 I had some 10 minutes just before came up on the stage to speak with Monica Satkirti and Jayanta here. Hi, Ankit. Hope you're doing well. So Ankit joins us online. So Ankit, I know for a long time and I just had the privilege to speak to them. What I came to understand was that I should not be speaking much given the amount of knowledge these people have about the subject. But nevertheless, I'll try my best. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. So I'll start with sharing something from my undergraduate days. Back in probably late 80s, India was fairly backward in terms of technology and we had failed with the Green Revolution experiment. So we wanted to be technologically advanced and USSR, Russia now, was our ally. And we looked towards them and what they did was they sent us all the obsolete technology that they had and what we called then in our economics was technological dumping. And probably we were set back by another 10 years. And from there, till today, when we're talking about, I'm not very fond of these kind of jargons, but what we are calling it tech aid, India's decade for tech. So it's been a long journey. So very quickly, if I can start with you and how do you see this journey? And where are we right now? And then probably we can very quickly if you can give your view and then we'll take it ahead. I think, you know, rightfully said, is this the decade? Yes, of course it is the decade. And in terms of where we are taking 5G as a technology, I think as an industry, I've been with that for many years. And in terms of adoption going from 2G to 3G to 4G and literally shutting down 3G a couple of years ago because it was not relevant for our country and I'm moving to 5G. I think today, are we ready? The answer is yes. But in terms of adoption and the way that we're looking at it, B2B is a lot more clearer in terms of the use cases that is available and how we are able to adopt because as an industry and as today, because 5G actually, you know, evolves around four big pillars. If you have to talk about it as to what and it's very highly linked to industry 4.0 is, you know, IoT, connectivity, cloud and analytics. These are the four big things that today we sort of pivot around where we want to do. And bringing this together and using technology and connectivity from 5G is where I think the country is evolving towards and where we as an operator on ISPs also, you know, partnering with other organizations into saying how much that we can go ahead and look at it. That's fine. Jenta, your first thoughts? Yeah, thanks, Secretary. So, take it, right, which is technology decade. I think India is in a unique position because we are not only a technology consumer, but we are also a technology producer as well as a technology creator. Our IT services industry is highly rated in the world. Today generates more than $200 billion of revenue. And now because of the focus on make in India and other economic incentives, we are seeing a strong local ecosystem of technology providers and product companies, right? HFCL being one of them. Now, if you look at HFCL, of course, you know, we are a leading player in when it comes to optical fiber. But we are also now making a lot of investments, R&D investments in building new products. Our Wi-Fi UBR product has a significant market share in the country today. In fact, we are the number one provider of Wi-Fi UBR in the country today. We are also investing a lot into 5G. So today, for example, we have two R&D centers, one in Bangalore, one in Gurgaon. And we are investing in building 5G products, which includes FWACP, 5G radio products and 5G transport products. And the whole idea is how do we work with other local ecosystem partners to build pre-integrated, pre-validated solutions that can cater to the needs of the India market as well as serve customers globally. In this regard, we have set up a 5G lab as a service where we can validate our own products with the products from other ecosystem partners, including applications and solutions that can run on top of a 5G network. Thank you so much, Monika. So you know, I think, sir, Kirti and Jen have already, you know, covered most of the points. I'll give a different perspective, and it's not that, you know, I don't agree with all of them. This is the plus plus. And this is basically to, you know, kind of, commend to Saurabh's point of us, you know, now kind of catching up. How I always see is that technology has always been there, you know, in India. The difference was earlier we used to make in India for the world. Now the difference is we actually innovate, research, design, and then make in India, both for India and the world. So I think it's the other three things which have got added, which is now making a difference. And any technology, and specifically I think the last few years we can see there's been literally technology avalanche, IoT, AI, machine learning, connectivity, all the different type of technologies. Technology is best, is most relevant to use. What better market than India when we have such a big captive usage ground? So in that regard, I completely agree it's a decade for us. So everyone agrees here. Ankit, your views, how are you doing in terms of decade? You've been making a lot of stuff which can help in, you know, achieving those goals and ambitions. Tell us about it a little. Can we put up the sound? Can you check now? Ankit, can you speak? Let's check. Yeah. I don't think I'm audible. Yeah. You