Government launches Bharat 6G alliance

Context

The government has launched the Bharat 6G alliance to drive innovation and collaboration in next-generation wireless technology. What is Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA)?

• The Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA) is a collaborative platform consisting of public and private companies, academia, research institutions, and standards development organisations.
• Global Alliance: B6GA will forge coalitions and synergies with other 6G Global Alliances, fostering international collaboration and knowledge exchange.
  • The Alliance will enable India to become a leading global supplier of IP, products and solutions of affordable 5G and 6G and other future telecom solutions.
• The aims and objectives of the B6GA include:
  • To deploy 6G technologies to act as a powerful force multiplier for India by 2030;
  • To support and energise Indian participation in standard development organisations;
  • To build coalitions with similar 6G Global Alliances and other global technology alliances and associations;
  • To address India’s priorities for contribution to 6G and other future technology-related global standards, deployments, products, operations and services
  • To promote the ecosystem for research, design, prototyping, development, proof of concept testing, IPR creation, field testing, security, certification and manufacturing of telecom products, end-to-end Solutions, Use-cases, Pilots, among other things.
  • To study and recommend national requirements and enable their inclusion in Indian and international standardisation bodies;
  • To develop recommendations for Bharat 6G Vision implementation readiness in India;

What is 6G? A 6G network is defined as a cellular network that operates in untapped radio frequencies and uses cognitive technologies like AI to enable high-speed, low-latency communication at a pace multiple times faster than fifth-generation networks. India’s tryst with 5G As of 2023, 5G networks are rapidly being rolled out worldwide. India has witnessed one of the swiftest rollouts of 5G networks, with the establishment of 2.70 lakh 5G sites within a span of nine months.

 Other Important Developments Further, with a grant of Rs 240.51 crore under the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF), two agreements were signed for two technology projects.

• The projects include a 6G THz testbed with Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM)
• Multiplexing through consortium of SAMEER, IIT Madras, IIT Guwahati and IIT Patna.

About Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) scheme was launched by DoT in 2022. The scheme is envisaged to bridge digital divide by developing and manufacturing state-of-the-art technologies and to form synergies among academia, start-ups, research institutes, and the industry to build and develop the telecom ecosystem.