MSMEs in Telecom: DoT Secy Wants Private Sector Competition

New Delhi Jan 29 (PTI) Noting that small, innovative companies are building some "excellent" products, Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal on Monday said he wished to see MSMEs vie and compete not only for public sector tenders but also mark their presence in private sector orders.

Mittal, the top bureaucrat at the Telecom Department, further said the government is "looking to improve" the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme and sought the views and inputs from Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) for the new, better scheme.

The telecom component ecosystem must develop in India, he said observing "it is not good enough to bring sub-systems and assemble them here and bring efficiencies in the low-value addition part".

"We also need to build a telecom component ecosystem in India," Mittal said speaking at the international business expo - Bharat Telecom 2024.

The startup ecosystem will be a driver and enabler of employment, technology and manufacturing, going forward, he said.

"... How the small MSMEs who are doing and making excellent products also are able to compete with big companies in orders which are not only placed by public sector units, but also private telecom players...

"I will be happy when MSMEs are able to compete, not just in tenders of Bharat Net, which is a government procurement project, but of private sector rollouts which are happening," he said.