are. Please go ahead. Okay. Okay. Yeah. So mornings are up and my regards to all the panellists. Firstly, thank you for having me on this forum. It's something that I'm personally very excited about. Our Chairman, Mr. Nilagarwal, is very, very excited about. I would break it into two or three areas, but I think it's definitely on the 5G as everyone's spoken. I think it's going to be very exciting, not just from the consumer part, but equally on the business and industry implications. That's something that I feel very deeply that is very important because there's so many jobs that need to be created in India for the future given the demographics we have. And I feel that manufacturing particularly has to step up in the country as an impact to our GDP and to make our manufacturing efficient. I think 5G can play a very important role. Whether it's M2M, IOT or any of the sub technologies. So I think the work now Airtel is doing and many others are doing to enable industries and particularly manufacturing sites I think will be something very, very important to watch out for and to enable. I think the government also has to look at very closely how to encourage beyond just the PLI scheme to provide incentives for companies that are becoming more and more efficient operationally and also starting to export. At STL itself today almost 80 to 90% of our products are exported and into more than 100 countries. So I think that should be something that government should encourage across manufacturing sectors. Our own view is that probably we still need to invest a significant more in the 5G networks in India, especially between Airtel and Geo to really scale up the 5G experience with high bandwidth and low latency. And then probably we'll see about 250 million subscribers come on board over the next few to four years. So that's something that's very exciting. On the semiconductor part, what we saw is that there's about $50 billion of requirement by 2026. So that's just three to four years away. And clearly to, you know, from our chairman, there's a real commitment to see how do we reduce that import dependency as a country, which is almost 100% right now, and make India self-reliant or non-semiconductor. And eventually then also be able to export semiconductor globally. So I think that's something that's quite exciting. I think there was a recent announcement also a partnership between India and US on semiconductor. So I think that's a great platform, you know, where other countries are also looking to partner with India to develop technologies, including semiconductor. So overall, I would agree. I think there's no question in my mind that this is really, you know, India's decade. There's a lot of great tailwinds going for us. But at the same time, I think particularly the private sector in India has to step up both in terms of R&D. And I would say to some level not be overly reliant on government grants, make yourself, you know, strong enough through technology to be able to manufacture efficiently in India and also. All right. Thank you so much. I know semiconductor is something we are still exploring. We are at the very nascent stage and the entire, you know, investment space also. But you know, staying with you, Ankit, you know, if, you know, and I think this question excited you all also. So I'm going to put this to you first is that, you know, on a scale of 10, if, you know, if I say that India, despite being such a large economy, you know, is still at the romanticism stage when it comes to technology adoption. So what would be your rating and what, why? So, I mean, I think nothing wrong with romanticizing technology, but I think obviously it has to get implemented and executed. Ideas are not a worth half as much as the execution, right? So I think there's no question when you speak to large corporates or small, medium enterprises that they want to adapt technologies and then nothing has to be fancy about it. It has to be something that ultimately makes you more efficient, helps you serve your customers better and, you know, helps the economy. I think that's at the core of it. What we already see is that, you know, where there's simple things like, you know, SAP transformation moving to SAP HANA, whether it is looking at, you know, cloud adoption, cloud migration, all of these things that we definitely see that there's far, far more interest now from Indian corporates. The role itself of the Chief Digital Officer is becoming fairly standard across organizations. So I think there's a real intent to make this happen. I think we're in many forms already leading this from a global perspective. But I think, you know, we do have a massive amount of small and medium enterprises. And I think that's where a lot of work has to happen. And equally the telecom operators like Airtel have to be involved. Companies like App Gem have to be involved. And obviously, you know, partners like us, HFCL and others have to play a role to create that ecosystem where the Indian solutions can be enabled. But ultimately it starts, you know, from the CEO's desk to really make sure that this is not just nice to have, but a critical enabler. So I mean, I would rate us probably somewhere in the five to six today of the digital adoption. But I can definitely say there's a strong interest and conviction to accelerate that. Okay. So he's given a very positive rating to my scale though he didn't give it, give a number exactly where he wants to put it. Monica, what do you