The Open Group, the vendor-neutral technology consortium, announced the adoption of the ArchiMate® Specification, a standard of The Open Group, in the publication of India's ICT Reference Architecture for Smart Cities (ICTRA), marking a milestone for accelerating smart cities initiatives globally.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), alongside city administrations in the country, has developed the ICTRA (Indian Standard IS18000:2020) which makes the internationally recognized ArchiMate® Specification available for smart cities applications across India.

International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H) has announced that Silicon Labs, a leading provider of silicon, software and solutions, is the first corporate founding partner for its new Smart City Living Lab. The lab’s mission is to provide a research and development ecosystem for next-generation technologies designed to improve safety, sustainability, energy efficiency, sanitation, and overall quality of life in densifying cities. It is part of the institute’s Smart City Research Center, supported by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Smart Cities Mission, Telangana government, and European Business and Technology Centre.

Siemens Ltd has signed a MOU with Switch Mobility Automotive Ltd to jointly address need of commercial electric vehicle (EV) customers and execute E-Mobility Projects in India. Switch Mobility will bring its electric commercial vehicle industry experience while Siemens will provide the charging infrastructure technology and charging infrastructure management software solution. The two companies will collaborate on new business models such as eMobility-as-a-Service (eMaas), integrated depot energy management, Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) as well as on-site / off-site renewable energy sources by leveraging batteries from commercial vehicles.

The DoT, approved, permissions to Telecom Service Providers for conducting trials for use and applications of 5G technology.  These TSPs have tied up with original equipment manufacturers and technology providers which are Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT.  In addition, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. will also be conducting trials using its own indigenous technology. The duration of the trials, at present, is for a period of 6 months. Each TSP will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings also in addition to urban settings so that the benefit of 5G Technology proliferates across the country and is not confined only to urban areas. The TSPs are encouraged to conduct trials using 5Gi technology in addition to the already known 5G Technology.

The DoT, approved, permissions to Telecom Service Providers for conducting trials for use and applications of 5G technology.  These TSPs have tied up with original equipment manufacturers and technology providers which are Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT.  In addition, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. will also be conducting trials using its own indigenous technology. The duration of the trials, at present, is for a period of 6 months. Each TSP will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings also in addition to urban settings so that the benefit of 5G Technology proliferates across the country and is not confined only to urban areas. The TSPs are encouraged to conduct trials using 5Gi technology in addition to the already known 5G Technology.

Indian telecom standards body TSDSI has submitted a vision for 6G to UN body ITU Radiocommunication sector that finalises global standard for wireless communications. Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) in its submission said it should be a technology that aids the development of a ubiquitous intelligent mobile connected society, bridge the digital divide with affordability, support technologies for personalisation and localisation of services as well as focus on data protection management. In a document 'TSDSI submits 6G Vision to ITU-R', the body said that TSDSI is contributing towards the above IMT 2030 work. TSDSI said that as part of its 6G journey, it will 'steer research in India to serve the above goals' and 'continue engagement with global standard bodies for harmonisation of efforts'.

Semiconductor major NXP India is partnering with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and Fabless Chip Design Incubator (FabCI), IIT Hyderabad for its maiden ‘Semiconductor Startup Incubation and Acceleration Programme’. It aims to support India's vision of making the country a self-reliant nation as it will create a ready platform to support startups who wish to design semiconductor chips in India. Industry estimates suggest the Indian semiconductor market stands at around $300 million. If semiconductor fabs are added to this, the value could go up to $4-5 billion.

The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) will establish a technology data bank for ASEAN (Association of Southeastern Asian Nations) region as part of ASEAN-India Innovation Platform. The corporation has been entrusted by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to manage the platform for a period of four years. The proposed data bank will link existing data banks of available technologies in the ASEAN region. DST has been given the responsibility of bringing whatever technologies are available in India and ASEAN on one platform and make it available for commercialisation for Indian as well as ASEAN entrepreneurs.

The European Union will discuss 5G technology rollouts and the establishment of global security standards when leaders meet with India next month, as concerns grow about the dominance of Chinese telecom giants.  Europe wants to work with democratic partners including India to establish open and transparent standards as nations prepare to move to the new security protocol that should be part of every 5G value chain, Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s antitrust chief said in an interview.