UPA era was all about crony capitalism, corruption in telecom sector: MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar

New Delhi [India], August 2 : Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Wednesday alleged that the Congress-led United Progressive alliance (UPA) government era was all about “crony capitalism and corruption in the telecom sector.”
MoS Chandrasekhar addressed the media today and discussed the significant changes in the telecom sector during the past nine years of the BJP Government, in contrast to the previous UPA regime which he referred to as a lost decade.
He pointed out four important areas, among others, where the current BJP Government has brought transformative changes to the telecom sector — stopping corruption and crony capitalism, boosting investor confidence, reducing reliance on imports, and enhancing the quality of telecom services.
“The 10 years under UPA in telecom was certainly a lost decade, it was all about scams whether it was the 2G scam or the trunk exchange scam. Even BSNL had become a loss making liability on the public exchequer by 2014. There was crony capitalism and crony licensing. India has one of the fastest growing telecom networks in the world. We have auctioned spectrum, issued licenses with absolute transparency and integrity. Every rupee gained from spectrum auctions has gone to the public exchequer and deployed in social spending schemes of the Government”, MoS Chandrasekhar said during his interaction.
The minister also highlighted the shift in investor sentiment. “In the past, there was hesitancy among foreign investors due to crony capitalism and corruption. Now, with the ease of doing business and government reforms, there is a growing positive sentiment among investors both from India and abroad”, he said.
“There was a flight of capital and flight of foreign investors. A large number of telecom international brand names that invested in India, left because their businesses were destroyed mainly due to corruption or crony capitalism. In India techade, due to ease of doing business and Government's reforms – there is a stable, growing and positive investor sentiment. We are rapidly investing into the sector, growing the overall market capitalisation and size of this segment in the digital economy,” the minister added.
Minister Chandrasekhar further highlighted the reduction in import dependency for telecom equipment and devices. He said that in the lost decade, over 85 per cent of devices were imported.
However, in the current India ‘techade’, India has become more self-reliant, with 100 per cent of devices being made, tested, and assembled in India, he added.
He said, “In the lost decade we were completely dependent on imports, whether they were equipment for the network or for devices. In the lost decade over 85 per cent of all devices were imported and today 100 per cent of the devices are made, tested, assembled in India, exported from India to even countries like North America.”
During his interaction MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar also expressed optimism about the telecom sector's growth and its crucial role in India's digital economy journey towards a trillion-dollar economy by 2026.
“In the lost decade consumers faced a constant decline in the quality of services in telecom. In the India techade, the whole equation has turned. Networks have a higher quality today, operators are incentivised and tasked, investing more base stations and capacities in the wireless network. We are the second fastest rolling 5G network in the world. And over 700 districts in India have already had 5G coverage. Over 500,000 base stations have been rolled out in this cutting edge technology and we are already having a vision and a roadmap for 6G,” the minister added.