PM Modi to Inaugurate ITU Area Office & Innovation Centre Tomorrow

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Area office and Innovation Centre in India in New Delhi on Wednesday.

ITU is the United Nations’ specialised agency for information and communication technologies and its Headquarters is in Geneva. India signed a Host Country Agreement in March last year with ITU for the establishment of an Area Office. The Area Office in India also envisaged having 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. It 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, Prime Minister will also unveil Bharat’s 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 Testbed will provide academic institutions, industries, start-ups, MSMEs and industries a platform to test and validate the evolving ICT technologies. The Bharat 6G Vision Document and 6G Testbed will provide an enabling environment for innovation, capacity building and faster technology adoption in the country.

Prime Minister will also launch the Call Before U dig App. An app is a tool envisaged for preventing damage to underlying assets like optical fibre cables, that occurs 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.