India eyes 6G soon after ushering in 5G era of tech, PM Modi to unveil vision

Months after 5G technology came to India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to unveil the Bharat 6G vision document on Wednesday, March 22. The prime minister will launch the 6G R&D test bed and inaugurate the new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Innovation Centre at the Vigyan Bhawan. The ITU is a specialised United Nations agency headquartered in Geneva dedicated to information and communication technologies (ICTs). India has signed a host country agreement in March 2022 with ITU for the establishment of an area office. Nations like Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan and Iran will be served by India. 

What is Bharat 6G? 

The Bharat 6G vision document is prepared by the Technology Innovation Group on 6G (TIG-6G) that was constituted in November 2021 with members from various Ministries/Departments, research and development institutions, academia, standardisation bodies, telecom service providers and industry to develop a roadmap and action plans for 6G in India.

The 6G Test Bed will provide academic institutions, industries, start-ups, and MSMEs, and industry, among others, a platform to test and validate evolving ICT technologies. It will provide an enabling environment for innovation, capacity building and faster technology adoption in the country.

Prime Minister Modi will also launch the ‘Call Before You Dig' (CBuD) app which is envisaged for preventing damage to underlying assets like optical fibre cables, that occurs because of uncoordinated digging and excavation, leading to loss of about Rs 3,000 crore every year to the country. CBuD will illustrate the adoption of a ‘Whole-of-government approach’ and is meant to improve the ease of doing business. 

A new era of tech 

On October 2022, India ushered in a new technological era as PM Modi launched the much-awaited 5G which is slated to provide seamless coverage, high data rate, low latency, and reliable communications infrastructure. It will increase energy efficiency, spectrum efficiency, and network efficiency. In the first phase, around 13 cities across the country will be able to use 5G services. 

5G technology comes with a wide range of benefits. It is faster, shows lower latency, increased energy efficiency and network efficiency. 5G has a greater potential to connect to the Internet of Things (IoT), provide higher quality video services and enable tele surgery and automated cars.  

5G will help in real-time monitoring of disasters, precision agriculture, minimising the role of humans in dangerous industrial operations such as in deep mines, offshore activities etc. Unlike existing mobile communication networks, 5G networks will allow tailoring of requirements for each of these different use cases within the same network.