Indian National Telecom Policies: Evolution, Significance and a Perspective

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to present a comparative analysis of the last two consecutive telecommunication policies of the Government of India (GoI). This paper analyses the commonalities and differences in the two telecom policies released in 2012 and 2018.The research study facilitates some rational perspective on NDCP 18 from digital technology lens. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: This is a qualitative study for conducting a comparative analysis of the aforesaid consecutive Indian telecom policies. The primary sources are the final policy documents and industry opinions. To gauge the industry sentiments and expert opinions, various press releases and related news articles are also studied. This study of the two consecutive telecom policies of the government of India aims at finding the fundamental differences between the two policies. Objective: Finding the fundamental differences between the two policies and the factors necessitating the replacement of the older policy with a new one. This research sheds light on why and how NDCP 18 differs from rest previous policies and what it has in its bag for both Industry as well as consumers. Finding: India has struggled with the implementation of the objectives laid out in the policies. NTP 2012 was launched with an aim to transform the country into an empowered knowledge-based society, using telecom as a platform, and to provide reliable, secure and quality telecom services in remote and rural areas. NTP 12 turned out to be generally successful except for some unachieved targets such as free roaming and maximum broadband reach NDCP 2018 is a new multi-perspective policy leapfrogging the Indian economy as an emerging digital economy. NDCP 2018 was designed in alignment with Digital India initiatives to reduce the Digital Divide; however, for India to emerge as a digital economy prioritization of achievable objectives must be marked out and implementation must be ensured. On the positive side, the overall impact of NDCP 18 is going to be monitored. This research study also reveals important analysis from interviews of telecom expert’s. This analysis facilitates unique perspective about NDCP 18 to this research study.