Shri Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communications & Information Technology has said that the excellent progress made by the Telecom sector, especially the mobile industry is the result of a strong spirit of cooperation and commitment that has been building up over the last nearly three years between the Government and the industry. The Government on its part has maintained a strong focus on the ongoing telecom reforms which, coupled with aggressive efforts of the industry, have catapulted the sector to the cutting edge of liberalization, innovation and competition. Shri Maran said this today while addressing the Leadership Summit at the 3GSM World Congress at Barcelona. . The Minister is currently leading a high level delegation to Spain to take part in the deliberations of the Third Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) World Congress being held from 12th February 2007 to 15th February 2007 at Barcelona.
Speaking on the theme, Mobile Money Transfer (MMT), Shri Maran said that the impact of the mobile phone in changing the lives of millions of users is well known. This small communication device has single-handedly brought about a total societal transformation in the developing countries. It has become a tool for improved connectivity, higher productivity, greater social empowerment, giving information at the touch of a button. The total mobile subscriber base in India now stands at around 155 million subscribers and with this India has assumed third position worldwide only next to China and Russia.
Shri Maran further said that the MMT project is particularly relevant and important for India which is the largest recipient of international remittances from about 20 to 25 million Indians working across 130 countries. The World Bank has estimated in 2005 that Indian expatriates remitted over 22 billion US Dollars back home. Therefore, remitting funds need to be very simple and quick, he said. The MMT programme is focused on catering to the needs of the large expatriate community of people from developing countries who live and work away from their homes and families and regularly remit money back to their families and the beloved ones. The MMT program is a landmark initiative by GSMA to use the mobile phone as a device to reach increasingly greater economic and social benefits to the growing community of mobile users.
Shri Maran expressed pleasure over the larger participation by the Indian companies in the MMT program demonstrating their commitment to improving the life standards . He hoped that MMT is one project that would fulfill the vision of taking technology to masses in the developing countries. The Indian Government is fully committed to making this project a resounding success and I assure you that we will do all we can to enable and facilitate the earliest implementation of this project to deliver the full benefits of the same to the Indian citizens.
RM/AMA-120207 3GSM at Barcelona
(Release ID :24731)