The Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA), an industry and academia-led platform driving India’s 6G ecosystem, has expanded to 90 members as of July 15, reflecting growing collaboration among telecom service providers, equipment manufacturers, startups, research institutions and academic organisations. The development marks another step in the country’s efforts to position itself as a global leader in next-generation telecommunications.
Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani shared the information in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The Alliance has constituted seven working groups focusing on key areas including 6G technologies, spectrum, applications and use cases, devices and components, revenue models, sustainability and outreach. The platform aims to strengthen India’s research, innovation and intellectual property ecosystem by promoting collaboration between industry and academia, identifying technology gaps and supporting the development of advanced research proposals and testbeds aligned with the country’s 6G Vision.
One of the Alliance’s working groups on spectrum has submitted a report titled Spectrum Roadmap for 6G in India. Separately, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), after consultations with stakeholders including the Bharat 6G Alliance, has released the national Spectrum Roadmap for 6G services to guide future spectrum planning and deployment.
To strengthen indigenous research capabilities, the government has approved a three-year project under the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) of the Digital Bharat Nidhi for establishing a 6G Terahertz testbed at the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER), Kolkata. The project is being implemented in collaboration with IIT Madras, IIT Guwahati and IIT Patna. As part of the initiative, a high-data-rate line-of-sight communication link was successfully demonstrated during the India Mobile Congress 2025.
India has also made significant contributions to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) under the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT)-2030 framework, widely regarded as the foundation for 6G. The country successfully advocated the inclusion of “ubiquitous connectivity” as one of the six key 6G usage scenarios, while also supporting coverage, interoperability and sustainability as core capabilities of future 6G networks.
To enhance India’s participation in global telecom standard-setting, the government is supporting startups, MSMEs and other stakeholders through the Department of Telecommunications’ Technology Development and Investment Promotion (TDIP) scheme. The programme provides financial assistance for membership in international standardisation bodies such as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), ITU and oneM2M, participation in global meetings, hosting of international standardisation events in India, and pilot testing and validation of telecom products.
