India's Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry aims to make India a teleport hub, enabling the country to become an up-linking/down-linking centre like Hong Kong and Singapore.
Speaking at the CII Media & Entertainment Summit 2012 in New Delhi, Uday Kumar Varma, Secretary, I&B Ministry, said that becoming a teleport hub could help India to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and move up in the value chain in content generation.
Varma said that the government will set up centres of excellence that would produce technical professionals to cater to the needs of high-end human resources and IPR creation, under public-private partnership to give impetus to the animation, gaming and VFX industry.
Regarding the country's current digitisation drive in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai, which is due to be completed on 1 November, Varma said that an average of 45-50,000 set top boxes are being installed every day and said that the digitisation would be completed on time. “The transformation, we all agree, will bring in rich dividends to the entire broadcasting industry, government and importantly the people of the country,” he added.
