Lok Sabha Question No. 247 (STARRED), answered on 2016-05-11
Subject: Telecom Sector
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: SUDHEER GUPTA, GAJANAN CHANDRAKANT KIRTIKAR

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO.247

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 11 TH  MAY, 2016

## TELECOM SECTOR

- *247.  SHRI SUDHEER GUPTA: SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKAR:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) the number of jobs directly or/and indirectly created by telecom sector during each of the last three years and the current year;
- (b) whether the Government is aware of numerous jobs expected to be generated by this sector and its allies as envisaged by India Skills Report, 2016;
- (c) if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereon;
- (d) whether only a small proportion of the population in rural areas is using mobile and internet facility in the country; and
- (e) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  reasons  therefor  along  with  the  measures taken/being taken by the Government to improve the situation?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) to (e) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF THE LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *247  FOR 11 TH MAY, 2016  REGARDING  'TELECOM SECTOR '.

(a) The number of Jobs directly or/and indirectly created by telecom sector during each of the last three years and the current year are contained in the table below

| S No   | Financial Year          | Direct Jobs   | Indirect Jobs   | Total    |
|--------|-------------------------|---------------|-----------------|----------|
| 1      | 2013-14                 | 39,089        | 50,545          | 89,634   |
| 2      | 2014-15                 | 24,573        | 37,000          | 61,573   |
| 3      | 2015-16                 | 49,071        | 45,223          | 94,294   |
| 4      | 2016-17 (till 30-04-16) | 2,313         | 6,369           | 8,682    |
|        | Total                   | 1,15,046      | 1,39,137        | 2,54,183 |

It is further submitted that above are the created Jobs that have been captured from major Service Providers to the extent maintained by them.

(b) & (c) Yes,  the  Government  is  aware  of  numerous  jobs  expected  to  be generated by this sector and its allies as envisaged by India Skill Report, 2016.   In fact  anticipating  the  need,      the  Government  has  already  conducted  the  Skill  Gap study  for  telecom  sector.      The  Skill  Gap  study  for  telecom  sector  was  conducted under the aegis of National Skill Development Corporation with the support of DOT in 2013-14  to  assess  the  manpower  requirement  (2013-2022)  at  different  skill  and expertise levels to identify the relevant needs of the Telecom Sector and prepare a roadmap.

The Skill Gap study report of  the Government  states : The Telecom Industry is  expected  to  generate  significant  number  of  new  jobs  and  that  in  2013  total Telecommunications  Workforce  was  2.08  million  and  is  expected  to  rise  to  4.16 million by 2022  thus creating need for further 2.08 million telecom skilled manpower.

As per report,  the sub-sector wise skill requirements in Telecom Sector are :

(All figures in lakhs)

|   SLNO | Sector                     |   Work Force 2013 |   Work Force 2022 |   GAP |
|--------|----------------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------|
|      1 | Service Providers          |              6.19 |             11.87 |  5.68 |
|      2 | Infra Providers            |              0.96 |              1.31 |  0.35 |
|      3 | Telecom Eqpt Manufacturers |              4.51 |              6.36 |  1.85 |
|      4 | Network & IT Vendor        |              4.55 |              7.68 |  3.13 |
|      5 | Telecom Retail             |              4.6  |             14.38 |  9.78 |
|      6 | Total                      |             20.81 |             41.6  | 20.79 |

In addition to skill gap analysis done by the Government,  private entities have also stepped  in,  one such series of reports are India Skill Report 2015, India skill Report 2016 etc.

India Skill Report 2016 launched on 26-11-15 has been produced by People Strong  &  Wheebox in  collaboration  with  Confederation  of  Indian  Industry  (CII), LinkedIn and Association of Indian Universities (AIU).

