New Executive Council takes over at COAI

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The COAI Annual General Meeting held on May 29, 2009 at New Delhi saw a smooth transition with the new Executive Council taking over the reins of the industry association.

The event saw the General Body ratify the nominations of Ms. Suneeta Reddy, Chairperson, Aircel Ltd. and Vice Chairperson, COAI as Chairperson, COAI, and Sanjay Kapoor, Deputy CEO, Bharti Airtel as Vice Chairperson of COAI for 2009-2010. The nominations for the Executive Council were also ratified by the General Body.

Outgoing Chairman, Asim Ghosh thanked the members for their unwavering support during his tenure as Chairman. He reminisced fondly about his long association with the industry and the several challenges that the industry had faced and overcome in the last decade.

He noted that 2008 was a landmark year for the Indian industry as it had reached global scale. He pointed out that the job was never done and there would always be challenges ahead. He thanked Ms. Reddy for her support as Vice Chairperson, the Executive Council and the Secretariat team for their efforts and contributions and wished them all the very best for the future.

Ms. Suneeta Ready, Chairperson Elect thanked the members for the trust and faith reposed in her. She emphasized that COAI had always stood for inclusive growth. She noted that the industry still had many challenges ahead.

She pointed out that the agenda for the industry for the next 12 months included ensuring availability of adequate 2G spectrum, an early auction of 3G and BWA spectrum to facilitate the leap to the next generation of services, bridging of the digital divide, improving the financial viability of the industry and making it globally competitive..

She added that with the imminent introduction of mobile number portability, the SIM card would become like a vote that could be exercised anytime by the consumers and the industry should make all efforts to ensure that mobile is viewed as a service that adds value to the consumers lives.

TV Ramachandran, Director General, COAI, presented the Annual Report of the COAI activities to the members. He pointed out that the Association had undertaken several landmark initiatives over the last 12 months. This included strengthening subscriber verifications processes under the aegis of ACT -- the apex Advisory Council; efforts to minimize unsolicited commercial communications through a joint working group set up by TRAI; engaging with the Reserve Bank of India through the Mobile Banking Payment Forum for encouraging the use of mobile as a payment platform; working with the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology in IIT, Chennai for developing coding for
SMS in vernacular languages; ensuring environment protection with the adoption of ICNIRP guidelines, introduction of Mobile Instant Messaging, etc.