such a scorching pace of growth as India,"
Pitroda told reporters on the sidelines of the CII partnership
summit here.
With every other market reaching a saturation point, he said telecom
manufacturing in the sub-continent would be a win-win situation for
all stakeholders, as the demand for mobile handsets, including
replacement for old handsets was set to cross the 500-million mark
in the next five years.
"Clearly, manufacturing of mobile handsets, network equipment and
the infrastructure for operating them should be taken up earnestly.
Since the demand is huge and growing, the benefits are greater,"
Pitroda pointed out.
According to the global handset industry update of Merrill Lynch,
the world market growth will be driven by India and China, with a
combined handset volume growth of 21 percent CAGR from 2005 to 2010.
Mobile penetration in India is set to touch 35 percent by 2010 as
against just seven percent in 2005. It is projected to reach
411-million mark by 2010 as against 76 million in 2005, achieving a
five-year CAGR of 40 percent.
"India should also focus on the biotechnology sector, as the next
wave of revolution from biotechnology will have far-reaching
implications in agriculture and healthcare," Pitroda asserted.
Stressing on the need to improve the quality of primary and higher
education, he said though the potential for generating human
resource was immense, the need of the hour was knowledge revolution.
"There are over 550 million people below the age group of 25 years.
They have to be trained to meet the global workforce demand,"
Pitroda noted.
In this context, he exhorted every state to launch its own knowledge
initiative, as most of the subjects examined by the Knowledge
Commission such as primary education and health were in the state
list.
Earlier, in his keynote address at the plenary session on "The
innovation imperative: new models, new ideas", Pitroda told the
delegates that disruptive technologies and multi-disciplinary
approach were required to promote technological and social
innovations.
"Social innovations are equally critical to improve the quality of
life of about 400 million Indians living below the poverty line.
Disruptive technologies such as transistor, fibre optics,
microprocessors and software have created more opportunities and
enhanced productivity.
"In the next 25 years, Internet and biotechnology will create
equally new opportunities, which should be exploited by improving
the delivery mechanism. Global leaders are still living in the era
of command and control without understanding the new paradigm of
coordination and communication that create openness, transparency
and innovative mindset," Pitroda said.
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