The three-
day India Mobile Congress (IMC), showcasing India’s digital march ended today.
This year’s event, with its’ theme of “New Digital Horizons – Connect. Create. Innovate” established the IMC as a regular platform for global and local stakeholders in the sector to collaborate in the cause of exploring opportunities and leveraging possibilities, with specific focus on South and South-East Asia.
Addressing media on the last day of IMC Indian Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said, “IMC 2018 was no less in terms of substance, scale, and style compared to the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona.”
Over 5,000 delegates from 20 countries participated in the event, which saw more than 300 companies showcasing their latest and best technologies, products, services, and applications.
IMC witnessed the presence of high-level ministerial delegations from several BIMSTEC and ASEAN countries. Ministers from the European Commission, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal, and Lao PDR led their respective delegations, and participated in plenary sessions which were focused on the specific needs, challenges, and opportunities applicable to member countries of these regional forums.
The presence of the high-level delegations also offered them an opportunity for bilateral meetings with their Indian counterparts, where topics of mutual interest were discussed, and possibilities of strengthening cooperation were explored.
An interesting feature of this edition of the IMC was the focused attention on the critical Start-ups ecosystem. More than 200 start-ups marked their presence at the event, with their booths displaying ideas and innovations which seek to leverage the potential of digital communications to create and meet ever-changing consumer needs – in areas such as artificial intelligence, integrated services, healthcare, pharma, security, safety, food, sports, social networking, travel, education, and disaster management, among others.
The event was also noteworthy for some very remarkable announcements which clearly established the direction of the Indian digital communications industry over the next several years. The Government of India announced the commitment of the industry to rollout One Million WiFi Hotspots in the Country by December 2019.
The National Frequency Allocation Plan (NFAP) 2018 was also unveiled at the event. NFAP 2018 frees up a total of 605 MHz spectrum in the 5-GHz band for Wi-Fi services.
Speaking at the event Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said, “These initiatives provide an excellent launch pad for achieving the goals such as Broadband for All, which are outlined in our recently released National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) 2018.”
