Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the telecom industry reaches to $6.08 billion (Rs 40,000 crore) in the first half of 2017, according to the statistics issued by the Department of Telecom (DoT), as a part of a full-year review.
According to ETTelecom, the department in a statement Thursday said, adding that the figure was 10 percent higher than that it achieved during fiscal 2016-17 “FDI equity inflow in the telecom sector touched $ 6.08 billion in the first half of the financial year (April to September, 2017),”.
Earlier, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), revealed that the FDI equity inflow in telecom sector from the fiscal 2014-15 till May 2017 was together stood at $9.79 billion.
Manoj Sinha-led telecom department is, however, taking initiatives to revitalize the telecom industry, plagued with revenue erosion due to heightened competition from new comer Reliance Jio, and aims to bring new National Telecom Policy by March next year.
In September 2017, the government has also constituted a high-level committee under the chairwomanship of telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan to prepare a roadmap for bringing the fifth-generation (5G) technology by 2020 that could also facilitate digital transformation.
