The indian mobile service sector’s contribution to the Indian GDP may reach 8.2% or Rs. 14 lakh crore by 2020 according to GSMA’s report. The report said that the sector accounted for 6.1% of India’s GDP last year and contributed Rs. 7.7 lakh to the economy. Alasdair Grant. GSMA Head of Asia, told PTI, “This contribution is forecast to almost double to Rs 14 lakh crore by 2020, which would represent 8.2 per cent of the projected GDP by that point.” He added, “It also makes a highly significant contribution to the funding of the Indian public sector, contributing around Rs 1.1 lakh crore in 2014 in the form of taxation and spectrum auction payments.”
Last month, a report by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said that the country has over a billion telephone subscribers. However, GSMA’s report states that the number of unique users was about 453 million by the end of 2014 and may cross 500 million this year. Additionally, it estimates that by 2020, there will be 734 million unique mobile subscribers. Furthermore, the report said that mobile subscriber rate was at 36% at the end of 2014 and it is estimated to reach 54% by 2020.
The report stated that more than 500 million new smartphone connections are expected between 2015 and 2020 to make it a total of 690 million smartphone connections. According to the report, there were 149 million connections in 2014. It also found that 13% of the world’s mobile subscribers reside in India and the growth of subscribers is expected to exceed regional and global averages over the next few years. Earlier this year, Ericsson has said that the number of mobile subscribers in India will rise to 1.4 billion by 2020.
Earlier this month, India also became one of the fastest growing consumers of electronic products in the world. It was reported that India’s electronic imports could exceed the overseas purchases of bullion of the first time this year due to an increase in the import of smartphones. Estimates based on government data showed that import of electronics exceeded those of gold and silver in the first six months of the current financial year.
Source: PTI