Lok Sabha Question No. 154 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-11-16
Subject: POOL OF TELECOM PROFESSIONALS
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: KANWAR SINGH TANWAR

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.154 TO BE ANSWERED ON 16 TH  NOVEMBER, 2016

## POOL OF TELECOM PROFESSIONALS

154. SHRI KANWAR SINGH TANWAR:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  create  a  country-wide  industry  ready  pool  of telecom professionals;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether Ministry has asked telecom companies to train students across ITIs in line with industry's operational requirements to handle the gamut of technical work relating to roll out and maintenance of mobile network;
- (d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether the Ministry's directive stems from priority being accorded by Government in involving the private sector for revamping technical institutes such as ITIs for skill building and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

- (a) Yes Madam, the Government proposes to create country-wide industry ready telecom professionals.
- (b) Department  of  Telecom  has  prepared  a  Telecom  Sector  Skill  Plan  after  due consultations with different stakeholders namely telecom service providers, telecom service associations,  TSSC  (Telecom  Sector  Skill  Council)  and  after  placing  due  consideration  to different flagship schemes of the government namely Smart Cities, Make in India, Digital India etc.

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has conducted an environmental scan  and  produced  a  Skill  Gap  Study  Report.    In  addition  Indian  Cellular  Association  has given a forecast of requirement of skilled Manpower for Mobile Manufacturing Sector. Thus as per  the  skill  gap  study  report  of  various  agencies  put  together  and  after  an  objective assessment,    it  is  observed  that  the  total  telecom  sector  manpower  shall  grow  from  4.00 million  in  2016-17  to  8.78  million  in  2021-22  creating  additional  requirement  of  4.78  million (say 4.8 million approx.) in a period of five years.

Further, as per the analysis of TSSC (Telecom Sector Skill Council), a telecom setup has  invariably  20-25%  high  end  skilled  people  comprising  of  engineers,  MBAs,  CAs,  HR experts  etc  and  as  per  experience  such  high  end  skilled  people  require  no  specific  skill training  rather  they  are  given  short  term  2-4  weeks  orientation  course  on  the  job  by  the employer.

The balance manpower comprising of 75-80% would require telecom skill trainings. Keeping the optimistic figure of 80%,  the telecom skilling required till 2021-22 will be to the tune of 3.84 million.

DoT  has  04  major  PSUs  namely  BSNL  (Bharat  Sanchar  Nigam  Limited),    MTNL (Maha  Nagar  Telephone  Nigam  Limited),    ITI  and  TCIL  (Telecom  Consultants  Of  India Limited).    BSNL  has  29  training  centers  and      MTNL  has  02  training  centers.    ITI  (Indian Telephone Industries)  has  a training  centre  in  Bangalore  and  a    'Centre  of  Excellence'    is being  created  exclusively  for  skill  development  activities.    Although  TCIL  has  no  training centre of its own, for skill needs, it conducts skill development programs in schools and other training institutions.  Similarly TSSC has 479 training partners having 2100 training centers across the nation

The proposed plan to create 3.85 million telecom skilled manpower is tabled below:

| Sl no.   | Organization   | 2017-18   | 2018-19   | 2019-20   | 2020-21   | 2021-22   | Total     |
|----------|----------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| 1.       | BSNL           | 88,000    | 97,000    | 1,07,000  | 1,20,000  | 1,30,000  | 5,42,000  |
| 2.       | MTNL           | 5,500     | 6,000     | 6,700     | 7,500     | 8,500     | 34,200    |
| 3.       | TCIL           | 18,700    | 21,000    | 23,000    | 25,000    | 27,500    | 1,15,200  |
| 4.       | ITI            | 2,600     | 2,800     | 3,000     | 3,500     | 4,000     | 15,900    |
| 5.       | TSSC           | 4,00,000  | 5,00,000  | 6,50,000  | 7,50,000  | 8,50,000  | 31,50,000 |
|          | Total          | 5,14,800  | 6,26,800  | 7,89,700  | 9,06,000  | 10,20,000 | 38,57,300 |

(c) Yes Madam, the Government has asked telecom companies to train students across ITIs  in  line  with  industry's  operational  requirements  to  handle  the  gamut  of  technical  work relating to roll out and maintenance of mobile network.

(d)        In order that telcos can tie up with local ITIs and provide training to students as per their own needs, following steps have been taken till date:

- i) Under BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited)  Swavlambi Scheme -2016 apprenticeship training to ITI holders  is being imparted by BSNL through on-line  registration.  A  total  of  3144  seats  have  been  allotted  (Telecom 2800, Civil  97, Eletrical 247) across all circles.
2. ii) Mobile  TeleSystems  India  (MTS  India)  a  brand  of  Sistema  Shyam TeleServices  Limited  (SSTL)  has  conducted following  training        for  the students of various ITIs across the nation.
3. iii) While RJIL (Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited) has not tied up with ITIs for imparting  industry  specific  training  to  students,  RJIL  has  engaged  with various manpower service providers across all states that provide skilled manpower for various telecom network rollout and maintenance activities  such as Fiber splicing, Restoration technicians for towers, WiFi, small  cells,  maintenance  of  Li-ion  batteries,  electronic  equipments  etc. Such skilled manpower primarily comprises of students passed out from ITIs and at present more than 5,900 such students passed out from ITIs are working with such manpower service providers on RJIL's project.

|   S No. | Organisation   |   No. of Trainings |   Colleges |   Students trained |
|---------|----------------|--------------------|------------|--------------------|
|       1 | SSTL           |                 54 |         24 |               1500 |

e) Madam,  in  this  regard  it  is  submitted  that  this  Department  has  not  issued  any directive to Private Sector Telecom Service Providers for revamping Technical institutes such as ITI for Skill building.

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