Opinion: High priced restrictive entry, distorted regulations make India’s telecom sector unattractive

In the wake of COVID-19, the PM has emphasized the opportunity to attract FDI by transforming the business environment and urged policy makers to ease the way business is done. The current configuration of broken supply chains and the problem arising from dominance of China in many sectors provide a space where investments in India look attractive.

The obvious question that arises is why not take this opportunity to review the policy and regulation for domestic players ? The need to focus on sectors like telecom that are the bedrock of the knowledge and service economy is critical. This is a sector where Indian businesses have scale (each of the private operator has more than 325 mn subscribers.) and yet only a single private operator of the three seems to be doing well. In no other part of the world, the sector as a whole is under stress. And remember this stress was there long before COVID -19.