Govt Considers Expanding Telecom R&D Fund To Boost Domestic Manufacturing

New Delhi, Jun 3 (KNN) Officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) have indicated that a key government fund aimed at research and development (R&D) in the telecom sector may be significantly expanded in the coming months.

The Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF), currently pegged at 5 percent of the annual collections of the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) or around Rs 500 crore, could see its corpus increased to approximately Rs 3,000 crore, reported BS.

The move is part of a broader initiative to promote indigenous manufacturing of telecom and networking equipment in India.

The TTDF's mandate would be widened beyond rural-specific communications to encompass R&D for 'Made in India' networking and telecom products.

This effort aligns with the government's objectives of fostering technology ownership, reducing import reliance, boosting export opportunities, and enhancing India's intellectual property rights (IPR) portfolio.

Last year, the DoT invited TTDF applications from industry, academia, and government departments involved in telecom technology design, development, and commercialisation.

The department received over 200 proposals by the October deadline. An official stated that the idea is to capitalise on ongoing research in key areas, boost it in line with the government's India 5G and 6G missions, and expand the country's IPR capabilities.

The enlarged TTDF may draw from the USOF, which had an available balance of Rs 79,638 crore as of January 31 and remains the government's primary source of capital for constructing nationwide telecom infrastructure.

The government has already begun allocating TTDF funds for various research projects, including six chip design initiatives.

Additionally, the Centre for the Development of Telematics (C-DoT) and the Indian Institutes of Technology at Kharagpur and Jodhpur are partnering to develop prototypes for affordable broadband and mobile services, as well as artificial intelligence frameworks for automated network management and fault detection.

This latest push to expand the TTDF aligns with recommendations made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in September 2023, which stated that the fund in its current form might not sufficiently cater to the diverse requirements of the sector.

TRAI had previously recommended establishing a Telecom Research and Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore as early as 2011.

(KNN Bureau)