Telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia discusses issues with Jio, Airtel, Vodafone-Idea

The Telecom Ministry will work on an actionable plan with defined timelines on issues that have been discussed with telecom operators and other players in the sector, Union Minister of Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday.

The Minister held meetings with three of the six committees set by his ministry.

The meeting with the committee on telecom operators was attended by telecom chiefs including Reliance Jio Chairman Akash Ambani, Bharti Airtel Founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, and Vodafone Idea MD and CEO Akshaya Moondra.

"We've identified a rather deep agenda for these committees. Now the members of these committees and us will be working together," Scindia said.

Industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Director General S P Kochhar was also part of the meeting.

Scindia said there are varied schedules for the first presentation of these committees, which will be over the next couple of weeks.

"Then we will be taking on each individual issue, delving into the details and devising an action plan, timelines and actionable items, so that we can take our sector forward," he added.

The Minister said the six committees are the backbone of the Indian communication sector.

"By forging these committees we hope to take the sector forward realising Prime Minister's goal of creating not only a Atmanirbhar (self-reliant) Bharat but a telecom superpower within India that we will hopefully transcend our boundaries in days to come," Scindia said.

The Minister also met representatives of internet service providers and infrastructure committees as well as those of academia and R&D committee.

On Monday, Scindia held meetings with three advisory groups on satellite, communications and electronics ecosystem and original equipment makers to prepare a roadmap for achieving self-reliance and global leadership in the sector.

The meetings were attended by Nokia India Country Head Tarun Chhabra, Samsung President and CEO Southwest Asia J B Park, Cisco System India Managing Director Harish Krishnan, STL Managing Director and CEO Ankit Agarwal, Tejas Non-Executive Chairman N G Subramanium, Viasat India Managing Director Gautam Sharma, and Hughes Communications India CEO, President and Managing Director Shivaji Chatterjee, among others.