Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of the Republic of Finland H.E. Ms. Sanna Marin held a Virtual Summit and discussed the entire gamut of bilateral issues as well as other regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest. The two leaders reviewed the ongoing bilateral engagements and expressed their desire to further expand and diversify the relationship across sectors such as trade and investment, innovation, education, emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, 5G/6G, and quantum computing. PM appreciated Finland’s leading role in clean and green technologies and noted the potential for Finnish companies to partner India’s drive towards sustainable development.

Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd (TPDDL) announced it has introduced Narrow Band-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology in its smart meters. The private power distributor has so far installed 230,000 smart meters on the Radio Frequency (RF) technology. The company said the "first-of-its-kind" technology integration has been done involving meter manufacturers and NB-IoT service of Reliance-Jio Network. "NB-IoT is a new and cost-effective technology in 4G and 5G spectrum with fast deployment quality.

With the aim of taking the lead in implementing 5G, India’s ongoing project to set up ‘Indigenous 5G Test Bed’ which was launched in March 2018, with a total cost of 224.01 million, is expected to be ready by October, 2021 to improve the national capability in telecommunications technology, which fills the Indian telecommunications manufacturers. To provide test beds full access for research teams to work on new concepts or ideas that have potential for standardization in India and on a global scale, make a test bed available for Indian operators to understand the workings of 5G technologies and security aspects and to plan their future. networks are among the main objectives of the ‘5G Test Bed’.

The government eased the path for 5G rollout in the country by reducing to six months the notice period for offering any new technology using the spectrum being put up for auction in March. Earlier, the Telecom department DoT has asked telecom operators to give one year notice before starting any technology using spectrum across the seven frequency bands that will be offered in auction on March 1. "In case of switching over to different technology while rolling out the networks for compliance of roll out obligations, information regarding the new technology should be given at least six months before any new technology base station is offered for testing," the amendment in the spectrum auction clause released by the DoT said.