think? Okay. So me. So do I, do you want me to give you a number? Possibly because we are all, you know, fascinated with CGPAs. So, you know, why not give it a number possibly and tell me why? On a scale of zero to ten. Okay. So I think I'll give a number of seven. And the reason why I'll give a number of seven is that when it comes to, you know, idea, our capability of developing technology, even our capability or our openness of adopting technology and also, you know, the variety of solutions which we can build with technology, all the basic building blocks are there. And which, you know, is definitely five plus and hence seven. The two or three things which still we need to work upon and which is the 10 minus seven. One, there is a difference in between an idea, a concept and a commercially ready product slash solution. And that journey, we all have to travel. And that journey doesn't happen overnight. There are certain basic inherent prerequisites of that journey, quality, reliability, product life cycle management and all, which we all have to adhere up in the rush of trying to be innovative. Let us not compromise on that journey and let's ensure that we differentiate between an R&D and an innovation versus a commercially and sustainably deployable product slash solution. Just taking that point a bit forward. If that end product slash solution is deployable, it's also very important that is business-wide sustainable. So while when you're developing a solution, the cost sensitivity has to be there, but at the time of deployment, the right price also has to be paid. And that I think is super critical and this is for all of us as an industry. We are all linked in an ecosystem. If one person starts cutting, the ripple effect happens, the domino effect happens, and somewhere we all need to be fair and have the right price. And the third point in this is, while we are doing the innovation and finding the local solutions, we need to be very cognizant that we are now a globally connected world. And so please be open in taking best practices. Please do not reinvent the wheel, learn, innovate, adapt, but it should never be an either or. In the past, we have been very driven in adopting what the others have done, which at times has worked for us and at times hasn't. Let us not go to the other extreme and we completely renounce what the world is doing. So that's my rating. Okay, so you know it's very good because the next two people who are going to answer are the ones who can actually give you another three marks that you have cut. One is Jayanta who's producing these products and then Satgirti is going to use these products. So tell us how we're going to get these three marks back. Okay, so I'll also give a rating, but let me first set a bit of context. I think with the onset of COVID-19, we have seen a lot of technology adoption in India, especially in sectors like retail, e-commerce, banking, finance, healthcare, right? And if you look at the World Global Innovation Index, India has climbed up rapidly in the last few years. We are now ranked 40 in a list of 132 countries. So and I think as Indians, all of us need to be really proud of one thing that three of the largest digital public digital platforms are from India. Whether you take Aadhar for identity, you take UPI for digital payments, or you take COVID for vaccination. So that is a great achievement, I think, as a country both from a usage point of view as well as from a platform technology point of view. So my rating will be a bit higher. It will be 8 out of 10. I think we have some work to do to make technology adoption more inclusive. And we have to leverage digital technologies, especially AI, cloud native, because the marginal cost of serving a user using digital technologies is very low. So we have to leverage digital technologies to build solutions specific to the country, very encouraged by a lot of startups outside, demonstrating solutions specific to the needs of the country. So I think we can go really be among the top countries in the world when it comes to digital and technology adoption. And I think you can also add O&D CTO list because these are all startups sitting here. So you know the three innovations that is at the world's largest platform. I think O&D C is also on the way probably to be the another one. So we can add that to your list. I think I'll go with the rating first. And I would also go with the rating of 8 to 10. And the reason behind it is in terms of technology or like you know, Monica just mentioned about innovation or the ability to actually build our own. That we're very, very good. I think where today to bridge that 10 is something in terms of the present environment in terms of being conducive to adoption much more faster. Even in terms of doing trials or even in terms of adoption and sort of going ahead with any kind of either be it private networks or something like that. Today the industries are actually you know being collaborator with us and implementing it. But I think getting a commercial use case or trying to get revenue out of it is something that you know is going to evolve a little more slowly because everybody is testing waters and we just need to save. But in terms of our capability I think there's no two doubts about the fact that we'll be able to do it. And like we mentioned, I think we are up there. We are looking forward. And I think with the recent concluding MWCS I think one big thing that came up to was that you know