Neeraj Mittal, a 1992-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre on Wednesday assumed charge as the secretary of department of telecommunications (DoT).
Mittal, who has replaced K Rajaraman as the secretary, met DoT officials on his first day and discussed key priority areas which the telecom department has been working on.
Among key areas, Mittal is expected to focus initially on restructuring of state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam, issues around regulation of OTTs, implementation of the new telecom Bill, as well as addressing issues with regard to satellite spectrum allocation, 6 GHz band, etc.
“We welcome Neeraj Mittal, IAS, as the telecom secretary and are enthused with him taking charge of the dynamic telecom sector of India. Mittal has rich experience and accomplishments in various government roles and we believe that his expertise and leadership will bring forth many positive developments to drive further growth and prosperity for the industry,” said SP Kochhar, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India.
The association represents major telecom players like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea.
With regard to issues prevailing in the sector, Kochhar said, “he (Mittal) is aware of the issues faced by the industry in terms of RoW (right-of-way) and development of telecom infrastructure across states and local administrations. His inherent knowledge and support on such issues will help the industry overcome the challenges faced in pan-India 5G deployments, besides other industry issues”.
Rakesh Bhatnagar, director general of VOICE consortium said, “we have been actively working with the government on AtmaNirbharta initiatives. We look forward to working with the new secretary in giving a boost to small telecom suppliers in the country”.
VOICE represents companies such as HFCL, Lekha Wireless Solutions, Resonus Technologies, Saankhya Labs, Tejas Networks, among others.