According to this year's Economic Survey, the introduction of 5G services could open up new economic prospects and assist India in overcoming its long-standing development challenges while encouraging corporate and startup innovation.
The Economic Survey 2022–23, which was presented to Parliament on Tuesday, said that both conventional and new-age sectors have benefited from the tremendous surge of digitisation, increasing smartphone penetration, and use of technology.
According to the report, "the introduction of 5G services can unlock new economic prospects and assist the country leapfrog the old development hurdles, promote innovations by startups and business enterprises, and further the 'Digital India' agenda.
The trip is "far from over, and there is still much to be done to realise our ultimate potential."
The survey mentioned the interstate gap in teledensity, where rural areas lagged behind urban areas in the penetration of telecom, but said in the same breath that the rural areas' catch-up is "heartening."
It highlighted the fact that, for the majority of the states, the shift in internet subscribers from year to year is bigger in rural than in metropolitan areas.
Regarding the next-generation connectivity services, it was noted that 5G use cases developed by telcos and startups in the fields of education, health, worker safety, and smart agriculture are now being implemented across the nation. 5G is also expected to have a direct impact on consumers through faster data transfer speeds and lower latency.
Telecom reforms and clear policy direction led to the spectrum auction of 2022 garnering the highest-ever bids, the survey observed.
As a major reform measure, the Indian Telegraph Right of Way (Amendment) Rules, 2022, will facilitate faster and easier deployment of telegraph infrastructure to enable speedy 5G rollout.
"The government has brought in procedural reforms in wireless licensing, including delicensing of various frequency bands to promote innovation, manufacturing and export," it said.
According to the report, the country has come a long way from the days when having a mobile connection was considered a luxury to the present.
According to the report, this was the result of coordinated efforts by telecom companies to increase network bandwidth, a supportive climate created by the government, and consumer outreach for smartphones.
The number of telephone subscribers in India as of November 2022 was 117 crore. While 83.7 crore people had internet connections as of June 2022, more than 97 percent of all users (114.3 crore at the end of November 2022) were linked wirelessly.
The overall tele-density in India stood at 84.8 percent, with wide differences across states. It ranged from 55.4 per cent in Bihar to 270.6 percent in Delhi. Eight licence service areas, namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka had a tele-density of above 100 percent.
"Apart from the interstate disparity in tele-density, in rural areas the tele-density continues to be at much lower levels compared to urban areas. However, the catch-up by the rural areas is heartening as the year-on-year change in internet subscribers is greater in rural (for the majority of the states) than in urban areas," it said.
Telecom services provided a cushion to the rural economy during the initial phase of the Covid-19 when many went back to rural India for their livelihood.
"The digital infrastructure created over the years ensured not just the continuous transmission of information but also added economic value when businesses went digital," it said.
During the challenging times of the pandemic, the telecommunication sector continued to provide seamless connectivity for the smooth functioning of critical activities and services remotely. This was supported by the significant increase in affordable smartphones, which became more than a communication device.
"It emerged as the key enabler of Digital India initiative with various new services and applications like digital payments, e-governance, e-commerce, e-health, and e-education. Acting as the backbone, these services have boosted the overall economic growth of the country," the Economic Survey observed.
Service delivery through digital tools has come a long way, it said adding, before 2014, access to digital services was perceived as a prerogative of urban households.
"We have added more internet subscribers in rural areas in the last 3 years (2019-21) than in their urban counterparts (95.76 million vis-a-vis 92.81 million in rural and urban areas respectively). This has been a result of dedicated digital drives across rural areas through ambitious government schemes...," it said.
The survey cited flagship BharatNet Project Scheme, Telecom Development Plan, Aspirational District Scheme, initiatives in North-Eastern Region through Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan (CTDP) and initiatives towards areas affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in this regard.
The survey highlighted that digital growth in rural India was the major shock absorber during the COVID-19 pandemic when both businesses and consumer demand were impacted.
"As schooling went online for a considerable period even post pandemic, the increase in internet subscriptions in rural areas helped mitigate learning loss significantly. This even facilitated the successful rollout of mass vaccination in rural areas," it said.
The 200 per cent increase in rural internet subscriptions between 2015 and 2021 as compared to 158 per cent in urban areas, reflects the increased government push to bring rural and urban digital connectivity to the same level.
Government schemes like Production Linked Incentive (PLI) for telecom and networking products will promote domestic mobile manufacturing as well as network installation.
Continuous proliferation of measures such as Bharat Net Project will continue to improve accessibility, affordability, connectivity, and inclusivity pan-India, it said.
(With PTI inputs)
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