India is in the middle of all the things that's happening. So I think considering that Monica was there as a she should be able to add more on that. But I think that's the biggest message that we got from there in terms of what we're capable of and where we're getting on that. Okay. So I can go on but if there's questions from audience probably I can take it at this point in time because we have another five minutes to wrap this up. Anyone? Any questions? Okay. I don't see any hands right now. Okay. All right. So you know just one more question because we are a little you know late. So you know what's the promise of 5G? You know we all hear about it and probably probably at homes there are 5G services. I don't know what the difference has become. Someone says that you know latency is good. I don't know how. So you know just to and Satgati I'll stay with you for this question. You know give us some examples. So tell us that okay this is where 5G probably can help you in achieving X or probably how it can you know make me go from 7 to 10 in terms of ratings that you're a good teacher you can just give 10 marks so probably you'll help us understand that. The promise of 5G as in where what it promises really for startup community for us for normal users everyone. I think today the use cases that we're looking at is largely in the manufacturing industry and in healthcare and agriculture. These are the three big industries that today we have use cases and we've also tested some of them because relevant is I think I would put a lot on healthcare because today India and healthcare I think it's very very important that with the technology that we have I mean the use case of connected ambulance or you know when we were talking to some of our clients from the healthcare industry they came back today and said that with COVID coming in it was very important for us to take healthcare to the house. So having an ICU at the home. So what 5G would do is what is very very critical for it is you know one in terms of the ambulance case was the golden hour the one hour after any kind of a trauma happens and how is it that you can actually get the patient the required care with the experts sitting in a remote location. So that is very important and second in terms of having real-time analytics which 5G will ensure that happens of being the vitals or being anything that in terms of giving the required medication or the treatment basis the vitals and it's very important for us to sort of look at it. I think this is one big use case that we are also putting our money on and our bets on and we are working very closely with the healthcare because that's so much more important and I think we owe it to the country for us to get this entire healthcare system better. On the manufacturing yes more so on the beat logistics with the entire drone technology that we are doing can we do better logistics management because I mean I also come from an industry where logistics and deployment is very very crucial for us and if you are able to predict your inventory if you are able to know what you need to do the lead times in terms of ordering and getting the required just like Toyota does just in time is so much more important for us and you will also save time, money and the speed to deliver is much more faster and third thing is obviously you have a lot of manufacturing use cases in terms of paint quality testing quality etc. That today we are all working on and I think it's all there and more than then connected cars is the next big thing you know fancy thing that everybody is talking about. Thank you. Okay Ankit over to you for this final comments on you you know 5G yes I mean we are experiencing but you need to work really hard to ensure that you know the seamless connectivity is available across the country you'll have to have the products what are we doing there? I have put it in two parts one is what's required to enable 5G and then what some of the possible 5G use case would be so I think infrastructure clearly a lot of work to be done really hats off to amazing work by the telecom operator so far post spectrum really we've seen a very large ramp up in terms of fibre deployment both across the country but also within the cities for you know fibre to the home fibre to towers, fibre to small cell etc so I think that's really something that's killing up and also equally now fibre to enterprises so that's something that we continue to believe will need to get accelerated our own view is today India deploys about one 12th the amount of fibre per year compared to China we are about 3% of the world fibre deployment and you know we are 1.4 billion people so clearly our own view is this needs to be scaled up by at least 2-3x per year and again the government needs to incentivise projects like Bharat Net etc need to get accelerated to really penetrate rural India with optical fibre and then obviously it's still extremely challenging to deploy fibre particularly in our cities and that's something where clearly the government has to partner with private sector but also with other you know the forest department the railway department other departments really ensure wherever there is fibre required that gets accelerated and incentivised so I think that's one part from the infrastructure side I think the other part clearly is you know from support I think clearly you know I think there is some very interesting use cases I would talk about healthcare you know equally I would