Speaking about the entertainment sector’s during Covid-19, chairman Vaghela said the OTT sector provided psychological well-being during the lockdown The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is working closely with central ministries to create a vertical-specific start-up ecosystem, chairman PD Vaghela said while speaking at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022. He also spoke about the need to provide affordable internet connectivity to unskilled workers. "We need to provide affordable connectivity and develop innovative use cases for artisans, fishermen, farmers, small enterprises, workers etc. For development of ecosystem for use cases, test bed has already been established by India. TRAI has also initiated dialogue with vertical ministries for creating vertical-specific start-up ecosystem for use cases," he stated. Vaghela also said that cross-sector collaboration and multi-disciplinary approach is essential for dynamic and agile regulation for disruptive but exciting telecom technologies. "TRAI has initiated many new consultations to meet these new challenges," he added. While noting that India stands at the 10th position in the cybersecurity rankings, Vaghela said that the draft data protection bill is under discussion and soon India will have an independent data protection law. The TRAI Chairman also emphasised the need to reach out to rural and interior areas. "Our National Broadband Mission and BharatNet, a rural connectivity project connecting more than 600,000 villages of India have allowed multiple online services including direct cash transfer to the rural people through Common Service Centres connected on BharatNet fibre. Our National Digital Literacy Mission has reached millions of households." Speaking about the telecom and broadcasting sector's response during the Covid-19 pandemic, Vaghela pointed out that India's data consumption witnessed a surge thanks to the network expansion by telcos. "Telcos undertook overnight expansion of network capacities. Thanks to their efforts, India’s data consumption increased by over 51 % to over 34000 Peta Bytes." He added that the television industry maintained its relevance by re-running old popular shows while the OTT platforms managed the traffic by switching to SD mode. Covid-19, he said, has hastened the process of digitalization of the economy. "Subscriber base increased. Overall wireless data usage increased by 51% and per subscriber data usage went up by almost 32%. Digital payments using a Unified Payment Interface had a whooping four-fold increase. Media and Entertainment Industry grew by almost 17%. E-commerce witnessed growth of almost 60% with increased industry size. EdTech sector recorded growth of 161%," he averred. The TRAI chief also said that the digital inclusion needs to be the highest priority especially for women and marginalized. "Small enterprises and informal economy who were impacted the most. For them, digital economy can be a boon. But they require handholding in the form of affordable connectivity, applications and use cases especially in light of 5G based Industry 4.0 technologies." He also stated that the OTT sector provided psychological well-being during the lockdown. "During Covid, online entertainment prevented many a psychological breakdown. Online innovative Entertainment is set to grow. Last but not the least, digital penetration has also raised issues of Data protection, privacy and cybersecurity."