Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has submitted a five point agenda to A Raja, the Communications and IT Minister, before the Budget is announced on July 6th. The industry body has brought it to the notice of the minister that there are various issues related to tower construction approvals, increasing broadband connectivity, spectrum and taxes, that need to be addressed in the upcoming budget. It has also supplied that reduction in levies and fees on operators' revenues could make in possible for the minister to achieve his call for a 10 to 20 paise tariff. Entertainment & Indic Languages On Net CII has suggested that the government ensure digitisation of music, video and film industry content in different Indian languages so there are more options of entertainment over the Internet. So when there is connectivity, a larger section of people are able to access entertainment. Our Take: Digitisation is already happening in the industry, and does not require the government's involvement. However, a thrust on Indic languages and encouraging more regional content on the web is necessary. It is being noted in the mobile sector that regional language services are very popular, but the web still has a dearth of content in Indian languages. Check our special focus on Indic Languages on Medianama. Single Window Clearance; Online Application A single-window clearance has been suggested to enable operators to gain permissions and payments for digging and setting up towers. CII has also suggested an online portal be offered to accelerate and standardise…
