Union Cabinet passes National Digital Communications Policy 2018

Yesterday, the Union Cabinet passed the National Digital Communications Policy 2018 (NDCP-2018) and approved the re-designation of the Telecom Commission as the "Digital Communications Commission".

The key objectives of the policy are provisioning of Broadband for all; creating 4 Million additional jobs in the Digital Communications sector; enhancing the contribution of the Digital Communications sector to 8% of India’s GDP from ~ 6% in 2017; propelling India to the Top 50 Nations in the ICT Development Index of ITU from 134 in 2017; enhancing India’s contribution to Global Value Chains; and ensuring Digital Sovereignty. These objectives are to be achieved by 2022.

The policy, among other things, aims to provide universal broadband connectivity at 50Mbps to every citizen; provide 1 Gbps connectivity to all Gram Panchayats of India by 2020 and 10 Gbps by 2022; ensure connectivity to all uncovered areas; attract investments of USD 100 Billion in the Digital Communications Sector; train 1 Million manpower for building New Age Skill; expand IoT ecosystem to 5 Billion connected devices; establish a comprehensive data protection regime for digital communications that safeguards the privacy, autonomy and choice of individuals and facilitates India’s effective participation in the global digital economy; and Enforce accountability through appropriate institutional mechanisms to assure citizens of safe and secure digital communications infrastructure and services.

#NDCP Mission:
Establish a strong, flexible & robust Data Protection Regime.
Provide Autonomy & Choice for every citizen & enterprise,
Assure Security of Digital Comm,
Developing comprehensive plan for network preparedness,disaster response relief, restoration & reconstruction.

— DoT India (@DoT_India) September 26, 2018