40 lakh jobs in telecom sector; Cabinet approves new policy

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a new telecom policy -- National Digital Communications Policy 2018 -- designed to provide "broadband to all" and aims at creating 40 lakh jobs.

While addressing the media after the cabinet meeting, Union Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said that among other targets the policy aims to "provide broadband to all and create 40 lakh jobs". It also aims at providing a "ubiquitous, resilient, secure and affordable" digital communication services.

The new telecom policy, aimed at providing universal availability of 50 mega bits per second (Mbps) and attracting investments worth $100 billion, was approved by the Telecom Commission in July after the government came out with a draft policy in May, IANS reported.

Further, the policy aims at providing 1 Gbps (giga-bits per second) connectivity to all "Gram Panchayats" by 2020 and 10 Gbps by 2022.

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Sinha further said that the new policy plans to propel India to the top 50 nations in the Information and Communication Technology Development Index of the International Telecommunication Union from 134 in 2017, enhancing the country's contribution to global value chains and ensuring digital sovereignty.