Make In India To Test & Certify In India: New Rules For Telecom Equipment

India is currently the world's second largest telecommunications market with a subscriber base of 1,206.22 million as of March 2018¹. India's mobile economy is growing rapidly and currently constitutes more than 98% of all telephone subscriptions.² During 2007-2018, the telephone subscriber base grew at a CAGR³ of 17.44% and the revenues from the telecom equipment sector are expected to cross US$ 26.38 billion by 2020⁴. Despite the exponential increase in the subscriber base, indigenous telecom equipment manufacturing has not kept pace and the sector continues to be dependent on foreign manufactured telecom equipment. Some factors that support this include the trade policy and the liberal tariff structure on import of telecom equipment in India. Other than the apparent benefits of local manufacturing, the focus on foreign manufactured telecom equipment does give rise to concerns from a security perspective. To boost indigenous manufacturing, the Modi Government had