IT Correspondent
Delhi/Mumbai, June 18:
Even as China launched attack at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh’s Galwan valley, the Union telecom ministry (Department of Telecom(DoT) has reworked the BSNL 4G network upgradation tender, to exclude Chinese companies.
The telecom ministry is also likely to urge all telecom companies in India not to source components and equipment from Chinese firms. They should not use Chinese apparatus for 4 G facility upgrade and refloat the tenders and reduce dependability on Chinese equipments.
The share of Chinese firms is 25 per cent in Rs 12000 crore turn over of the Indian internet companies. If the Indian companies discard the Chinese equipments and decide to purchase them from USA and Europe, they will have to shell out 10 to 15 per cent more. However in view of the changed scenario, they will have to abide by Government directions.
Now it is almost certain that the DoT will not allow Chinese telecom giant “Huawei” to participate in India’s 5G rollout. It is to be noted that India had allowed the Chinese telecom player for 5G trials in 2019 despite security concerns raised by US and Europe.
The union Government wants even Indian Private mobile service operators to reduce their dependence on Chinese products. The excessive dependence on Chinese apparatus also poses danger to the Network security equipments.
In another development, amid escalating border tensions with China, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has released a list of over 500 Chinese products to be boycotted. The list includes FMCG products, consumer durables, toys, furnishing fabrics, textiles, builder hardware, footwear, apparel, kitchen items, among others. By calling for the boycott of these Chinese products, the objective is to reduce import of Chinese finished goods by $13 billion or about Rs one lakh crore, by December 2021,” CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said.
“We have urged the government to cancel Delhi-Meerut RRTS project and give it to an Indian company instead of the Chinese firm. The government should look closely at Chinese funding in various Indian start ups such as “Paytm” and “BigBasket,” Khandelwal said. The issue of “People’s Bank of China” (PBoC) recently raising its stake in the country’s largest non-banking mortgage provider HDFC, has also been taken up. CAIT requests movie stars to refrain from endorsing Chinese products.
CAIT has selected over 500 broad categories of items including over 3,000 items which are currently imported from China and easily replaceable by Indian manufactured goods. Manufacturing of these items do not require any sophisticated technology and they can be manufactured in India. This will reduce India’s dependence on China for these goods, he added.
CAIT claims to represent 7 crore traders and 40,000 trade associations across the country. It has already launched a campaign to boycott Chinese goods with an aim to reduce India’s imports of Chinese products.
