It is known that the Indian economy is at an all-time low at the moment and the Covid pandemic made the sub-continent suffer to a greater extent when compared to any other country in this world. Now, this effected the Telecom companies in India which are already is a state of disarray for the past few years.
After globalization, it has become a habit for Indian companies to depend on other countries. Taking this as an opportunity, the Chinese have made it a habit to make goods at the lowest prices in the world. Everyone was habited to the Chinese supply and molded their operations in that way from the first. The entire operation runs in an organized way with the constant Chinese supply but now, Modi giving a call to the Indians for ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ really gave a shock to the Indian Telecom companies.
Already they are facing huge losses because of the COVID effect and now they have to rely on Indian suppliers which will cost them more money to re-arrange everything. It is easy for the center to give a call on the greater good but the suffering of the companies has to be their major concern. Modi, instead of showing a way to rebuild their entire network like supply, distribution, manufacturing, assembling, marketing that is free of Chinese network just gave a call and some ministries instructed to ban the Chinese supply at once.
Of course, this serves no good to the center as well. For example, Airtel and Vodafone the biggest telecom networks in India are the customers of China’s Wai company. These two Telecom companies hold 55% stake in the Indian Telecom sector and Wai company’s supplies are much cheaper when compared to others. It should not be forgotten that the Wai company has a combined 40 percent stake in 4G network devices.
So, how can they stop al this network all of sudden? BSNL, a public sector undertaking, is also dependent on ZTE, a Chinese company. For the telecom companies that are falling behind with the entry of Ambani’s Jio, the latest statement made by the Modi government surely brings greater difficulties to them.