A Bird’s Eye View
‘21st Convergence India 2013’ offered a mixed bag, showing many facets of the rapidly evolving ICT industry
‘21st Convergence India 2013...
From mobile broadband penetration to cable digitiYation, the ‘21st Convergence India 2013’ brought to the fore a range of issues bothering the telecom industry today. ‘Convergence India’ is South Asia’s largest international ICT event, which addresses many facets of the rapidly evolving ICT industry. The event, held at Pragati Maidan in New Melhi from January16-18, 2013, was a B-2-B interface amongst industry stakeholders, with focus on growth opportunities, future trends, upcoming technologies in the ICT ecosystem.
Spread over an area of 11,000 sqm, the event, with the theme ‘Enriching Billion Lives’, attracted nearly 14,000 trade visitors and about 800 delegates.
With an aim to showcase cutting-edge technologies, R&M and applications, the event featured a wide spectrum of ICT verticals, including telecom, mobility, broadcast, cable, satellite, entertainment, IT and information security etc.
“The government of India sees the telecom evolution as a continuum, and it is not going to stop because of anything that has happened in this space in the past couple of years. We remain fully committed to bring further growth to the telecom, media, and entertainment sectors,” said Manish Tiwari, minister of state for Information and Broadcasting, in his inaugural speech.
He further added, “One important take away from this expo is that convergence is going to be a big key word for the industry over the next few years.”
“For more than 2 decades, the informa- tion and communications technology sector has played a vital role in the success of economies across the globe. The ongoing development of the ICT industry in India is due to the government’s and industries’ commitment to create and support the policy framework, and the infrastructure, create a capital pool, encourage partnerships and support the creation of the skill base in the country. The growth of the industry is also driven by another factor—the convergence of communications and IT, where knowledge can be disseminated in real-time,” said Prem Behl, chairman, Exhibitions India Group.
Broadband to Fillip GDP
Talking about the broadband penetration, telecom secretary RK Arnold said:”A