Securing critical infrastructure remains a key challenge

 Irrespective of its timing and the motive of the government, the decision to have a sanitized list of products and providers is optimal in many ways. While the government has given a policy boost to domestic electronic manufacturing in the country in the context of Digital India policy and has given the clarion call on Aatmanirbhar Bharat strategy towards motivating many businesses in the mobile manufacturing ecosystem, the domestic manufacturing of telecom products will take a further qualitative push if the focus is now on manufacturing switches, routers, and other networking equipment.

 The local manufacturing industry has shown its support to the government move, but much will depend on the quality of the products they manufacture and the overall tier-based cluster growth of the ecosystem. Such motivated steps will not only ensure an optimal realization of the NSDTS policy but also ensure that the Indian manufactured telecom products get into the global supply chain of the system integrators. Many countries have adopted a policy to avoid China-manufactured products. It provides an opportunity for the computer engineering definition industry to realize its potential as a manufacturing hub.

Cybersecurity continues to be a major threat and securing critical infrastructure remains a key challenge for most nations. Securing the hardware that goes into the infrastructure along with the codes and network connectors is part of this challenge. The NSDTC is meant to provide guidance in securing the telecom sector.