The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is planning to partner with industry and academia to pinpoint key technology areas for focused 6G research, aiming to boost patent filings from India and establish leadership in select segments. This initiative is central to the government’s ambition for India to contribute at least 10 per cent of global patent filings by 2030.
Although India became the world’s sixth-largest patent filer as of October last year, the field remains heavily dominated by China and the United States. China currently holds 45 per cent of global patents in terahertz communications and 31 per cent in space-air-ground-ocean (SAGO) communication technologies. These are critical domains for 6G, which will utilise terahertz bands to deliver data speeds up to one terabit per second, which is 100 times faster than current 5G networks, while SAGO will enable seamless connectivity across land, air, sea, and space.
Meanwhile, South Korea controls 35 per cent of patents in reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), and the US leads with 55 per cent of global filings in deterministic networking technologies. Further, the DoT’s strategy aims to ensure India does not fall behind in owning core intellectual property as the next generation of telecom technology takes shape.