## The key points of India Skills Report 2016 are briefed below:

- ( i) the report has appreciated the  National Career Service initiative of the Govt which focuses on connecting all existing  employment exchanges of the country and creates a kind of employment exchange board.    The  report  says  that NCS  is  expected  to  act  as  one-stop platform  for    both  employees  and  employer.    Currently  2  cr  job seekers are already on board on this online platform.
- (ii) the report appreciates Skill India initiative of the Govt  to skill train about  120  lakh  youth  in  the  country  within  a  small  span  of  time This would make India the Human Resource Capital of the world.
- (iii) the  employability  index  showed  a  minor  improvement  from  last year, rising to 38.12% from 37.22%. The hiring sentiment also looks positive,  with  employers  across  sectors  expecting  an  average increase of about 14.5 % from last year's hiring numbers.
- (iv) the report states that the percentage increase in hiring    is  25  %  in Telecom and allied services - this is the highest in comparison to all sectors.

The Government is fully aware of the Telecom Sector job generation and the need  for  telecom  skilled  manpower  so  that  Telecom  industry  does  not  feel  the shortage of skilled manpower and the telecom growth story continues.

As a result of emphasis led on skilling youth in the Telecom Sector, 6,40,210 skill  development trainings  have  already  been  provided  in  last  03  financial years  till  31/03/2016. Further,    it  is  proposed  to  provide  skill  development trainings to over 2 lakh candidates in the financial year 2016-17 and still further in subsequent years to cater the projected needs of the Telecom Sector.

- (d) No,  it is not correct to say that only small proportion of population in rural areas is  using  mobile  and  internet  facility  in  the  country.  The  following  data  is  placed herewith to establish the same :

- i. Total telephones as on 29/02/2016  ( in millions)  :   1052.38

- ii. Total rural telephones as on 29/02/2016  (in millions) :  441.99

- iii. Over all Tele-density  as on 29/02/2016       :    82.93 %

- iv.

- Rural     Tele-density  as on 29/02/2016       :    50.63 %

Further  since  mobile  penetration  is  increasing  and  smart  phone  prices  are declining day-by-day, the mobile broadband usage is on the rising accordingly.

- (e)   Although there is a considerable penetration of mobile and the internet in rural India,      yet  the  Government  continuously  strives  to  improve  the  same  still  further. Following  measures  have  been  taken  by  the  Government  to  increase  mobile  and internet penetration in rural area :

- i) BBNL has been mandated to provide Infrastructure for broadband connectivity in all  2,50,000 Gram Panchayats of the Country. The work is to be executed in phases. Under phase -I,  one lakh GPs shall be provided with the connectivity by  March' 2017.
2. ii) Rural  Wireline Broadband :  For providing broadband connectivity to rural  &  remote  areas,  USOF  (Universal  Service  Obligation  Fund)  has signed  an  Agreement  with  state  owned  BSNL  on  January  20,  2009 under  the  Rural  Wireline  Broadband  Scheme to  provide  wire-line broadband connectivity to rural & remote areas by leveraging the existing rural exchanges infrastructure and copper wire-line network. This scheme is being implemented at pan-India level.

Under this scheme, BSNL will provide 8,88,832 wire-line Broadband connections to individual users and Government Institutions and will set  up 28,672  Kiosks over  a  period  of  6-years,  i.e.,  by  2015.    The estimated subsidy outflow is Rs. 1500 crore in 5 years' time.

The roll out period of the scheme is over in January, 2015.  Under this scheme,  a total  of  6,56,345  broadband  connections  and  15,671 kiosks have been provided.

- iii)  Government PSU,  the BSNL has taken under mentioned steps towards rural mobile and internet services :
- 1)  Augmentation of broadband speed up to 2Mbps for all the customers including rural
- 2) BSNL  has  extended  its  services  to  approx  1,70,000  villages  and providing  rural  broadband    at  discounted  tariffs  in  association  with USOF.
- 3) BSNL  is  partnering  with  DIT  to  provide  broadband  connectivity  to approx  1,00,000 service  centers in rural India.
- 4) BSNL has provided cellular coverage to 68.6 % villages.

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