The government has invited inputs on the "Draft Non-Personal Data Governance Framework" by July 19. The committee to study issues under non personal data was set up last year in September under the chairmanship of Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan. The committee has made a case for regulating non-personal data, defining it under three main categories- public non-personal data, community non-personal data and private non-personal data. It has further outlined the need for defining a new category or taxonomy of business called data business.

India can integrate more than 30% of wind and solar in its power system, while still maintaining security of supply and without raising the total economic costs of its electricity system, according to a new report by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). The report also identifies a number of strategies to achieve this. The report, titled ‘Renewable Power Pathways: Modelling the Integration of Wind and Solar in India by 2030’, was launched with the report titled ‘Bending the Curve: 2025 Forecasts for Electricity Demand by Sector and State in the Light of the COVID Epidemic’.

Power and renewable energy minister launched the pan-India real-time market (RTM) in electricity, placing India amongst a few electricity markets in the world having it. RTM is an organized market platform to enable the buyers and sellers pan-India to meet their energy requirement closer to real time of operation.  RTM would bring required flexibility in the market to provide real-time balance while ensuring optimal utilisation of the available surplus capacity in the system and would also help manage demand pattern diversity in the country with an organized market.

The government is expecting electronics manufacturing in the country to register an annual growth rate of 30 % over the next five years and clock Rs 11.5 lakh crore (€135 billion) additional production during this period, electronics and IT secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney. Also, the exports of electronic products will grow in the range of 40-50 % annually over the next five years, he added. "Electronics manufacturing in India has been growing quite significantly. We have registered 23 % cumulative annual rate of growth over past five years. Now in this journey the growth is expected to be 30% year on year for next five years," official said at the Invest India Exclusive Investment Forum - Japan Edition.

Minister for MSMEs, Road Transport & Highways, Govt of India, said that the government is likely to set up a multi-purpose R&D centre to reduce import dependence and promote the Make in India (MII) and Made in India initiatives. Addressing an ‘Interactive Meeting of Industry Chambers & Business Associations’, organized by FICCI, Mr Gadkari said, “Industry can buy land and the government will support by providing technology and equipment to the centre.” The industry can tie-up with various IITs and engineering colleges, especially those in agri-related equipment, to find solutions to various products being imported and develop under the Make in India and Made in India campaigns.

The Department of Telecom is working on rolling out a Rs 15,000-crore (€1.8 billion) worth production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to promote the domestic production of telecom equipment.  The DoT is preparing the draft cabinet note to provide financial incentives to companies that produce 5G telecom equipment. The scheme's primary aim would be to boost the domestic production of telecom equipment and reduce the dependence of Chinese suppliers. State-run Indian Telephone Industries Limited (ITI), Sterlite Technology, Tejas Network, and Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd. (HFCL) are some of the domestic players involved in the manufacturing of telecom equipment.

Artificial intelligence (AI) driven technology startups in India can now showcase their innovative solutions in various fields such as healthcare, education, agriculture, and more, through a new challenge initiated by the government. In order to promote and showcase such innovative AI solutions developed by entrepreneurs, an AI Solution Challenge is being organised for Indian startups in the field of Artificial Intelligence by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

India has for the first time made it to the top 50 countries in the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2020. India has moved up four positions since 2019 to become the third-most innovative lower-middle-income economy in the world, according to the report. India, at 48, also retains the highest rank in the central and southern Asia region.

India ranks in the top 15 in indicators such as information and communications technology services exports, government online services, graduates in science and engineering, and research and development (R&D)- intensive global companies. The report has attributed the improvement to universities, such as the Indian Institutes of Technology in Bombay and Delhi, and the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, besides its top scientific publications, stating that India is the lower middle-income economy with the highest innovation quality.

BIS is continuously evolving in its pursuit of excellence, in various fields of its activities. Innovation is the cornerstone of any organizational evolution; and continuous creation of intellectual property, through research, is the foundation of such innovations. As per BIS Act, 2016, Section 10 (2) (d), one of the functions of the Bureau is to undertake, support and promote such research as may be necessary for formulation of Indian Standards. With a view to aid the creation of a vibrant atmosphere of research in BIS, where fertile minds can work on generation of knowledge, which can create evidence for trying out new ideas & innovations, eventually leading to progressive organizational evolution with the aim to meet its objectives, serve better and excel in all spheres of its activities, a draft research policy has been formulated as provided at Annex I.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency has selected Andhra Pradesh to conduct a study on energy efficiency measures in refractory industries. Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) making refractories in East and West Godavari districts have been chosen for the study. The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) will take up a detailed study in the refractory clusters. Detailed energy audits will be conducted by TERI by closely interacting with stakeholders, manufacturers and industry associations.  This will help assess the areas of improvement for energy savings and to identify the scope for introducing latest technologies.