The series of networking events under the Sangam-Digital Twin initiative by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has successfully concluded. The final event, held at T-Hub, Hyderabad on July 10-11, 2024, marked the culmination of a series of engaging and productive sessions aimed at revolutionizing infrastructure planning through advanced digital solutions.

The Sangam Networking Events, hosted across four prestigious institutions—IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, PES University Bangalore, and T-Hub Hyderabad—brought together over 400 participants from leading companies, academia, and government sectors. The events focused on developing comprehensive blueprints for Digital Twin-enabled solutions that address various challenges by leveraging diverse data sources.

Each event featured insightful keynote addresses by esteemed speakers, who highlighted the significance of harnessing data to solve real-world problems.

Addressing the participants at first networking event at Delhi, Dr Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Telecommunications, said “Our goal is to develop viable projects, secure funding, and present them to the government to demonstrate the feasibility of creating a infrastructure planning tool for national-level.”

Shri Jayesh Ranjan Special Chief Secretary, ITE&C, Telangana Govt, in his address at the final event at Hyderabad, emphasized the importance of industry collaboration to build digital twins.

Shri Niraj Verma, Additional Secretary, Telecom, stated, "These initiatives have set in motion significant collaboration among participants, fostering new ideas, knowledge, and capabilities. Our goal is to develop viable projects, secure funding, and demonstrate the feasibility of creating a national-level infrastructure planning tool."

Breakout Sessions

Breakout sessions covered key verticals such as Intelligent Traffic Management, Multimodal Public Transport Optimization, Comprehensive Mobility Planning, Traffic Emission Management, Water Distribution Networks, Disaster Management, and Aspirational Blocks focusing on Health and Nutrition, and Education.

Cross-Sectoral Collaboration: Participants engaged in collaborative discussions to integrate data from diverse sources while ensuring privacy preservation through advanced technologies. Horizontal topics such as Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), Data Provider and AI Governance Framework, Virtual World Creation and Interaction Capabilities, and Mathematical Modelling and Physics-Based Simulations were also explored.

Innovative Solutions and Future Roadmaps: The events produced viable project blueprints and strategic roadmaps for implementation. These outputs will guide the design and architecture of future solutions, define roles for various stakeholders, identify potential customers, and establish funding and governance mechanisms.

Special emphasis was  laid on Aspirational Blocks in all the events. The focus was on finding solutions and build models for enhancing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across Health and Nutrition, Education, and other themes for the aspirational blocks.

Other Key Outcomes and Focus Areas

1.         Transportation: Solutions to reduce traffic congestion in cities through Digital Twins focusing on Intelligent Traffic Management, Multi Modal Public Transport Optimization, and Comprehensive Mobility Planning.

2.         Assessment of Environment Quality and Its Impact: Initiatives for Traffic Emission Management and optimizing Water Distribution networks.

3.         Healthcare: Development of the Sangam Health Twin platform for orchestrating various Health Digital Twins, including:

  - Discrete Health Digital Twins for modelling specific organs.

  - Training Twins for healthcare providers.

  - Medical Equipment Twins for infrastructure and predictive maintenance.

  - Community Twins for managing communicable diseases.

4.         Disaster Management: Comprehensive rescue planning through advanced digital simulations and data integration.

At the final event at Hyderabad, Shri Niraj Verma launched the Outcome Document. This document, developed by diverse participants across all four networking events, focuses on the way forward for the Stage 2 of the initiative. It is open for comments from relevant stakeholders.

Way Forward:

The Sangam initiative will continue to build on the momentum generated by these networking events. Moving forward, the focus will be on implementing the developed blueprints and roadmaps, securing necessary funding, and establishing governance mechanisms to ensure successful project execution. Collaborative efforts will be intensified to integrate cutting-edge technologies and data-driven insights into national infrastructure planning, ultimately aiming to create sustainable and efficient solutions that address economic, social, and environmental challenges.

The DoT extends its gratitude to all participants and companies for their active engagement and contributions, which have set the stage for transformative advancements in digital solutions.

For further information, please visit https://sangam.sancharsaathi.gov.in/

About Sangam:

The Sangam initiative aims to revolutionize infrastructure planning and design through the utilization of cutting-edge technologies and collective intelligence. It represents a collaborative effort to harness the power of technology for sustainable and efficient infrastructure solutions.

Sessions of all Four networking events is available at https://www.youtube.com/@DepartmentofTelecom/streams

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KSY/DK