As part of the ease of doing business in the country, the government is committed to introducing a single-window clearance mechanism for investors by mid-April next year. This technology-based platform for both domestic or global investors envisages to give all the information about the land, procedures, requirements and requirements to get that investment proposal cleared. "It will lead to a unified single sheet of information, which other approval ministries will draw. So, the investor doesn't have to do multiple applications in the end. Although, it is not going to replace any important approval because these are all important approvals.  

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).

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.

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.

The govt. has set up a 22-member inter-ministerial committee in strengthening the Capital Goods (CG) Sector through interventions that help the CG Sector in contributing more actively in the national goal of achieving a USD 5 trillion economy and a USD 1 trillion manufacturing sector. The IMC will help DHI in taking a holistic view for all the issues pertaining to the CG Sector. The Committee will look into on all such issues pertaining to the Capital Goods Sector including technology development, mother technology development, global value chains, testing, skill training, global standards, reciprocity issues, custom duties to make this sector globally competitive and to become the manufacturing hub for the world.

Flying base stations are a feature that enhances wireless capacity and coverage footprint on the ground with ultra-dense traffic demands, to meet the requirements of 5G and B5G or beyond 5G cellular communications.  Researchers from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur have developed a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) assisted communication infrastructure for 5G that can serve as an air-borne mobile telecom tower during emergency situations. The system includes an Android-based application fitted to a fleet of drones which are programmed to create emergency communication networks by extending cellular network coverage from the closest available mobile tow.

Executive Director of International Energy Agency (IEA), Mr. Fatih Birol said that India has moved to the Centre stage of international Energy Affairs and is a role model for other major emerging economies. Speaking at a virtual launch of the Energy Technology Perspectives 2020, a new study of IEA which focusses on the technology needs and opportunities for reaching international climate and sustainable energy goals, Mr. Birol praised the Indian government for its efforts in providing clean energy to millions by way of schemes like Ujjawala and Ujala.

The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIITH) has set up a Smart City Research Center (SCRC) with support from MEITY (Government of India), Smart City Mission and Government of Telangana. As a part of it, Living Lab plans to create an urban area enhancing three value domains: social, economic, and environmental. It includes Living Lab, a test-bed to showcase new ideas and approaches in IoT.  IIITH existing centres will be lending their expertise to the Smart City Research Centre in various domains covering signal processing, OneM2M server, design of smart and automated buildings, optics and photonics, flexible electronics, embedded systems and IoT, radio frequency integrated circuit design and low-power VLSI design, research and development in fundamental aspects of computing systems etc.

Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Faridabad and Indore have entered the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance that brings together 36 “pioneer cities” under the aegis of the World Economic Forum. Besides the silicon city, Hyderabad, Faridabad and Indore will join the 36-city alliance from 22 countries to create a roadmap to safely adopt new technology to tackle challenges posed by the pandemic and other disruptions capable of triggering budget crises.

IIT Madras Researchers have booted up ‘MOUSHIK,’ an indigenously-made Microprocessor, that can cater to the rapidly-growing IoT devices, an integral part of Smart Cities of a Digital India.  MOUSHIK is an Indigenous RISC-V Microprocessor and is the third chip of the SHAKTI family, all of which were conceptualized and developed by this Centre and were first time ‘silicon successes.’ The Field Applications of ‘MOUSHIK’ include:

• Smart cards including Credit cards, ID Cards, Debit cards, Travel Cards for Metros and Driving Licenses

• Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)

• Office Management Systems including Attendance, surveillance cameras and safe locks

• Personalized Health Management Systems

• Consumer Electronics including but not restricted to Washing Machines and Water pump monitoring systems