"Telecom manufacturing today could be a major gain, especially because we are the only country in the world with a kind of growth which we expect in the next five years," he said.
The number of mobile phones in India is projected to go up from 150 million to around 500 million in the next five years, he said.
In addition, a good number of customers change their phones every year, leading to the need for another 150 million to 200 million phones. "Should we not plan for manufacturing infrastructure?," he asked.
Pitroda, who earlier addressed the Confederation of Indian Industry's Partnership Summit 2007 in Bangalore, said he expects India to make major gains in the bio-technology
area.
"Biotechology is a big area which will transform India's agriculture, health, pharmaceutical and other related sectors," he said.
Pitroda justified NKC's recommendation to hike University (higher education) fees, saying "people will pay for good quality education", but emphasised that "poor qualified students should not be denied admission because they cannot pay fees. There is a need for scholarship and other funding programmes in terms of providing loans in this regard."
He said about 80,000 Indian students go abroad every year for higher studies, paying fees that are 100 times or may be 200 times more than that in India.
