The Telecom Centers of Excellence has written to Kapil Sibal, Minister of Telecommunications and IT, to expeditiously release telecom funds worth Rs 175 billion earmarked for research and development by higher institutes of learning in the country.

The centre represents faculties of leading institutes of higher learning in the country such as Indian Institute of Technology, Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institute of Science.

In its communication, Telecom Centers of Excellence has stated that the government should operationalise the telecom manufacturing promotion fund (TMPF), the telecom research and development fund (TRDF) and the telecom entrepreneurship development fund (TEDF). The National Telecom Policy 2012 had envisaged these funds for the development of domestic telecom manufacturing ecosystem in the country.

The budget earmarked by the government for TMPF, TRDF and TEDF has been pegged at Rs 100 billion, Rs 50 billion an Rs 25 billion, respectively. These funds were to be disbursed among various educational institutes under the Twelfth Five Year Plan, however, there has been a delay of about two years in the allocation of these funds.

In the letter, the Telecom Centers of Excellence has stated that imported telecom equipment can pose security threat to the country’s telecommunication network. Since telecom networks are strategic infrastructure assets, equipment deployed in such networks could have potential malware in it, which could even be triggered from outside India. This could seriously jeopardise national security. Given such security threats, the centre has asked the government to encourage research work and development of equipment within the country.

Further, the centre has stated that the telecom equipment market in India in 2012-13 stood at Rs 750 billion which is expected to reach Rs 1,700 billion by 2019-20. At present, 70 per cent of the telecom equipment requirements are being met through imports leading to high outflow of foreign exchanges. Therefore, the government needs to take steps to distribute required funds for research work among institutes of higher education.