Thaindian News

Chennai, April 21 (IANS) India is a big market for telecom products and services but most of them are imported and there is a royalty payment for every new line activated, an expert said Thursday, stressing the need for the country to advance in the intellectual property rights (IPR) domain.

Citing the development made by the domestic auto and pharma industries, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala said: “In the fast growing telecom sector, the true Indian presence is very little. Most of the products and services are imported or assembled and there is hardly any Indian design or intellectual property right (IPR).

There is a royalty payment ranging between $12 to $15 for every new line activated, he said, speaking on “System and Technology - Adapting to the Future” at the fifth edition of the India Finance Forum organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Jhunjhunwala said the second largest import expenditure, next to crude oil, was for telecom products.

“India has the capability for creating IPRs. We are creating them for companies from other countries, including China,” he said.

According to him, the ambitious target of achieving 25 percent share for the manufacturing sector in the gross domestic product (GDP), instead of the present 16 percent, for employment generation and balanced economic growth, would be possible only with more Indian products’ with Indian designs and IPRs.

Jhunjhunwala said assembling of products with value addition above the threshold would bring to the market only the Made in India products but with very little contribution to the economy.

Citing the absence of Indian IPRs in the 2G and 3G telecom technologies, he said there would be significant Indian IPRs in the 4G space, bringing down the telecom imports to a great extent.