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.

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.

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)

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.

"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.

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.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, has given its approval for signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Communications of the Republic of India and the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sports (DCMS) of United Kingdom Government on cooperation in the field of Telecommunications /Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The MoU will contribute in strengthening bilateral cooperation and mutual understanding in the field of Telecomm./ ICTs.  Post-Brexit, the MoU is also aiming for enhanced scope of cooperation and opportunities for India.

The White Paper highlights the Role of digital technologies for smart cities, discusses the key smart solutions, deliberates the need of Global Standardization and connectivity related aspects specific to smart cities, and tries to identify the framework for ICT Infrastructure for the success of Smart Cities Mission in India.