TELECOM RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FUND (TRDF)

About:

• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended the setting up of a Telecom Research and Development Fund (TRDF), with initial corpus of ₹1,000 crores.
  
  
• This fund will be used for promoting research, innovation and manufacturing indigenous telecommunications equipment.
  
  
• Ultimate target is to achieve net zero imports of telecommunications equipment by 2022.
  
  
• At present, there is a huge gap between import and export of telecom instruments. In 2017-18, export of telecom instruments stood at $1,201 million while imports totalled $21,847 million.