According to Tarun Kapoor, advisor to the Prime Minister Office (PMO), the government is keen to promote indigenous research and development (R&D) activities in telecom and emerging technologies so that the country can play a leading role worldwide. He added that the government has already announced a few programs in this regard. It is looking forward to major partnerships between government institutions, academic institutions, and the industry.
Speaking at the 5G Broadcast Summit organised by IIT Kanpur, Kapoor said that several technologies are emerging in India and being tried out domestically, with huge amounts of money being invested in R&D. In 2022, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) launched the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) to promote domestic manufacturing in line with the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. Under the initiative, the government is evaluating more than 400 proposals worth Rs 10 billion to locally create intellectual property for telecom products and solutions.
Further, Kapoor said that the government is looking forward to new technologies that can change the service landscape. It is working on providing connectivity to every village through the BharatNet project. It has recently approved higher allocations and targets. Kapoor added that India is becoming a huge manufacturing hub for mobile phones.
