As per the latest report by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and the Department of Telecom, the current contribution of mobile industry to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is 6.5 percent. Converting this to monetary terms, the contribution amounts to be around $140 billion or Rs 9,60,783 crores.
The Government of India further reports that this contribution is likely to rise to 8.2 percent by 2020.
“The mobile industry in India, currently contributing 6.5 percent ($140 billion or roughly Rs. 9,60,783 crores) to country’s GDP, and employing over 4 million people (direct and indirect), is projected to grow rapidly in the coming years.
“By 2020, the industry is expected to contribute 8.2 percent to country’s GDP,” the report said. It is said to have taken figures from ‘The Mobile Economy, India 2016’
If we go back, in 2011-12 the telecom sector contributed about 2.1 percent of GDP with revenue of Rs 1,85,930 crores while due to the increase in revenue next year to Rs 2,07,498 crores the net contribution came down to 2.07 percent.
Coming back a little forward, in 2014-15 the revenue generated by the telecom sector was Rs 2,42,900 crores making it a contribution of 1.94 percent to GDP.
One should note that the ratio of revenue and its contribution changes every year following the change in growth of the economy.
Coming back to the report by DoT and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, it said – “In terms of unique mobile phone subscribers, India is expected to cross the 1 billion mark by 2020. India will see an increase in adoption of 4G services with number of 4G connections estimated to grow to 280 million by 2020 from just 3 million in 2015,”
Further, the report claimed that the mobile industry is expected to add 800,000 more jobs.
Talking about the investments in telecom operator, Vodafone tops the list with Rs 10,299 crores ($1,500.79 million) followed by Videocon International Electronics with Rs 4924 crores approx. ($719.76 million). At third stands Telenor at $573.15 million followed by Sistema Shyam Teleservices $451.83 million, Bharti Infratel $240.37 million, Idea Cellular $123.22 million.