Why in News?

• The Prime Minister has recently unveiled a Vision Document to roll out high-speed 6G Communication Services by 2030 and also launched Bharat 6G Project to identify and fund research and deployment of the next-generation technology in India.

Highlights

• India’s 6G project will be implemented in two phases, the first one from 2023 to 2025 and the second one from 2025 to 2030.
• The government has also appointed an apex council to oversee the project and focus on issues such as standardization, identification of the spectrum for 6G usage, create an ecosystem for devices and systems, and figure out finances for research and development, among other things.In phase one, support will be provided to explorative ideas, risky pathways and proof-of-concept tests.
• Ideas and concepts that show promise and potential for acceptance by the global peer community will be adequately supported to develop them to completion, establish their use cases and benefits, and create implementational IPs and testbeds leading to commercialisation as part of phase two.It aims to enable India to become a leading global supplier of intellectual property, products and solutions of affordable 6G telecom solutions and identify priority areas for 6G research based on India’s competitive advantages.
• The project will provide an R&D platform to start-ups, researchers, industry and other broadband wireless applications in India like e-Governance, smart cities, rural Broadband or other Digital India initiatives under Atmanirbhar Bharat.
• India is the 2^nd-largest telecom market globally with 1.2 billion digital subscribers.
• The past nine years witnessed an unprecedented digital leap, whereby India’s digital economy grew 2.5 times faster than the national economy.
• Over this period, the number of broadband users rose to 800 million, from 60 million, and the number of internet connections rose to 850 million from 250 million.
• The government and private sector together have laid over 2.5 million km of Optical Fiber.
• India is the most connected democracy in the world, where 70 million e-authentications are done every day, and 8 billion UPI (Unified Payment Interface) transactions are made every month.India has sent upwards of ~28 lakh crore directly to its citizens through direct benefit transfers.