Telecom minister seeks centre’s policy on Chinese equipment

Union telecom minister A Raja met home minister P Chidambaram yesterday to discuss and review the centre's policy in procuring telecom equipment from Chinese suppliers that have been blocked due to security concerns.

It is not clear whether A Raja had gone to meet Chidambaram at the behest of Indian telecom operators or the Chinese suppliers, since the Indian government has made it clear that it will come out with a clear-cut policy on all future imports of telecom equipment from any country.

So what was Raja trying to do? ask commentators. Pressure the home minister to just giving a blanket go ahead for the import of telecom equipments even if it is at the cost of the country's security?

Raja is reported to have asked the home minister to review the policy soon and issue fresh guidelines since it was causing delays in procurement of equipment and private operators along with their foreign collaborators have expressed their concern on the delay.

"I shall be grateful if you could kindly review the whole issue and lay down procedure in a manner so that the growth of telecom sector is not hampered," Raja said in a letter, which he handed over to the home minister.

But of crucial importance was the issue raised by Raja in the letter of foreign vendors raising concerns that the government's stand was inconsistent with its commitments to intellectual property rights in multilateral forums such as WTO.