Print    Email

Email To		[Close]
		You must make entries in all fields
Your Email
Your Name
Send to Email
		Send

"Despite last year's slow down in the Mobile VAS space in India, refreshed investment flows from the industry players is going to drive the growth for sector," said Mr. Siddharth Vishwanath, Executive Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers while addressing the VAS India 2012 – 11th International Conference yesterday at Taj Lands End in Mumbai. This event is the flagship event property of Bharat Exhibitions which is organising the same for the 11th consecutive time.�

Speaking at the inaugural session of the conference 'Achieving digital empowerment and inclusive growth through MVAS in 3G enabled India', Siddharth said, "Appropriate government agenda, compliant regulatory regime along with collaboration in the ecosystem. "We have 160% mobile penetration in urban India as compared to just 36% in rural India. Still, rural segment of the nation has an impressive household mobile penetration.�

He further elaborated that M-Health, M-Banking and M-Governance are the 3 major areas which have tremendous opportunities in MVAS space. He said, “M-Health may not prove immensely beneficial in terms of generating revenues, but it’s not only about making money and the main focus of industry must be towards offering adequate medical help to the people deprived of that.” He added, "M-Health has vast opportunities with statistics indicating merely 6 doctors available in India per 10,000 people against a global parameter of 22 doctors for the same number of citizens."

"M-Health can deliver societal gains by bridging gaps in healthcare access and enhancing health outcomes," commented Siddharth.�

Emphasising on the importance of M-Governance and M-Commerce, he said, “The high latent demand for financial inclusion can lend to significant commercial benefits for M-Commerce providers, whereas, M-Governance can potentially transform the administrative landscape.”

Other dignitaries on dais with him were Mr. R.K. Agarwal (Director, Consumer Mobility, BSNL), Mr. Peeyush Agrawal (Executive Director, MTNL, Mumbai), Mr. Rajan S Mathews (Director General, COAI), Mr. Sunil Dutt (Managing Director, Research In Motion, India), Mr. S P Narayanan (Sr. Vice President, VAS & M-Commerce, Idea Cellular) and Mr. Jonathan Bill (Sr. Vice President, Internet & Data Services, Vodafone).�

Another speaker Mr. Sunil Dutt (MD, RIM, India) said, “India as a nation poses great opportunity for MVAS ecosystem and we are in the right place at right time.” Elaborating further he said, “It’s about bringing empowerment to rural and down trodden segments of India through MVAS. Health, education, infrastructure, banking, commerce, hygiene, sanitation, law and agriculture are the fields where VAS players can grab immense business opportunities.”�

Now into its successful 11th year, VAS India 2012 Business Conference attracts over 500 delegates from across India. The conference draws delegates from – Telecom service providers, Cellular service providers, VAS Technology & Platform companies, content aggregators, content owners, telecom associations and regulators, handset manufacturers, software developers, system integrators, entertainment and electronic media and service organisations. �