Govt backs 104 projects under Rs 271 crore R&D fund to build India’s 6G capabilities

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India has approved 104 research projects worth Rs 271 crore to accelerate the development of 6G technologies, as the government steps up efforts to position the country in the next phase of global telecom innovation, Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

The projects have been sanctioned under the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) scheme of the Department of Telecommunications, which supports indigenous telecom research and innovation. The initiative funds work on 6G research, testbeds, prototypes, and commercialisation of emerging telecom technologies.

Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Pemmasani said the approvals were in place as of February 2026, reflecting the government’s strategy to build domestic capabilities for future telecom networks.

The minister noted that the government has already released the Bharat 6G Vision Document, which outlines India’s roadmap for research, development and deployment of 6G, including early identification of spectrum bands likely to support next-generation services.

Alongside this, the government has also published a spectrum roadmap for 6G, providing visibility on spectrum availability and timelines across radio-frequency bands over the next decade. The roadmap divides the rollout into short term (2025–26), medium term (2027–30), and long term (2031–35) phases to support advanced 6G applications.

India’s domestic efforts are also aligned with global standards work being undertaken at the International Telecommunication Union. The ITU Radiocommunication Sector has issued the ITU‑R M.2160‑0 framework for IMT-2030 (6G), which sets out usage scenarios and requirements for next-generation wireless networks.

Additional studies such as ITU‑R M.2376‑0 and ITU‑R M.2541‑0 examine spectrum feasibility, propagation characteristics, antenna technologies and deployment architectures expected to underpin future IMT systems.

Meanwhile, India’s current 5G rollout has expanded rapidly, with services now available across all States and Union Territories and covering 99.9% of districts, the minister said. As of February 28, 2026, telecom operators had installed 5.23 lakh 5G base transceiver stations (BTSs) nationwide.

The government is also promoting the adoption of 5G use cases in sectors such as telemedicine, precision agriculture, smart manufacturing and education, while building an indigenous telecom ecosystem and preparing the ground for next-generation technologies including 6G.

Among key initiatives, the government funded an Indigenous 5G Test Bed with ₹224 crore in 2018, developed by eight institutions including Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru, along with SAMEER and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology. The facility was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2022.

To support application development, the government has also set up 100 5G laboratories across the country with an outlay of ₹97.67 crore, enabling the development of 5G-enabled solutions in sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, power, urban management, mining, logistics, tourism and e-governance.

Overall, 136 R&D projects have been approved under the TTDF scheme so far, covering frontier areas including 6G, quantum communications, satellite and non-terrestrial networks, optical systems, indigenous 5G core and telecom security. Of these, 104 projects relate to 6G technologies, including work on terahertz testbeds, transmitter modules, cell-free access points, reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) hardware systems and AI/ML-driven network technologies, while 11 projects focus on 5G technologies such as millimetre-wave power amplifiers, core development and integrated transceivers.

The funding push is part of India’s broader strategy to develop indigenous telecom technologies and play a role in shaping global 6G standards, even as commercial deployment of the technology is expected to begin globally only in the next decade.