India needs better telecom manufacturing base: Pitroda
Monday, 08 January 2007, 18:30 IST
Printer Print Email Email
New Delhi: Indian telecom industry is growing but a "better" manufacturing base is required, said telecom expert Sam Pitroda. "India definitely needs a better manufacturing base in telecom. The country is adding seven million mobile phones a month and thus it cannot afford to ignore manufacturing anymore," said Pitroda, while addressing a conference at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) 2007. "We need to create our own manufacturing base as the Chinese did. We cannot afford to focus on services anymore," he added. "Growth of mobile phones in India is based on getting equipments from outside and everything has been done in such hurry that we completely ignored manufacturing," Pitroda said. According to him, education, health and water should be the primary focus areas for improvement. "India needs to improve its quality of education. The world over, a revolution is going on in education," Pitroda said. He also emphasized on the lack of qualified skilled people in the services sector. "Human resource is a challenge everywhere in India, especially in the services sector. We lack quality people and to improve the situation we need to put proper processes in place," Pitroda said. "In India we don't standardize anything. Why can't we bring out a standard birth certificate or a standard school admission form?" he asked.
Source: IANS