Expect India mobile sector to create $217 bn value by 2020:Min

Indian mobile industry is expected to create economic value of about USD 217 billion and create 5 million jobs by 2020, telecom minister Manoj Sinha said today.

"The Indian mobile industry is expected to create a total economic value of Rs 14 trillion, about USD 217.37 billion, by the year 2020. It would generate around 3 million direct job opportunities and 2 million indirect jobs during this period," Sinha said at EY-COAI TMT Leaders' Conclave.

The minister said that the telecom sector accounted for about 6.5 per cent to the national GDP, while it brought investment worth about USD 141.22 billion.

Telecom market is likely to grow by 10.3 per cent year- on- year to reach USD 103.9 billion by 2020, he said.

"The revenue of mobile handset industry rose 22 per cent to USD 21.12 billion in 2016 and it is expected that by 2017 around 200 million mobile handsets will be made out of India out of the 270 million mobile handsets to be shipped in the country," Sinha said.

Earlier in the day, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the conference that 100 companies in the field of mobile phones have started making their products in India and the country is emerging as a big hub for mobile manufacturing.

Sinha said that statistics related to Indian telecom sector is significant and telecom operators in the country are offering lowest tariff in the world.

"This is what drives the government's ambitious flagship Digital India Programme. It is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision and our effort to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy," Sinha said.

Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said that India now has formula for future.

"We have first rate set of technology leaders and champions. Next big challenge would be to connect everything that is when huge value is going to unlock. We have only scracthed the surface. The future of Digital, telecom is huge in India," Sundararajan said.

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)