Bharat 6G Alliance to drive innovation and collaboration in Next-Gen Wireless Technology
New Delhi, July 3, 2023
Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw today announced the launch of Bharat 6G Alliance to drive innovation and collaboration in next-generation wireless technology.
Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA) is a collaborative platform comprising public and private companies, academia, research institutions and Standards development organisations.
The Minister also launched the website of Bharat 6G Alliance (https://bharat6galliance.com). B6GA will forge coalitions and synergies with other 6G Global Alliances, fostering international collaboration and knowledge exchange.
In addition, with a grant of 240.51 crores under the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF), two agreements were signed for projects. These are 6G THz Testbed with Orbital Angular Momentum(OAM) & Multiplexing through a consortium of SAMEER, IIT Madras, IIT Guwahati and IIT Patna, an Advance Optical Communication Test Bed with consortium members IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi, Signalchip Innovations, Signaltron Systems Pvt Ltd, Sasmos het Technologies Ltd, SFO Technologies Pvt. Ltd, ERNET India, Quanfluence Private Ltd, Sterlite Technologies Limited, Nav tech and Tejas network.
Further, Under DCIS (Digital Communication Innovation Square) a grant of Rs 48 crore to 66 Startups and MSMEs was announced. The Minister felicitated 75 Innovators for their remarkable contributions to the field.
The Department of Telecommunications under the DCIS Scheme has been funding such startups and MSMEs.
Devusinh Chauhan, Minister of State for Communications said various citizen & industry centric reforms have led to a transparent spectrum auction of over 1.5 Lakh crore in a record time of 42 days and 2.70 lakh 5G sites in 9 months, one of the fastest rollouts in the world.
Vaishnaw said in the past 9 years, data cost has been reduced from Rs300/GB in 2014 to Rs10/GB in 2023.
The Right of Way permission which took 230 days has been reduced to 9 days. BTS sites have been increased four times to 25 Lakh; FDI in Telecom Sector has increased to 24 billion Dollars.
In 5G, the India Telecom industry has clocked investment of over 2.25 Lakh cores; Allocation of the spectrum after the auction to TSPs was done in 24 hours
BSNL has become a market stabiliser and is now making operating profits. India is exporting technology to 12 countries including the USA
4G footprint is now 99% and for remaining 38,000 crores has been put in to ensure 100% connectivity
Over 2.7 lakh 5G towers have been installed almost at a rate of one tower per minute making India among Top three 5G ecosystems in the world.
Japan has aligned with India on the Digital Payment system of India. Almost 1.5 lakh broadband connections have been provided in rural areas.
Under PLI, over 1,600 crore investments have happened in Telecom Manufacturing besides more than 200 patents in 6G technology,
Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States and agreements on co-creating technology, land and project approval for Micron Technologies were done within two weeks of the announcement. Ground Breaking Ceremony for the first chip manufacturing unit will be done within the next 40- 45 days.
Five design companies have been given approval for chip design, out of which two will be working in Telecom Sector. India is developing Advance optical communication with zero latency that will help in fields like Telemedical and Telesurgery.
NNN
