Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology and Railways, has inaugurated the Entrepreneurship Cell and Centre of Innovation (COI) at the Delhi campus of the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT).
According to the government, the COI has been established to spur indigenous innovation and entrepreneurship in various domains of telecom such as internet of things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M), artificial intelligence, machine learning and 5G by encouraging local startups to play a significant role in strengthening the overall technological framework fueled by synergistic collaboration amongst research and development (R&D), academia, industry and startups that would accelerate the design, development and deployment of cost-effective and globally-competitive telecom solutions in the country.
The minister also reviewed C-DoT’s ongoing technology programs including 5G, quantum key distribution (QKD) and advanced security projects. He interacted with young engineers and researchers involved in the design and development of telecom technologies. C-DoT engineers demonstrated various cutting-edge telecom technologies to the minister in several technology labs.
In his address to C-DoT researchers, Vaishnaw lauded the extraordinary efforts of C-DoT teams in creating a wholly indigenous end-to-end 4G system powered by C-DoT’s core and radio access network (RAN) from the local industry partners. He hailed this achievement as a concrete step towards achieving “Atmanibharta” in the field of telecom. The minister posed confidence in the abilities of C-DoT and the local technology ecosystem in building world-class 5G networks fully driven by home-grown technology. He underscored the government’s vision of giving unprecedented support and stimulus to local research and innovation. He assured the government’s full support to C-DoT in making it become a global leader in the area of telecom.
Further, Vaishnaw mentioned the opening of the regional office of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in India that would foster research and innovation in the emerging areas of telecom and lead to the creation of greater opportunities for wider contribution by home-grown talent towards the evolution of various global telecom technology standards.
