Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia chaired the second meeting of the Stakeholders Advisory Committee (SAC) on Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) here and discussed about international standards and India’s share in Intellectual Property and Standard Essential Patent (SEP), connectivity gaps in telecom and quality of telecom services.

The Minister asked the SAC members to define a critical path to achieve the targets discussed and to define roles they see for different stakeholders, including the government, in achieving the same.

He also exhorted TSPs to take all necessary measures to ensure that citizens get good quality telecom services.

During the meeting on Friday, the SAC members emphasised systematically aligning research to ‘India’s needs’ and put in place a vibrant standards community.

”India has already taken various initiatives like launch of Bhart6G Vision and Bhart6G Alliance, patent and IPR support framework, commissioning of testbeds, and country can aspire for achieving 10 per cent of all 6G patents and 1/6th contributions to global standards promoting India’s needs,” as per a communiqué issued by the Ministry of Communications.

The SAC proposed a three-year roadmap for achieving it, it said.

“The SAC expressed the view that, for India to become a deep tech leader, penetration of both wireline and intelligent wireless broadband networks, with reliable connectivity, is critical. The TSPs sought a supportive policy framework to encourage investments towards the path of 100 per cent broadband coverage in the country,” the statement said.

Various reasons and possible measures to improve the quality of telecom service were also discussed, it said.

Six distinct Stakeholders Advisory Committees (SACs) have been constituted by Scindia to provide valuable insights to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on various matters pertaining to it.

They are aimed at facilitating a consistent two-way dialogue with the government on matters related to the telecommunication sector. Industry thought leaders, top CEOs, academicians, researchers, entrepreneurs and start-ups are members of six SACs.