As we enter 2019, Indians have close to 1.2 billion phone connections, and close to half a billion smartphones with 3G and 4G connections. India got here by leap-frogging over wired telephones to cellphones, and over computers directly to smartphones. Rahul Matthan returns to the Pragati Podcast to talk about what made India's telecom revolution happen.

The Pragati Podcast is a weekly show on public policy, economics and international relations hosted by Pavan Srinath.

In this episode, Rahul and Pavan discuss how India liberalised its telecom policies step by step, allowing the sector to grow, allowing competition to thrive, and enabling millions and now close to a billion Indians to get access to cellphones and get connected with the rest of India and the world. They also discuss what policy imperatives drive telecom regulations, TRAI as a regulator, and what India's policy challenges are beyond 2019.

Rahul Matthan is lawyer and Partner at Trilegal who has specialised in technology, media and telecom law in India. He has been a regular guest on the Pragati Podcast, previously appearing on Episodes 53, 54 and 64 among others, to talk about the the evolution of privacy in India and the world, and helped us unpack the Supreme Court's judgments on Aadhaar in 2018.

Rahul is the author of Privacy 1.0 to 3.0: Unlocking our Data-Driven Future. Rahul has also contributed a chapter on telecom regulation in an upcoming book: Regulation in India: Design, Capacity, Performance edited by Devesh Kapur and Madhav Khosla.

New Podcast Alert! Hamsini Hariharan, long time co-host of The Pragati Podcast has now started a new foreign policy podcast called States of Anarchy on the IVM Podcast Network. Available on all your favourite podcast apps. Listen to the first episode here: http://ivmpodcasts.com/states-of-anarchy

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