Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development Dr. Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today, said that Telecom Technology development Fund (TTDF) Scheme, launched on 1st October 2022, aims to bridge digital divide by developing and manufacturing the state-of the-art indigenous technologies for rural and remote areas.

As on 10.12.2025, 136 projects amounting to Rs 542.22 crores have been approved under Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF) Scheme to different IITs, NITs, MSMEs, startups and research institutions. Focus areas of TTDF are telecom technologies including 5G and 6G technologies, Internet of Things (IoT), Optical Communications, satellite-communication, Quantum Communication Indigenous core networks and open RAN.

TTDF has approved a project for establishment of  6G test bed at SAMEER (Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research)- Kolkata, an autonomous R&D body under Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) with three other consortium members namely, IIT-Madras, IIT- Guwahati and IIT-Patna. This test bed project is ongoing and has already developed an indigenous prototype.

TTDF Scheme encourages collaboration between domestic companies/start-ups, academic & research institutions, and MSMEs. Applicants may partner as a consortium of the above entities. This consortium-based model helps combine complementary strengths- academic institutions bring research knowledge, whereas, start-ups and MSMEs bring agility and innovation, while established industry players contribute manufacturing, scaling, and real-world deployment experience.

As on 10.12.2026, a total of 26 patents have been filed, 36 Contributions have been made for development of telecom standards and 48 Publications have been made in various journals & conferences.

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MI/ARJ

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