Category: Tech

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Area office and Innovation Centre in India on March 22. He also unveiled the Bharat 6G Vision Document, and launched the 6G R&D Test Bed and the ‘Call before u Dig’ (CBuD) app.

India signed a Host Country Agreement in March 2022 with ITU – the United Nations’ specialised agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs) – for the establishment of Area Office. This office will serve India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan and Iran, enhancing coordination among nations and fostering mutually beneficial economic cooperation in the region.

Speaking at the launch of the new ITU office, ITU Secretary General Doreen-Bogdan Martin expressed confidence that ITU’s presence in the region will help the introduction of advanced technologies, improve capacity development, and foster entrepreneurship and partnerships while also responding to leads on the ground from digital services, skills, cyber security and digital inclusion.

The newly unveiled Bharat 6G vision document aims to develop a roadmap and action plans for 6G in India, and the 6G Test Bed will provide academic institutions, industries, start-ups, MSMEs, and others a platform to test and validate the evolving ICT technologies. The CBuD app is a tool envisaged to avoid uncoordinated digging and excavation and prevent damage to underlying assets like optical fiber cables.

India and Japan have signed the documents for the fourth tranche of ₹18,000 crore loan by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for India’s bullet train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad.

The documents of the loan were signed during Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s two-day visit to India. “The high speed train project is also part of the technology cooperation between India and Japan,” said India’s Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra on March 20 in New Delhi.

India is targeting 2026 for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train to start operations. The high speed train will run at over 350 km per hour over a 508 kilometer route. The heads of India and Japan also discussed cooperation in defence manufacturing during the visit. “One of the regions of cooperation between the two countries in defence is likely to be co-innovation and co-design. Investment collaboration was discussed for defence,” Kwatra said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Japanese companies to harness the manufacturing ecosystem for defence. “It was discussed that defence manufacturing should not be restricted for regional use, but also for exports,” the foreign secretary said.

During his visit, Kishida also delivered the 41st Sapru House lecture in New Delhi. He said that Japan will extend cooperation for free and open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). India and Japan also signed documents on renewal of higher level Japanese language learning.

With one of the fastest 5G rollouts in the world, India by this year-end will be ahead of most countries, said Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm. The country has a strong pool of good software engineers, and “that’s going to drive the next level of growth in India and that makes it for us a very important market,” he said in an interview on March 15.

Ekholm said that Ericsson already has about 25,000 employees in India. “We continue to grow and we strengthen our presence in R&D, software development, service delivery, AI, automation, and all of those areas. We provide the critical infrastructure, the software and hardware that build the 5G network. So we are quite excited about our presence in India,” he added.

In spite of a late launch, behind some of the leading telecom markets like the USA and South Korea, 5G technology deployment in India has become the fastest in the world. In the US, where 5G was launched in early-2019, a complete roll out is yet to materialise. As per estimates, only about 100 million, or 30 per cent, of its population is so far covered through 5G telecom services. The technology is expected to transform areas as diverse as healthcare, agriculture, education, disaster management, smart cities and entertainment in the country.

India will hold the first-ever India-Africa Army Chiefs Conclave on March 28, and a nine-day military exercise with African militaries from March 21, in Pune, taking ahead India’s outreach to African nations amid China’s growing influence in the continent, senior Army officers said on March 17.

About 22 Army Chiefs and representatives of Army Chiefs of African countries, including Congo, Niger, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda, Seychelles, Gambia, Tanzania and Kenya have confirmed their participation in the conclave. Representatives of military heads of 12 nations will also participate in the conclave, which will be hosted by Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande and attended by senior officers of the services and officials from the ministries of Defence and External Affairs.

The second edition of Africa-India Exercise (AFINDEX-2023), which will see participation of contingents from more than 20 countries, will be held between March 21 and March 29. An exhibition of indigenous military equipment and platforms will be organised on the concluding day of the exercise, showcasing India’s manufacturing capabilities to the African delegates.

The Indian Army officers have indicated that the number of participants in the conclave and the military exercise may go up, as the country has invited 54 African countries to attend the military exercise. The objective of the initiatives are to continue building upon initiatives taken to strengthen India-Africa relations, with a focus on enhancing peace and security, and creating opportunities to exchange ideas and perspectives.

Indian scientists, engineers and academicians have acquired 100 patents for 6G technology, said IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on March 16.

Speaking at the Bharat Startup Summit organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce in New Delhi, the union minister said India is taking a leap in 5G technology with the fastest rollout of networks in the world. He shared that the 5G network rollout has far exceeded the government target of 200 cities by March 31, 2023, with coverage in 397 cities at present. He said India has become a $3.5 trillion economy, and it can become the world’s largest economy with transformation across governance, infrastructure and businesses.

“When a country or economy has to reach this level, then thousands of systems are required to be changed: governance systems, logistics systems, banking systems and change in their own business method. This is the time when everyone should get on to this transformation journey. If we are able to do this transformation then there is no power that can stop India from becoming a USD 30 trillion economy,” he said.