say on agriculture side that would be something very you know exciting one thing for me personally that you know I would love to see my you know my mother comes from a village Akola in Maharashtra which every year there are you know farmers dying because of just heat exhaustion and I was looking up that automated tractors will be a 6 billion dollar market in the next 4-5 years so that would be phenomenal if we could get you know a etel 5G network in some of these villages and then put some automated tractors on these farm lands and then the villager could spend more time thinking about how do I maximise the output through real-time pricing and some digital supply chain so those are things that would be very very exciting to really ultimately help the common man in India and again I think the other part I am personally very excited about is how can 5G really really make our operations, our supply chain our logistics far more efficient than it is today that's something that I am very excited about I know the government wants to implement that at speed and as an industry we can make that happen alright thank you so much thank you Ankit and good luck to you and you know I will just take final comments from Anika and Jain then we will close the session so you know Jain, your final comments on you know this 5G promise of 5G again you are also one of those who will help to help you know so that she can provide seamless 5G to me and all others here so you know what do you think where are we and what do you think is required for that seamless connectivity of 5G so 5G you know from a promise of 5G right I think one important thing where 5G is different from the previous generation of cellular technologies including 4G it is not only for consumer but it's also for the enterprise and industry verticals now to make 5G successful lot of investment is required so monetization of 5G becomes very important which means we have to build solutions which can be adopted by all the industry verticals whether it is healthcare manufacturing industry 4.0 transportation and to make this happen there are a few challenges one of them is for example India is a big country so to give 5G coverage to the entire country with a population of more than 1 billion you need close to anywhere between 200,000 to 300,000 5G cell size that means that requires a lot of CAPEX investment so that is one thing we need to keep into consideration and most of the investment there would be on the radio part of the network you know maybe more than 60 to 70 percent would be there so the question again is if operators have to invest so much in building a 5G network where is the business case and how do we build the business case it means that monetization of 5G both for consumers enterprise industry verticals has to happen and for that to happen we have to build solution specific to the needs of the country the second challenge that is there is with respect to fiber penetration India has very less fiber penetration today only about 35 percent of the cell size have fiber connectivity which means that and 5G cell size carry a lot of traffic almost 10 times more than say a 4G cell size average estimate would be around 10 gigabytes of data 5G cell size would have to carry so fiber is definitely one of the solutions that is needed for seamless 5G connectivity and for that you know we HFCL company we are we know that there is going to be a lot of fiber demand not just in India but anywhere in the world where 5G rollout is happening so we are scaling up our production capacity in our manufacturing plants in Hyderabad we are also ensuring that we do backward integration so as to own as much of the supply chain as possible so for example for that we are setting up a polymer plant and also coming to the lack of fiber penetration while we need more fiber it is also important that we look at other innovative solution so for example even when for 4G lot of the operators here in India as well as globally have used the UBR product unlicensed band radio products from HFCL backhaul traffic from the sales side and today we are enhancing our UBR products with 2x2 4x4 MIMO technologies as well as making use of Wi-Fi 7 so that the products are enhanced to carry additional data traffic in terms of 4 to 10 gigabytes of data so these are some of the ways we are trying to help in the accelerated rollout in the country very quickly your last comments in terms of what you think is 5G going to the way it is going to change life for all of us mostly everything has been spoken just to kind of make a point on 5G I think I will just leave all of you with that thought if today I was to ask all of you to just leave your mobile phones and go back to the black wired phones what would life be for you just imagine what wireless connectivity would mean to the enterprise world if today we do away with all the ducting, the cabling, the wiring and we replace it with wireless technology that's the promise of 5G thank you so much for finishing this wonderful note thank you so much everyone for joining us as we I kind of understood that well begun long way to go I hope that K-PIX will not be an issue people are ready to invest in this technology Ankit I am sure that you will manage funds for all this and you know Satgirti will also ensure that you know we have you know you buy those products and you know give this 5G seamlessly to all of us because it seems like it has a lot of promise thank you so much everyone for joining