The Hindu : Front Page : DoT willing to make minor changes in 3G policy: Raja

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Monday, Sep 08, 2008
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DoT willing to make minor changes in 3G policy: Raja

R.K. Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI: The Department of Telecom (DoT) is willing to make “micro-level” changes in the 3G policy, Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology A. Raja said in a major interview to The Hindu (excerpts from which are on the Op-Ed page).

“What has been decided is the macro-level policy…We are still open to more discussions and there is a provision for revision as and when necessary. But let it be clarified that we cannot keep changing policies because one company or the other does not like one aspect of the policy,” he said, when asked about the issue.

The auctions will go on as scheduled and the Ministry had taken into account objections from various quarters, including the GSM operators, he added.

Mr. Raja said that in the 15 months he has been in charge of the Ministry his focus has been on bringing about transparency in all aspects of the functioning of the Ministry. It was also his effort to ensure that the best in the business took part in tenders and auctions. As a consequence, investments were flowing in. .

Citing an example, he said that after the semiconductor policy was announced 12 proposals were received to set up large projects. These amounted to a total investment of Rs.92,915.38 crore.

Similarly, the Ministry was working on several ambitious projects and programmes to ensure that Internet connectivity percolated better to the villages and hamlets, too.

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