ICT Including Services
India joins GPAI as founding member
India joined the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) as a founding member to support the responsible and human-centric development and use of AI. GPAI is an international and multi-stakeholder initiative to guide the responsible development and use of AI, grounded in human rights, inclusion, diversity, innovation, and economic growth. With this, India has joined the league of leading economies including the US, the UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore to launch the global partnership.
This is a first initiative of its kind to evolve better understanding of the challenges and opportunities around AI using the experience and diversity of participating countries, an official statement said. To achieve this goal, the initiative will look to bridge the gap between theory and practice on AI by supporting cutting-edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities, it said.
India’s first national Artificial Intelligence (AI) Portal launched
India launched its first national Artificial Intelligence Portal called www.ai.gov.in. AI Portal has been jointly developed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) and IT Industry. National e-Governance Division of MEITY and NASSCOM from the IT industry will jointly run this portal. This portal shall work as a one-stop digital platform for AI-related developments in India, sharing of resources such as articles, start-ups, investment funds in AI, resources, companies and educational institutions related to AI in India. The portal will also share documents, case studies, research reports etc.
MEITY seeks ideas on IT Act revamp
The government has started inter-departmental and industry consultations to revamp the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 to stay on top of the various technological advances in the social media, e-commerce, cybercrime and digital payments space. MEITY has reached out to stakeholder ministries, including the Ministry of Home Affairs and Department of Telecom for their inputs. Following MeitY’s ask, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has also written to industry bodies for feedback.
Global gear vendors oppose DoT diktat on mandatory local testing
Global telecom vendors such as Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Huawei are likely to oppose the telecom department’s diktat to run mandatory safety checks on imported network gear from October 1 via local labs, saying it will only result in duplication of certification activity, disrupting network gear availability in India and delaying 4G network rollouts by at least 6-to-9 months. They are set to write to the DoT that their equipment is anyways certified by accredited private global labs before deployment in India, and will press the government to defer the in-country screening deadline.
Source code constitutes commercial, confidential information
The submission of source code by original equipment makers may not address India's security needs since it comprises of commercially valuable, confidential and sensitive information, and follows a frequent software delivery mechanism on networks, said COAI to DoT in a letter dated 23rd June 2020.
The letter comes after India's move to seek source code for network equipment as a part of security assurance standards proposed by the department's National Centre for Communications Security (NCCS), based in Bengaluru.
ITI to set up 200-acre electronic manufacturing cluster
The state-owned telecom equipment maker ITI Limited is setting up an electronic manufacturing cluster (EMC) under MEITY modified scheme in Bengaluru and has sought approval from the administrative ministry for a long-term lease. The state-run company has sought the DoT approval for a long-term lease following the willingness by nearly 50 manufacturers or original equipment makers worldwide. The government's modified scheme, for the first time has allowed public-run companies to set up manufacturing clusters under the scheme and avail prevalent benefits including financial assistance.
Telcos push DoT to form key 5G panel ahead of ITU meeting next month
Phone companies have urged telecom secretary to speed up the formation of a key inter-ministerial panel to finalise India’s 5G spectrum deployment game plan that will be discussed at a key meeting of the International Telecom Union (ITU) next month.
The move comes after telcos recently urged the government to allot sub-3500 MHz 5G spectrum free of cost for 5G fixed wireless services to augment networks capacities at a time when existing 4G networks are facing severe capacity constraints amid surging home internet consumption during the Covid19 lockdowns.
Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC) has released following notifications:
- Notice for stakeholder consultation on Indian Telecom Security Assurance Requirements (ITSAR) on E-Node B and P-Gateway. Read more
- Inviting inputs on the draft ER of IP Multimedia Conferencing Equipment. Read more
- Letter regarding review of old Generic Requirements (GRs)/ Interface Requirements (IRs) documents of MT Division. Read more
- Letter requesting for comments regarding withdrawal of GRs of certain Telecom Products pertaining to IT division. Read more
- Office Memorandum on Policy for adoption of domestic/international standards by TEC Standardization Guide. Read more
Telecom Regulatory (TRAI) issued following Consultation Papers/recommendations:
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