SME Times News Bureau | 21 Oct, 2011
The new policies for the telecom, information technology (IT) and electronics sectors would usher in a new phase of growth and add millions of jobs, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said on Thursday.

"The three policies together aim to ensure that information communication technology equipment (ICTE) permeates to all aspects of society, business, governance, finance and other aspects of modern life," Sibal said while addressing the Economic Editors Conference in New Delhi.

The policy on IT targets revenue of USD 300 million from the industry, creating 10 million additional skilled manpower, providing mandatory and affordable e-government to the common man and forming a regulatory framework for a secured cyber space by 2020.

The National Telecom Policy (NTP), 2011, aims to introduce nation-wide mobile number portability and roaming, one licence across services and service areas and access to broadband.

"We will try to get the cabinet permission this year and start implementing the (telecom) policy from as early as next year," he said.

The national policy on electronics manufacturing targets to achieve, by 2020, a turnover of USD 400 billion, employment to 28 million people, turnover of USD 55 billion in chip design and embedded software industry and setting up of 200 electronics manufacturing hubs per annum.