The government will form a core group comprising senior officials of Department of Telecom in the next two-three weeks to promote and oversee localisation of telecom equipment manufacturing in the country.
The group will function under the chairmanship of DoT Secretary, P J Thomas.
This was disclosed at a meeting Telecom Minister A Raja had with CEOs of telecom equipment manufacturers.
India has about 500 million wireless subscribers and is adding 12 million new users every month. The operators depend largely on foreign equipment manufacturers for setting up networks.
There are other advantages of localisation of products and equipment. For example, if the equipment is manufactured in the country, it would be easier for the security agencies to understand their mechanism.
At the meeting, Raja asked the industry to actively participate in the promotion of equipment manufacturing and assured all possible help in this regard.
"The Minister said that for India to grow we should have more industries on local manufacturing," N K Goyal, President, Communications and Manufacturing Association of India, a body for promotion of the telecom sector, said.
The meeting also discussed issues such as investments, manufacturing and Indian intellectual property rights (IPR).
