Objectives of NTP 2018 or Digital Convergence Policy 2018

In NTP 2012, India fared badly in terms of rural tele-density, making India a global hub of domestic manufacturing and development of state of the art technologies through R&D and creation of Indian IPRs (Intellectual Property Rights) in global standards. The National Telecom Policy 2018 or Digital Convergence Policy 2018 should focus on activities where we have fared badly and also take up new initiatives which can help transform India in the filed of converged technologies.

If the focus is on Digital Convergence Policy 2018, everything has to be seen from the prism of digital and convergence. The policy should see convergence of Internet, telecom, software, broadcast services and digital should be at the top of all the objectives.  

The objectives of NTP 2018 or Digital Convergence Policy 2018 should also include: 

1. Application Framework – The government should create a framework so that education, healthcare, citizen services, financial services and agriculture applications can be deployed across both central and state government departments.
2. Innovation Framework – Digital is the new buzzword, government should promote digital technologies in a big way by identifying technologies of national importance say 5G, IoT/M2M, Smart City, Convergence, FTTH, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Blockchain, drone, Analytics, VoLTE and others.
3. Startup Framework – Startup needs to be given technologies based on which they can come with products or services which can then be deployed by service providers, government and enterprises.
4. Security Framework – Digital will only prosper when the security framework is sturdy and is updated regularly. We need to create world class hackers who can provide us the input before the system is hacked so that we can take proactive protective measure.
5. Manufacturing Framework – Should also include After Market Services for both India as well as global as it will create lot of employment opportunities. And in manufacturing the focus should be on digital technologies as this is the future so we will see new digital products in the market reacted to consumer and different verticals.
6. Right of Way Framework – States are not notifying their policies in line with DoT RoW (Right of Way) Rules framed in November 2016. A year has passed and till date and only nine states – Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have notified their policies in line with DoT RoW Rules whereas three states – Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand are soon planning to notify in due course of time. Without implementation of proper RoW Policy.
7. Data Protection and Data Privacy Framework – The framework will help in use of data keeping in view data protection and data privacy framework so that things become easy for everybody.
8. Cloud Framework – Since the focus is on digital, cloud framework will play an important role to take India to be a No 1. nation in digital. MeitY has already come out with MeghRaj Policy and given government and companies the right to use data centre located in India.

All this is good for the country but one has to see the final shape of the New Telecom Policy 2018 or Digital Convergence Policy 2018 to see what will India achieve by 2022 when it celebrates its 75th year of Independence.