India is the world’s second largest smartphone market. The Indian telecom industry is going through one of its most exciting phases, and there is no better platform to showcase these changes than the India Mobile Congress (IMC). IMC is South Asia’s largest digital technology forum where voice, data and a billion people converge. Corporate Citizen chats with P Ramakrishna, CEO of the India Mobile Congress and Principal Advisor at Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) about the Telecom Industry in India, the 5G revolution, and what goes into organizing a world-class global event in record time
It is the best of time because the future and opportunities in the sector are many folds. The way technology is shaping up with the inclusion of 5G, IoT, AI, and AR/VR, these things are transforming business opportunities in the telecom industry. It is also the worst of times because of a price war leading to tariffs being the lowest in the world and high taxation, levies and spectrum cost. I am pretty sure that the situation would be back in favor of the industry eventually.
We missed the bus on 3G. We were behind the rest of the world when it came to 3G adoption. When it came to 4G, we bridged the gap to a large extent. But we were still a little behind. Now that we are on the cusp of 5G, The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) doesn't want to lose the opportunity to make India a front leader. We have a good secretary in Ms Aruna Sundararajan, and I am confident India will be in line with the rest of the world when it comes to the 5G revolution.
Those constraints are huge. Already our earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBIDTA) are less. Telecom has an extremely high capital requirement so the investments made in the industry are enormous. Also, 5G is a completely new deployment. Unlike 2G and 3G, you cannot overlay on the existing network and get it done. The spectrum is different, the electronics are different. Large investments will be required on the spectrum as well as the auctions. That being said, I expect things to stabilize soon.
Yes, because India being a prominent player in the telecom industry, we do not have an event that addresses the technology which enabled the needs of over one billion consumers. We want IMC to be destination technology event for the whole of South Asia. Many level 2, level 3 team members of the telecom ecosystem have very little opportunity to visit MWC or CES. We want IMC to take this role.
We are also in discussions with MWC for partnering and enhancing the level of IMC. MWC DG was in IIMC 2018 and was surprised by the audience and quality of the programe. Three of our members are on the board of GSMA. We have a good representation there. MWC wanted to send a team of technical people to evaluate us. This is extremely encouraging and we will be sharing this data with MWC on our Barcelona visit. That should help sway opinion in India's favour.
I was a part of the first digital modem designed in India in the year 1992. I was part of the first wireless roll out in a telecom circle for JT Mobiles in Andhra Pradesh in 1995-96. I was a founding member of a startup in the passive infrastructure sector called Aster. I ran the company to the USA and was there for 12 years. Then came India Mobile Congress. I had no background of events. With just our thoughts and ideas, we managed to make it a success.
There are a lot of risk elements one has to consider. Last year we played it a little safe and took on a partner who has a background. We held the event in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. Pragati Maidan has all the infrastructure already built in, but we had to just put the pieces together. This year we did the event in Aerocity, New Delhi, and it was a forest land of about 10 acres. They gave us possession of the land on October 11th. They were supposed to give us possession on October 6th, but there was a delay. The event was on October 23rd. Everyone puts up their stalls by the 20th. We built the entire structure on 50,000 square meters from scratch in less than just 12 days. Putting a world-class event with zero error for 56,000 visitors, 5000 Global CXO’s, four Govt. of India Ministers, delegation from 30 nations, facilitating requirements for 700 plus media personals required close to about 1000 staff working day and night with a management team of seven members was a herculean task and we are proud that we executed successfully.
Absolutely. Let me give you an example. The South Koreans (Samsung) signed up with us and they came to see the facility. At that time, they saw the venue and took pictures and sent it back to their headquarters. They had signed a contract with us that they would be the Principal Sponsor. They were worried upon seeing the pictures and asked us how we would manage to complete building the structure on time and they were doubtful that the event would go as planned. They came down again a week later and surveyed the venue. They were amazed at the progress we had made in just a week. They took pictures again and sent them back to Korea. This time, a reply came. "This is Incredible India".
We want IMC to be destination technology event for the whole of South Asia. Many level 2, level 3 team members of the telecom ecosystem have very little opportunity to visit MWC or CES. We want IMC to take this role
Yes, I believe there is. There are two issues. There is a gap and there is a change. Telecom is a constantly evolving industry. The needs of the industry keep changing and educational institutes sometimes struggle to keep pace. The new National Digital Communication Policy lays out the opportunity to build 10 million jobs in the sector and institutes need to gear up to skill and train this kind of resources.
I am a subject matter expert on Electromotive Force (EMF). I conduct a lot of talks on this subject. Electromagnetic radiation can be categorized into two types: ionizing (e.g., X-rays, Radon, and cosmic rays) and non-ionizing. The energy of electromagnetic radiation is determined by its frequency; ionizing radiation is high frequency, and therefore high energy. Whereas, non-ionizing radiation is low frequency, and therefore low in energy. Ionizing radiation can be dangerous, whereas non-ionizing radiation is safe.
The radiation emitted by mobile phones falls into the category of non-ionising radiation – lower energy radiation that doesn't have enough energy to damage our cells. Visible light, infrared, microwaves and radio waves are all forms of non-ionizing radiation.
