Amidst the spreading gloom of the economic downturn following the global financial meltdown, the Indian telecom
sector provides the proverbial silver lining. The growth in mobile connections has continued at around 10 million
a month and investment prospects remain bullish. It is important at this stage to ensure that investor confidence is
maintained by further improving the regulatory environment and ensuring that the policy regime promotes growth. In this context, I am delighted that a team of eminent researchers led by Professor Rajat Kathuria of ICRIER undertook to examine the social and economic impacts of mobile telephony in India, with a view to improving the knowledge content for policy-making in this important sector. The project team has analysed what we consider to be an extremely important and relevant topic today. This project is a good example of ICRIER’s strategy of
carrying out research which generates analytical and empirical results relevant for generating analytical and empirical inputs pushing forward the reform agenda and for contributing to policy formulation in the country
