TRAI Proposes Measures To Make India A Global Manufacturing Hub Of TV Broadcasting Equipment

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released recommendations aimed at boosting local manufacturing in the television broadcasting sector, as India looks to become a global hub of indigenous manufacturing.

In a bid to enable Indian broadcasting equipment manufacturing sector to transition from an import-dependent sector to a global hub of indigenous manufacturing, TRAI had in December 2021 issued a  consultation paper on “Promoting Local Manufacturing in the Television Broadcasting Sector” for seeking comments of all the stakeholders.

"After considering all comments received from stakeholders during consultation process and further analysis of the issues, the Authority has finalised its recommendations," TRAI said on Friday (31 March).

TRAI has said that there is a need to focus on emerging technologies and tenets of era of convergence and aim at building an eco-system for broadcast equipment.

"Centre of Excellence may be established for broadcast equipment or existing Telecom Centres of Excellence may be upgraded to focus on broadcast equipment as well," it said.

Further, the telecom regulator has suggested enabling organisation like Telecom Export Promotion Council (TEPC) or "some similarly placed organisation" to promote and facilitate exports of locally manufactured broadcast equipment.

TRAI's recommendations also include mandating the testing and standardisation of all broadcast equipment by the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), Department of Telecommunications. 

Further, it suggested strengthening of existing R&D centres in public sector, including C-DOT, as well as development of local R&D ecosystem along with industry participation through public-private partnership (PPP) route.

TRAI has also recommended creating a technology development fund to support the research and development of local products and technologies.

"A go-to market strategy may also be adopted for the products developed through local R&D," TRAI suggested.

TRAI's proposals also involve bringing Linear Set-up boxes under the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, promoting local manufacturing of other relevant components of the television broadcasting sector along the line of Semicon India programme, and periodically reviewing the availability of indigenous components required for broadcasting equipment, including chipsets.

Further, the authority suggested to define the scope of ‘local manufacturing’ for different equipment categories in the television broadcasting sector in terms of the percentage of the locally sourced components/services.

It also recommended review of free trade agreements (FTAs) and such agreements with regard to their impact on local manufacturing in the television broadcasting sector.