"Complete Regulation Revamp": Government's Big Plan To Overhaul Telecom

India needs a thriving telecom industry to cater to its market of billion-plus users and catch up with countries like China and South Korea that already use super-fast 5G networks.

India aims to overhaul its telecommunications sector, an industry key to the success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's digital ambitions but one that's throttled by century-old policies and years of bitter litigation.

The government is exploring ways to allow companies to merge, expand and operate without multiple bureaucratic approvals so as to avoid subsequent court battles, Telecommunications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in an interview at his office in New Delhi on Thursday. He aims to present new rules in February.

"Telecom is still governed by an act made in 1885 but things have changed dramatically. And the regulations which flow out of the law are also 60-70 years vintage," Vaishnaw said, referring to the colonial-era Indian Telegraph Act that gives the government exclusive jurisdiction on the sector. "We are looking at a complete regulation revamp."

The Wharton graduate, 51, who took charge of the influential ministries of Electronics, Information Technology and Communications in July, has since soothed a fractious relationship with the world's largest technology companies, offered a rescue package for embattled mobile phone operators, and unveiled a plan to lure semiconductor manufacturers to the South Asian nation. India needs a thriving telecom industry to cater to its market of billion-plus users and catch up with countries like China and South Korea that already use super-fast 5G networks.