By: Mahendra Nahata, MD, HFCL
‘We believe the budget 2022-23 aims to prioritise growth with its thrust on capital spending and generating employment opportunities for wider section of the economy. The budget also had positive announcements for the telecom industry, Defence and housing sector. As announced by the FM, the PLI scheme in 14 sectors has already received excellent response and has the potential to create 60 lakh new jobs, and an additional production of Rs. 30 lakh crore during the next 5 years. Required spectrum auctions will be conducted in 2022 to facilitate rollout of 5G mobile services within FY23 by private telecom providers. We believe that the expected spectrum rollout for 5G in 2022, combined with a scheme for design led manufacturing for 5G equipment under the PLI scheme will not only lead to advancement in the sector, but will also help to create employment opportunities. Being a leader in the production of optical fibre cables, we are delighted to hear that contracts for laying optical fibre in villages will be awarded under BharatNet project under PPP model in 2022-23. This will help the telecom industry in providing affordable broadband and mobile communication in rural and remote areas.
We also foresee an Atmanirbhar Bharat and reduced reliance on imports with the Government earmarking 68% of the capital procurement budget for domestic industry in 2022-23, up from 58% in 2021-22.’