Technology Advisory Group (TAG) of Empowered Technology Group (ETG) meets to discuss A Strategic Roadmap for India’s Telecom Sector and establishing a dedicated “Communication Technology Task Force”

Prelims-testable facts

• 01The Technology Advisory Group (TAG) of the Empowered Technology Group (ETG) is responsible for developing a Strategic Roadmap for India's Telecom Sector.
• 02The TAG meeting on 10 July 2026 was chaired by Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.
• 03Prof. Sood highlighted that telecom technologies form the foundation of India's digital economy and are essential for digital public infrastructure, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, industrial automation, and critical infrastructure.
• 04The meeting aimed to identify priority technology domains for the telecom sector and assess the need for a dedicated national R&D intervention.
• 05India's vision for its telecom sector includes an integrated, future-ready, and fast-moving sector that extends beyond traditional telecom services to encompass data centres, non-terrestrial networks, space-based communications, and AI-native networks.
• 06The Digital Bharat Nidhi scheme provides support for research, innovation, and early deployment of indigenous technologies in the telecom sector.
• 07Key speakers at the TAG meeting emphasized the need for indigenous capabilities in strategic areas such as 5G-Advanced/6G, AI-native networks, Open RAN, satellite communications, cloud-native networks, and telecom semiconductors.

Trap alerts

• Most people think that India's Telecom Sector is solely focused on traditional telecom services, but actually it aims to extend beyond these services to encompass data centres, non-terrestrial networks, space-based communications, and AI-native networks.
• Most people think that the TAG meeting was only about discussing a Strategic Roadmap for India's Telecom Sector, but actually it also aimed to establish a dedicated 'Communication Technology Task Force'.
• Most people think that Prof. Sood is the sole chairperson of the TAG meetings, but actually he chairs one of the meetings and other members may lead or co-chair different meetings.