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News >> Technology >>
Telecom FDI hiked to 74 percent
By siliconindia staff writer
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Wednesday, 02 February 2005, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: The Indian government today hiked the limit of foreign direct investment (FDI) in telecom to 74 percent.
"The FDI limit in telecom has been increased to 74 percent from 49 percent," Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said.
The FDI was hiked despite strong opposition from Left parties that are also part of the UPA coalition. The cabinet took the decision to address a long-standing industry call to make it more competitive and allow more investment in the sector already beset with cash cruch of the operators.
India is home to the world's fastest growing telephone market, but the industry has been worried about the lack of resources to achieve an ambitious target of up to 250 million phone connections by 2007.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram had in his budget speech last year announced the government intention to hike the FDI limit in telecom. Severe protests from the Left parties stalled the move to increase the FDI.