Vodafone Idea (Vi), the third-largest telecom operator in the country, has partnered with ICRIER (Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations) to set up a Telecom Centre of Excellence (CoE) and has named the centre ‘InViCT’ (ICRIER and Vodafone Idea Centre for Telecom). P Balaji, Chief Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Officer, Vodafone Idea and Deepak Mishra, Director & CEO, ICRIER, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the national capital.
What is the Purpose of CoE Setup by Vi and ICRIER?
The CoE’s objective is to facilitate research advisory and policy support in the field of “telecom policy, governance, and regulation”, with a view to contributing toward the Digital India vision. With this CoE, stakeholders from the industry, academia, and the government will come together on a single platform for facilitating the development of a coordinated policy response to the emerging business and technology trends for the country’s telecom sector. In the 5G era, an environment of technology innovation is a must. At the same time, the country must utilise its talent pool better, and also, there’s a need for a higher level of security in the digital infrastructure to manage and nullify national security threats to ensure economic upliftment through increased connectivity. InViCT will identify and capture the best practices, knowledge, sharing and addressing the needs of regulation, policy, and governance impacting the telecom sector of India. The aim of the body will be to ensure that sustainable growth of the Indian telecom sector keeps on taking place, and this will also boost the Indian government’s Digital India initiative. InViCT will function as an autonomous research Centre bringing together stakeholders from the private sector, academia, and government, building on their joint dynamism and strengths with the best of the talent in the country. Its core research will focus on the broader areas of policies, regulation and practice related to telecom and associated sectors, including ICT.
