ICT
India's own 5G tech completes evaluation phase of ITU's IMT 2020
India's own 5G technology, TSDSI 5Gi, has completed the evaluation phase of ITU's International Mobile Telecommunications 2020 (IMT-2020) vision and now conforms with the stringent performance requirement. This means that India's contribution is now being accepted as the global 5G standard. The Telecom Standards Development Society of India (TSDSI), India’s body for telecom standards, said that global vendors will now need to make handsets and base stations conforming to this standard. The other two technologies that have completed the evaluation phase are 3GPP 5G-SRIT and 3GPP 5G-RIT submitted by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
DoT constitutes working groups to prepare 5G roadmap, includes Huawei
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has formed eight working groups to create a roadmap for the deployment of fifth-generation or 5G in different sectors such as agriculture, fintech, transportation and education. The working groups include members from Chinese vendor company Huawei, who will look at healthcare and fintech sectors, according to a notification by the department. “The objective is to conduct a study and to produce a report with actionable points which brings out the use of 5G mobile technology in the respective sectors and how global use cases of 5G mobile technology in these sectors can be utilised and adapted to the Indian requirements," the DoT said in a notification.
MEITY to implement AI mission, while Niti Aayog will help in planning
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has got the green signal to roll out the ambitious Artificial Intelligence (AI) mission, resolving a long-standing issue of which arm of the administration would implement the prestigious project. The AI Mission is a five-year programme announced in the Budget two years ago. For the last couple of years, India has been harbouring big ambitions to develop its own AI roadmap and strategy to counter the lead that China already has in this area.
Government OKs policy for data protection
The Centre has approved the health data management policy pertaining to National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), that sets out the minimum standard for data privacy protection that should be followed across the board in order to ensure compliance with relevant and applicable laws, rules and regulations. The policy will act as a guidance document across the National Digital Health Ecosystem. Data collected across the NDHE will be stored in at the central level, the state or Union Territory level and at the health facility level, by adopting the principle of minimality at each point.
Govt limits buying telecom goods from list of ‘trusted sources’ to ensure national security
Telecom equipment from China may face fresh curbs after the Cabinet cleared a proposal to secure telecom infrastructure by designating a “trusted source” for the purchase of equipment by service providers. IT Minister said a National Security Directive on Telecommunication Sector has been framed keeping in mind the national security. Under the provisions of this directive, the government will declare a list of trusted sources and trusted products for installation in the country’s telecom network. The methodology to designate trusted products will be devised by the designated authority, the National Cyber Security Coordinator.
DoT to seek Cabinet nod on PLI scheme guidelines for telecom gear
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will approach the Union Cabinet for approval of the structure of production-link incentives for telecom gear makers in India. In November, the Cabinet approved an incentive of Rs 12,195 crore (€1.5 bn) to introduce production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for telecom and network products. The Digital Communications Commission on December 1 approved the proposal for the scheme. The product lines that have been specified include core transmission equipment; 4G/5G, next-generation radio access network and wireless equipment; and access and customer premises equipment (CPE)
Internet user base rises 3.4% to 743 million at Mar-end: TRAI data
The number of internet subscribers in India increased to over 743 million at the end of March 2020, clocking a growth rate of 3.4 per cent on a sequential quarter basis, showed TRAI data on sector’s quarterly performance
Telecom department begins work to identify additional spectrum for 5G: Report
The Department of Telecommunications is working on identifying additional spectrum to address Indian telecom operators' demand for a "larger chunk" of airwaves to rollout 5G services. DoT has allocated the 3300 MHz to 3600 MHz band for 5G services. Worldwide, the allocation of bands for 5G services is from 3300 MHz to 4200 MHz. India doesn’t have that much bandwidth, so we are looking for an additional 150 MHz,” a senior official said. Telcos had previously urged the telecom department to ensure optimum availability of spectrum in the 3300-3600 mid-band earmarked for 5G services.
Other Service Provider (OSP) guidelines of the DoT
"With an aim to qualitatively improve the ease of doing business of the IT industry particularly business process outsourcing (BPO) and IT-enabled services, the government has drastically simplified the other service provider (OSP) guidelines of the department of telecom. The new guidelines reduce the compliance burden of the BPO industry. It is clarified that the registration requirement for OSPs has been done away with altogether and the BPO industry engaged in data related work have been taken out of the ambit of OSP regulations.
MEITY seeks comments/suggestions on the Draft Data Centre Policy
MEITY has drafted a Data Centre policy to benefit the Data Centre park developers/Data Centre operators as well as the allied ecosystem of Data Centre sector. The policy intends to ensure sustainable and trusted Data Centre capacity within the country. This policy framework shall be followed by a detailed scheme with implementation guideline document providing the particulars of various fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to be provided to the sector by the Central and State Government. The Policy document is attached for your reference.