Nortel gets nod for trade in tele equipment
economictimes.indiatimes.com
SATYENDRA SHRIVASTAVA
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, MAY 23, 2003 01:49:54 AM ]
AHMEDABAD: Telecom equipment major Nortel Network’s Indian subsidiary has finally got the government's approval to trade in hi-tech telecommunication equipment and other affiliated services in the country.
The company was required to obtain an approval as a ‘trader’ from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, pursuant to a directive from the Telecommunications Engineering Centre, the nodal agency that sets the standards for the telecom equipment providers in India. Sources say the approval came after a series of deliberations between the department of telecom and the ministry of commerce over conferring a trading status to Nortel Networks India. Sources said since Nortel’s trade of hi-tech telecom equipment was in conformity with the existing trade policy and regulations, the government qualified it for “trading status”.
While the DoT was of the opinion that the permission for trading could not be given to the company as it did not undertake manufacturing activity as envisaged in the earlier approval, the ministry of commerce took a contrary view. It said that normal trading conditions applied to Nortel’s proposal and the company should be allowed to trade.
It must be pointed out that the foreign collaboration approval said that the company could bring in its latest technology into India in order to supply it to the telecommunication service providers.
Besides being a provider of telecommunication hardware to a range of service providers, Nortel Networks is also one of the largest buyers of Indian technology. The company has established R&D outsourcing partnerships with four of India’s leading software houses — Infosys, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and Sasken Communication Technologies.
Nortel has over 1,000 designers working on more than 20 projects. All major Nortel Networks business units have assigned part of their development activity to the research and development (R&D) centre in India. It offers software expertise in varied areas like optical networks, wireless network products, GSM and CDMA, core switching, enterprise network products and data networking products.
The Nortel consumers include service providers Reliance, Bharti, Hinduja TMT, Taj Group of Hotels, Hiranandani, iSeva and ICICI OneSource. The company is now targeting IT enabled services, enterprise solutions including security solutions for business continuity, disaster recovery, firewalls, data networking and VoIP |
