The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), renamed Digital Bharat Nidhi under the Indian Telecommunications Bill 2023, is expected to be used to create a mega money source for research and development (R&D) into networking and telecom equipment manufacturing.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is discussing how to ramp up the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF), which is currently pegged at 5 per cent of the annual collections of the USOF or about Rs 5 billion.
The recent push to expand TTDF is in line with the recommendations made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in September 2023. TTDF, in its current form, may not be sufficient to cater to the diverse requirements of the sector. It had recommended the setting up of specific funds with exclusive focus on domestic manufacturing of networking and telecom equipment.
