Bharti Airtel & Digital India

Bharti Airtel – Telecom major in India on Wednesday committed to invest more than Rs 1 lakh crore or about USD 16 billion in next five years in technology space.

"We will make a very meaningful contribution to your initiative of Digital India. We commit to spend in excess of Rs 100 thousand crore (about USD 16 billion) over next five years," Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said while speaking at the launch of Digital India Week.

It is expected that the amount will be spent to build further and deeper infrastructure like taking 4G connectivity to the masses, e-health and taking e-education to every village. The company is believed to also collaborate with various manufacturers around the world to start manufacturing in the country to provide electronic products at the most affordable rates and reduce the burden of electronics import in the country. Bharti Airtel has already lined up an investment of USD 3 billion, mostly for Indian and South Asian businesses, in this financial year.

Digital India Vision:- 

Moving ahead on yet another pet project, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is launched the 'Digital India' campaign, aimed at creating a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

The vision of Digital India program me aims at inclusive growth in areas of electronic services, products, manufacturing and job opportunities etc. The vision of Digital India is centered on three key areas -

(i) Digital Infrastructure as a utility to every citizen

(ii) Governance & services on demand

(iii) Digital Empowerment of citizens

The Digital India program me aims to provide broadband highways, universal access to mobile connectivity, public internet access program me, e-governance: Reforming government through technology, eKranti - Electronic delivery of services, Information for all, Electronics manufacturing: Target net zero imports, IT for jobs and early harvest programmes.

"We at Airtel are fully committed to stand behind this vision. A company which has pride to be only Indian company to be the third-largest mobile company in the world. We will make very meaningful contribution to the initiative of Digital India," Mittal said.

Airtel has become the world's third-largest mobile operator with 303 million subscribers.

Bharti Airtel has been trading in green recently. The stock has delivered 26.32 percent returns in 1 year, thus outperforming broader markets. On the YTD basis the stock the stock has given 21 percent returns (rounded off). On a 3 years basis the stock has delivered 11 percent annualized returns. Investors may track the development in the stock as lot of action is expected in the telecom and digital space in India.