NEW DELHI: India is set to have its first global event to attract investments from global players in the telecom and mobile phone manufacturing sectors, with Indian Mobile Congress (IMC), a three-day event in September on the lines of the yearly global mega event World Mobile Congress held in Barcelona.The India chapter will be an annual event starting September this year, which will have 5,000 paid participants and 800 exhibitors, aimed at facilitating government’s flagship programmes like Digital India , Make in India and Skill India, among others.“The IMC will be held on September in this year for the first time. Then on it will be an annual event. The need was felt for long to arrange such a big event of global scale to showcase how telecom and technology industry are growing in India,” telecom minister Manoj Sinha told reporters on Tuesday.“Telecom sector has been historic and a success story that should be shared… the tech industry should be exhibited and world’s views on flagship programs of the country should be taken. We hope to get investment and employment,” the minister added.The event, which will be held from September 27 -29 entailing exhibitions and conclaves with a budget of around Rs 15 crore, will be organised by telecom industry body Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) with support from the department of telecommunications and ministries of electronics and information technology, and skill development.Countries like the US, UK, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Korea, the Phillippines, Bhutan, Japan and Israel, will also participate."We felt we needed a flagship event in India. In the West we have the Barcelona event (MWC), in the East there is the Shanghai Mobile WorldCongress -- but there was nothing of that scale for South-East Asia. This event will serve that purpose," said Rajan S. Mathews, director general of COAI said, adding that players from India, South Asia and Middle eastern countries will get more attention.The event will also come at a time when the industry is going through intense competition on pricing and tariffs which had led to pressure on profits and in some cases defaults on payments for spectrum bought in recent years.“Growth is still happening in the sector but there is worry that growth in balance sheets which is not happening… the government has noted that and constituted an inter-ministerial group to look into this,” Sinha added.