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We have revived confidence in telecom sector: Govt

New Delhi: Expressing satisfaction over the works undertaken by the Department of Telecom as Department of Post, Union Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said that the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been able to revive the confidence among different stakeholders in the last four years.

In a veiled attack on the ousted UPA government, the telecom minister said, "When we took the charge of the ministry, telecom and postal departments were in shambles. There was a trust deficit due to turmoil in the industry as stakeholders had lost their faith in the ministry."

"With bringing out major moves like the ease of doing business, transparency in the system, timely execution of projects, the government revived the confidence among all stakeholders," Sinha said.

We have taken some steps, be it on interest rates or deferred spectrum payment. In future also, if required, we will take such decisions, the minister said, adding that call drops situation has improved and both the regulator-driven parameters and telecom department's quarterly reviews demonstrated betterment of services.

Sinha, however, admitted that there would be some job losses in the wake of ongoing consolidation but said that a higher number of job opportunities were created, and added that skilled individuals work in telecom sector who are more likely not to remain jobless.

The teledensity has been enhanced from 755 in June 2014 to 93 per cent in March 2018, the statistics revealed, that also added the number of base transceiver stations were increased to 18 lakh in 2018 from 7.9 lakh in 2014.

The government, according to the department, fetched the highest revenue of Rs 65,000 crore in 2015 and 2016 from spectrum auctions.

While highlighting the achievements of Postal Department, Tanveer Q Mohammad, a senior official in the department, said, "The average annual Speed Post revenue has doubled in the last four years from Rs 788 crore between 2006-14 to Rs 1,682 crore between 2014-18. Similarly, the e-commerce has registered above 20 per cent growth to the tune of Rs 415 crore in 2017-18 fiscal in comparison to the previous financial year."

"The department established a separate parcel directorate to tap the growing e-commerce business. We are ready to launch the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) with 650 branches co-located in district HQ post office offering a 360-degree financial services suite across multiple channels to provide banking facilities to all", the official said.

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