‘Very low cost tablet segment hit by demonetisation, GST’
The ‘very low-cost’ tablet segment, a component of the government’s flagship ‘Digital India’ programme, has been hit by demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax, said Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO, Datawind. Also hurting ‘Digital India’ is the inability of foreign-owned companies like Datawind to unveil ‘very low cost’ data plans because they have not been granted licences under the Virtual Network Operator policy, Mr. Tuli told The Hindu. People buying “the ₹2,500-3000 device that we sell,” are those who spend one week of their income for their child’s education, “which is a very big investment from their perspective, Mr. Tuli said. ‘Investment on hold’ On the VNO policy, he said, “We hoped that with the policy, we would launch ‘very low-cost’ data plans of ₹100-200 per year, because the person who can spend only ₹70-80 per month on his mobile phone, can spend just ₹15-20 a month on data.” Mr. Tuli said, “Unfortunately, though it has been a year-and-a-half since the VNO policy was announced, the government still has not given VNO licences to foreign-owned companies.” Datawind’s had allocated ₹100 crore for the launch of its data plan.
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