There are thresholds according to world standards. Usually, these thresholds have a built-in safety factor of 50 (unit). Over that, India added a safety factor of 10. In effect, the thresholds in India have a safety factor of 500 times. Network operators have to adhere to these. If these thresholds are reduced any further, it may lead to call drops or other network related issues as already we are well within the prescribed limits. I don't know there are other countries that have as high safety factors built in as India.
IMC 2019 is scheduled for 14-16th October 19 at Aerocity. The theme for IMC 2019 is Imagine The New Connected World: Intelligent, Immersive and Inventive. Under this we would bring nine sub themes 1) Intelligent Edge 2) Autonomous Things 3) Immersive World 4) Privacy and Ethics 5) Smart Spaces 6) Augmented Analytic's 7) Future Logistics 8) Health and 9) Inventive Unicorns. We would bring Trails, Product Launches, Investments, experience, Discussions, Knowledge Sharing and Networking in all these areas. We have confirmations from some Global Leaders and CEOs and looking forward to double the size of visitors footfall and companies participating. Already we are working on exclusive 150 international buyers visit and promote Make in India products through a buyers/sellers meet. We have now doubled the net area, our conference facilities are extended by an extra seminar hall. We envisage five government ministries supporting us. Our exhibitors too are going to be a lot more this time.
IMC always had a section on startups. Last year it was on apps and this year we would focus on 5G use cases. We are tying up with 5G test labs of Ericsson, and others to encourage startups on new use cases and applications
IMC always had a section on startups. Last year it was on apps and this year we would focus on 5G use cases. We are tying up with 5G test labs of Ericsson, and others to encourage startups on new use cases and applications. We are also in discussion with Agni – The Innovation Foundation, Govt. of India to bridge Innovation and International Commercialization gap in Technology Sector. Our theme for startups this year is Inventive Unicorn’s; with an objective that last five years India has focused a lot on developing startup ecosystem and we have thousands of them now, but what next? How do we scale them up? How do we nurture them to be Unicorns? How does the 5000 global CXO’s present at IMC 2019 would look at these startups, for unique cooperation? With this focused approach for startups, we want some tangible benefits to the participants including funding opportunities. We already achieved some success with startups participated last year and we are happy we are able to bring value. We are going to give free space for startups for exhibiting their products.
Yes, we are growing by 200% every year, we are EBITA profitable, but we are not looking for any funding at this stage. Looking at this exciting sector – technology, it is going to be an interesting space in the next 3-4 years with the 5G road map. A lot of technology companies would like to focus on 5G related products and services and most of them need a platform like IMC to showcase. We are well supported by our parent Body COAI members and we are ready to sustain the growth by unique partnership models without sacrificing our objective as South Asia’s largest technology showcase. Our only challenge at this stage is that we do not have an international standards scalable exhibition centres to host such big events in India. Hope the new ones being constructed in Delhi would give an opportunity to scale to MWC Barcelona level in coming years.
Some positive steps have been taken by the Govt. of India to encourage manufacturing in India. It has already excited international companies such as Samsung, Xiaomi, and Oppo to set up manufacturing facilities in India. Now we see a growing ancillary of industries coming up in Noida and SriCity in Andhra Pradesh in a big way which include Lithium Batteries, Glasses, Screens etc. But the real ecosystem in manufacturing would come only when we have foundries and fabs, which I see as a distant future as globally all units have currently surplus capacity. Now Govt. policies should be discussed to encourage these companies to set up big floor shop in India.
We are growing by 200% every year, we are EBITA profitable, but we are not looking for any funding at this stage. Looking at this exciting sector - technology, it is going to be an interesting space in the next 3-4 years with the 5G road map.
Content and rise of Chinese Hubs such as Baidu, Alibaba was more to do with demand in China and local language barriers. But for companies such as Google, Amazon etc they do not have language barriers for the Indian market, they have only policy barriers. So I see one more Baidu won’t be there in India, but there would be a Google or Amazon, or Walmart having biggest operations second to the US in India. Companies like Jio and Airtel would play a dominant role in content aggregation platform hosting, service bundling, and user acquisition. Companies like Jio, Airtel should focus as in the US like Verizon and AT&T and make sure the technology delivery hold iswith them rather than an e-commerce play. Understanding the diverse role each of this business conglomerate as they can adopt new business models and one such can be e-commerce.
Our objective is very clear that we want to bring as big if not bigger event than MWC Barcelona to India. India should be the doorstep to technology innovation and technology adoption and it should showcase its strength to the world through IMC. Top Global CXO’s should mark their calendar as the must attend event for the year. We are also looking into bringing social upliftment for the nearby society and business with this global footfall. Each year of IMC would bring millions to local car rentals, Hotels, food houses, event industry and other SMEs.
There should definitely be a balance. There should be an understanding with your partner and it took time for us to build but we have achieved that balance. I am allowed to work from anywhere. If I do not have work in Delhi, I go back to Hyderabad. I travel only when I am required to.
I love spending time with my kids
By Neeraj Varty
