A team from the Department of Telecommunications(DoT), Ministry of Communications, visited the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (ICAR)- Pusa Institute, as part of 5G use case lab exploration with Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoAFW), a follow up of DoT’s Inter-ministerial committee deliberations and industry presentations with indigenous 5G solutions to MoAFW.
Dr PK Meherda, JS, Digital Agriculture (DAC & FW); ICAR-IARI team – Dr Ashok K Singh, Director; Dr Anil Rai, ADG (ICT); Dr Rabi N Sahoo, Principle Scientist and their enthusiastic eexpert teams facilitated the visit for the DoT team comprising Shri Kishore Babu YGSC, DDG (S-R-I), Alex Vikas, ADG (S-R-I). The campus is a host of excellent digital initiatives on the Smart Farming front. There is a good scope for “5G technology engagement” and a “Digicom CoE and use case lab” at ICRA on Smart AG-Tech Farming.
Outcomes envisaged from the aforementioned initiative are 1. Complement digital innovation actions of MoAFW with 5G innovation in the Agri sector with DoT partnership 2. Build engagement with Telecom Service Providers and 5G industry on precision agriculture and smart farming enabling trying of pilots and 5G driven solutions 3. Opportunity to create a CoE and use case lab under MoAFW with Digicom solutions.
A task force with officers from both sides would develop the work program with deliverables in a time-bound manner.
5G as next-generation communication technology has potential use cases in several economic and societal verticals beyond voice and data. DoT has formed an Inter-ministerial committee led by Member (Technology) for engagement with 14 Central Ministries and Departments under the guidance of Secretary (Telecom) giving thrust for 5G applications and solutions. A White paper on 5G Usecases has been sent to respective Ministries for wider dissemination containing details of use cases developed from Indian industry, relevant Centres of Excellence and DoT’s partnership in enabling access to 5G testbed.
(With inputs from PIB)
