Expressing concerns over rising royalty payments mainly to foreign
equipment makers, a senior DoT official said Thursday about $15 goes out
of India for every mobile telephony service line added by an operator.
The
royalty payment for mobile services providers runs into crores of
rupees as each operator has millions of service lines to support voice
services. A single mobile service line ideally supports a single call at
a given point of time. The industry needs to invest in research and
development for intellectual property rights as these are going to be
lifeline of the Indian electronics industry, IT and
Electronics
Secretary JS Deepak said at an event in New Delhi. "IPR or royalty
payments are problem for country. Every line of mobile capacity that
telecom service providers add in India, $15 (roughly Rs. 1000) goes out as royalty for
equipment purchased by them. That is macro-perspective and it happens in
other space as well," Deepak said.
He said that Taiwan has all
kind of manufacturing capacities but it has not been able to command
leadership in various segments due to lack of IPRs. "Research and
Development for IPR is going to be lifeline for Indian electronics
ecosystem. Focus on developing IPR, if you have to access high end of
Defence electronics," Deepak said.
He said government is running
an ambitious programme for defence manufacturing as it seeks to provide
jobs to 12 million more people.
"Defence manufacture and more
specifically manufacturing of defence electronics will remain priority
for government for this," Deepak said.