Tata Power and IIT Delhi have signed an MoU to collaborate in areas like smart grid technology, clean energy solutions. Considering the large number of experts with their excellence in different fields in IIT Delhi and Tata Power, there is an immense potential to collaborate between academia, research, and domain experts from business with a high transformational impact. Both the institutions have agreed to work together to identify projects that can be transformed from R&D stage to pilot projects and scaling in areas such as EV infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, hydrogen technologies, battery energy storage systems, monitoring and sensing solutions, microgrids, et al.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee won the Smart Move Innovative Urban Mobility Challenge held on November 8 by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in collaboration with Smart Cities Mission, National Institute of Urban Affairs and GIZ India. The team from IIT Roorkee developed an interactive passenger information system to predict the crowding levels in the public transit system.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has joined hands with Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) in a bid to implement electric vehicle charging facilities across the country. CESL is a subsidiary of state-owned Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. This pact will help both parties collaborate on technological advancements to set up electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure that includes developing flagship products, standardizing technical specifications and customizing solutions for the Indian EV charging ecosystem.

India is working on reducing vehicular pollution in its metros, with the government encouraging startups to innovate on technology to make electric vehicles affordable for the masses. Several states have also formed their various EV policies and are encouraging people to adopt EVs with various subsidy schemes in a bid to reduce the carbon footprint.

In a major boost for the Department of Telecom, the made-in-India standard 5Gi is all set to be formally incorporated in the global 5G standard (3GPP). This will enable telecom equipment makers, especially the domestic players, to start using this standard to develop network gear for 5G services. According to sources, a formal agreement is expected to be announced in the coming week. The DoT has been coordinating with the global players for the incorporation of 5Gi with the 3GPP standard. 3GPP is an international body that defines the global standard for telecom sector. The new standard was developed under the supervision of Telecom Standard Development Society India and DoT with major contribution from all major IITs and IISc.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has created a technology innovation group focused on the next frontier, sixth generation (6G), with the hopes of taking the lead in global technology development. As chairperson, Telecom Secretary will set the vision and objectives for the effort, as well as construct a roadmap for research and development (R&D), pre-standardization, application and product development, and action plans for 6G technologya.

With the launch of satellite broadband services in India, a new wave of connectivity options and technologies will surface. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is working to streamline the process of deploying satellite networks in order to speed up the rollout of services. Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellite Communications and Bharti Group-backed OneWeb are competing to provide satellite-based broadband services in India. The faster the rollout, the faster innovative technology can hit the market and the earlier firms can break even on their heavy investments.

Ministry of Electronics and Information technology (MEITY) released “National Strategy on Blockchain” with the vision to create trusted digital platforms through shared Blockchain infrastructure; promoting research and development, innovation, technology and application development; and facilitating state of the art, transparent, secure and trusted digital service delivery to citizens and businesses.

This strategy document lays out overall vision towards development and implementation strategies for a National Blockchain Platform covering the technology stack, legal and regulatory framework, standards development, collaboration, human resource development and potential use cases. It is envisaged that this strategy document would provide the necessary guidance and support for realizing the vision and creating a nationwide ecosystem for creating the National Blockchain Platform and development of relevant applications using this platform in various domains. Download>>

• Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) have released a technical report titled “Smartphone User Data & Privacy Protection” Read more/Download>>

• MEITY launched its AI compendium’ 75@75 India’s AI journey”. This was done in collaboration with NeGD and NASSCOM. The compendium highlights the 75 use cases of AI in India that have successfully impacted the people and the governance of the nation. The use cases have been categorized under government, startups, academia, and enterprises. Read more/Download>>