DPIIT, DoT officials cautions BSNL, MTNL regarding its multinational suppliers


By MYBRANDBOOK


DPIIT, DoT officials cautions BSNL, MTNL regarding its multinational suppliers

After the recent Indo-China standoff, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for Atmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India, and favoured participation of homegrown companies for network deployment and expansion by state-run telcos, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) became watchful of multinational vendors.

 

"In a recent meeting, some officials of the DoT and DPIIT were against any restrictive condition put forth by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) to discourage homegrown companies," a source told the newspaper and added that a decision on the existing notice inviting tender is not taken so far.

 

The people aware of the matter say that a few officials were unhappy with Nokia Networks which was exerting pressure from the top office to get outstanding worth Rs 950-crore cleared despite assurances, and on the other hand, aggressively seeking network up-gradation contract.

 

The telecom department has not approved the Finnish company - Nokia and Chinese telecom company ZTE for the "proprietary migration" of as many as 49,300 2G and 3G sites to fourth-generation or 4G while the BSNL Board initially wanted to go ahead with the two multinationals.

 

Lately, the twin developments - India's call for self-reliance and India-China estranged relationship, would have a negative bearing on two multinationals as the Ministry of Commerce has become cautious and favoured a constitution of panel to monitor such situations closely.

 

Following the allegations by the Telecom Exports Promotion Council (Tepc) a domestic industry group, the two departments in separate letters warned the state-owned telco for non-adherence to Preference to Make in India (PMI) 2017 policy carved out by the Ministry of Commerce.

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