New Government, New Hopes

The election marathon is finally over and India now has a new Government. With the Congress and its allies winning an almost decisive mandate, there's a lot of optimism that we will some movement and clarity on several long-pending issues. From the telecom industry point of view, the two most important items on the to-do list are:

1. Auction of 3G and BWA spectrum

2. Action on the recommendations of the committee on spectrum-related issues

It's high time that India had a clear and forward-looking spectrum policy. The current ad-hoc approach has benefited none of the interested parties including mobile operators, the end user as well the exchequer. Over the past few days, a lot of noise has been generated by the Congress' desire to keep infrastructure-related ministries within the party in order to accelerate development on several existing and upcoming projects. Let's hope that telecom infrastructure is also accorded due importance by the new government.