The union telecom minister said that 10 years ago 99 percent of mobile phones in India were imported, and now, 99 percent of units used in India are made locally. He also informed that India has started the export of telecom products to the US. “Export of radio equipment has started from India in the last 7-8 months and that too to America,” Vaishnaw said.

Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, unveiled the pilot trial of MD15 buses and prototype launch of M100 (100% methanol) at an event organised by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) at Vidhana Soudha on March 12.

BMTC along with NITI Aayog, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Ashok Leyland are conducting the project, an official said. “This will eventually lead to a considerable reduction in emission levels,” he added.

BMTC plans to induct 80 methanol-run buses for the pilot project. Out of them, 20 Ashok Leyland buses will be inducted in the first phase and will be followed by other bus manufacturers once they enter into an agreement with NITI Aayog. IOC will provide free diesel and methanol for three months for the pilot project. The 15 percent methanol in diesel is expected to reduce pollution. The event also saw the launch of a prototype of the M100 (100 percent methanol) truck. Methanol can be produced from natural gas, coal as well as municipal waste and biomass.

“The concept of ‘Methanol Economy’ is being actively pursued by China, Italy, Sweden, Israel, the US, Australia, Japan and many other European countries. 10 percent of fuel in China in the transport sector is Methanol,” said a NITI Aayog document.

OneWeb, the Bharti Group backed Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications’ company, on March 10 confirmed the successful deployment and contact of 40 satellites launched by SpaceX from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The latest launch brings the total OneWeb constellation to 582 satellites. With these satellites now in orbit, the company will complete the global footprint of its ‘Gen 1 constellation’ with a launch set to take place later this month with NSIL, the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation with the primary responsibility of enabling Indian industries to take up high technology space related activities. The launch enables OneWeb to continue expanding connectivity capabilities, as it grows the fleet of satellites and seeks to initiate services for more partners around the world.

OneWeb already has connectivity solutions active in key geographies across the globe and is bringing new areas online by partnering with providers, including VEON, Orange, Galaxy Broadband, Paratus, and Telespazio.

“OneWeb and its partners are relentlessly focused on the mission to bridge the digital divide and provide internet connectivity to a greater number of unconnected and underserved rural and remote communities and businesses,” a company press release said.

A transport aircraft from the US carrying a NASA-ISRO satellite landed in Bengaluru on March 8.

The C-17 plane airlifted off California with the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture (NISAR) satellite for a joint mission to measure changes in Earth’s crust and land ice surfaces. The 2,800 kg satellite can penetrate through clouds and can produce high-resolution images regardless of weather conditions. It will be used to protect the earth from all kinds of threats. The satellite, which to be launched in 2024 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh, will also be used for various purposes, including agricultural mapping and landslide detection.

The NISAR is equipped with L-band and S-band S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar, due to which it is called a dual-frequency imaging radar satellite. It continuously collects data regardless of weather conditions, allowing it to study the Earth in greater detail than ever before. The satellite’s 39-foot reflector antenna and radar will help collect data. The data collected will lead to a better understanding of the Earth’s upper crust and dynamics, leading to a better understanding of the scientific causes of the planet’s changing climate.

Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă recently presented his “new honorary adviser,” an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant to help the government know in real-time the proposals and wishes of Romanians by scanning social media networks.

An “international first”, the AI assistant named “Ion” will chat with Romanians on the project’s website. Ion “will use technology and artificial intelligence to capture opinions in society” using “data publicly available on social networks,” read a government document on the project.

Ion, which has been developed by Romanian researchers, will have the main task of scanning the social networks and then informing the government “in real time of Romanians’ proposals and wishes,” said Ciuca.

The Romanian Prime Minister added that his entourage’s latest member is a mirror-like structure that has a beeping interface. “Hi, you gave me life and my role is now to represent you, like a mirror,” the calm voice of Ion said at the launch. He added, “What should I know about Romania?”

“I have the conviction that the use of AI should not be an option but an obligation to make better-informed decisions,” said Prime Minister Ciuca.

Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates has said that no country in the world has built a more comprehensive digital infrastructure than India. He underlined that prior to digital infrastructure, accomplishing the number of bank accounts that the country has today would have taken 50 years.

During his visit to India early March, Gates acknowledged India’s competitive private market, reliable and low-cost connectivity. He said that India will be one of the “cheapest 5G markets” globally. The country already sees a great digital network and high levels of smartphone use with really good connectivity.

Gates was speaking at a session held under India’s G20 Presidency on March 1. He said, the push for being among the cheapest 5G network providers would be on the back of a competitive private market, and there is a scope of replicating India’s low-cost digital public infrastructure models across some of the developing nations like Kenya and Brazil, “where the costs of such deliveries continue to be high”.

Gates met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 3. He called the conversation with the Prime Minister to be the “highlight” of his India trip that made him “more optimistic” about the country’s potential to make strides in the fields of health, climate change, and technology.