Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Area office and Innovation Centre in India in New Delhi today afternoon. ITU is the United Nations specialised agency for information and communication technologies and its Headquarters is in Geneva.
India had signed a Host Country Agreement in March last year with ITU for the establishment of Area Office. The Area Office in India also envisaged to have an Innovation Centre, making it unique among other area offices of ITU. The Area Office, which is fully funded by India, is located on the second floor of the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) building at Mehrauli in the national capital. The programme will witness the participation of IT and Telecom Ministers of various Area Offices of ITU, the Secretary General and other senior officials of ITU, Heads of United Nations and other international bodies in India, Ambassadors, Industry Leaders, Start-up and MSME, leaders of Academia, students and other stakeholders.
The ITU Area 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. During the programme, the Prime Minister will also unveil Bharat 6G Vision Document and launch the 6G Research and Development Test Bed. Bharat 6G vision document is prepared by the Technology Innovation Group that was constituted in November 2021 with members from various Ministries and Departments, research and development institutions, academia and Telecom Service Providers and industry to develop a roadmap and action plans for 6G in India. 6G Test bed will provide academic institutions, industries, start-ups, MSMEs and industry a platform to test and validate the evolving ICT technologies.
The Bharat 6G Vision Document and 6G Test bed will provide an enabling environment for innovation, capacity building and faster technology adoption in the country. Mr Modi will also launch the Call Before U dig App. The app is a tool envisaged for preventing damage to underlying assets like optical fibre cables, that occur because of uncoordinated digging and excavation, leading to a loss of about three thousand crore rupees every year to the country. The mobile app CBuD will connect excavators and asset owners through SMS and Email notification so that there are planned excavations in the country while ensuring the safety of underground assets.
