India’s economy is much more integrated with rest of the world
now than it was in 1991. Several factors have facilitated this, some fiscal
and some physical. One of the most important physical factors is the
spectacular growth of telecommunications in India. An important facet
of this revolution has been the phenomenal increase in the number of
telephones in the country although its spatial distribution still is a problem.
A distinguishing aspect of this growth performance is that India now
has five mobile phones for every one fixed telephone and the monthly
additions to mobile subscribers are well over six million. Such a huge
growth in telecom services have a number of spillover effects for rest of
the economy and one of the more important effects is its potential to
create a major manufacturing hub in the country for the manufacture of
telecom equipments and indeed for downstream industries such as
semiconductor devices that are required for the manufacture of these
equipments. The telecom industry in India is thus slowly emerging as a
fine example of the service sector acting as a fillip to the growth of the
manufacturing sector.
Key words: telecommunications, telecom equipment, telecom services,
Internet, Broad band, Telecom Regulatory Authority, Import
dependence, Concentration.
JEL Classification: L 63, O31, O32, O38
History
Publisher
Centre for Development Studies
Citation
Mani, Sunil (2007) The growth performance of India's telecommunications services industry, 1991-2006 : can it lead to the emergence of a domestic manufacturing hub? CDS working papers, no.390. Trivandrum: CDS.