"India is already ranked globally as the most active Internet user globally on a monthly basis. The Digital transaction will touch $100 trillion in the next 10 years," he told the audience. Kant further said that with 99 percent Aadhaar penetration and bank account opened under Jan Dhan Yojana, the scope was immense for the FinTech industry.
Addressing the delegates, Aruna Sundararajan, Chairman TC & Secy (IT), Dept of Telecommunication, Govt of India, said that "for Internet of Things (IoT) to happen we need to have a robust 4G ecosystem in the country and I am hopeful that by the end of this year, we will have a pan-India 4G network availability." She further mentioned that the government has constituted a task force for national mission and vision for rolling out 5G network in the country. The taskforce will come out with the roadmap soon and the Dept of Telecommunications is keen on partnering with key telecom providers in the roll out stage.
Underlining on increasing the internet penetration in the country, she said that the government aspires to increase the wifi access points from 40, 000 to 5 lakhs by the end of 2018.
Earlier in the day, Rajan Anandan, Chairman, IAMAI & Vice President, Google India & South-East Asia delivering the inaugural address said that it is an exciting time for internet in India. Availability of very low cost high speed mobile Internet connection in 2017 moved a slow speed nation to a high speed nation.
He also expressed hope that the next set of unicorns in India will not just be a unicorn but will be profitable.
In his address, Ajit Mohan, CEO of Hotstar said that democratization of data is happening with growing data consumption in Tier 3 cities.
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