Professor Abhay Karandikar, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology, emphasizes India’s potential to shape 6G standards and become a global exporter of advanced mobile network technologies.
Speaking at the Indian Mobile Congress (IMC) on October 29, 2023, Professor Abhay Karandikar, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), highlighted India’s capacity to take a leading role in the standardization of 6G technology. He emphasized the nation’s already-established foundation in indigenous 5G technology, backed by a dedicated team of researchers across academia, industry, and start-ups.
Professor Karandikar expressed, “We have an opportunity to steer the 6G standardization in a way which we have not really thought of before, as well as become a global exporter of such technologies in the years to come.” He referred to the Second International Workshop on 6G Standardization, held as part of the IMC and inaugurated by the Prime Minister on October 27, 2023.
He further explained, “As you know that the 5G itself was a paradigm shift from 2G and 3G mobile networks, while 6G would be really a game changer and India presents a fertile use case scenario for influencing the 6G research and the standardization in a vastly different way.”
Professor Karandikar pointed out India’s significant contribution to the escalating global data volume due to the advent of mobile communication. He projected that by 2030, India’s share may increase to one-third or more of the total data generated from standard mobile communication.
He highlighted the diverse use cases that India presents, ranging from high to low data rates, stringent latency environments to latency-tolerant applications, and a variety of access devices including Wi-Fi, drones, satellite, terrestrial networks, sensors, and IoT.
However, he noted that there is still a substantial amount of research and standardization work ahead. Addressing core network scalability challenges, he stressed the need for efficient heterogeneous radio access technology to handle large data volumes.
Professor Karandikar emphasized that the Department of Science and Technology, through initiatives like the National Mission for Cyber Physical Systems (NMICPS), can support research challenges in these areas. He noted that beyond primary telephone connectivity, NMICPS can extend to sectors such as agriculture, health, transportation, and logistics.
During the IMC, Professor Karandikar also visited stalls set up by the Technology Innovation Hubs under NMICPS, engaging in discussions about the showcased technologies.
Dignitaries from the Government, academia, and the industry, including Shri Apurva Chandra, Secretary Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Shri V. Raghunandan, Secretary TRAI, Shri R K Upadhyay. C-DoT, and Shri R R Mittar, Advisor, TEC, attended the workshop and various sessions, exchanging insights on mobile network technologies, their standardization, and future prospects during the 3-day IMC organized in New Delhi.
