India-Japan MoU in ICT Sector
India and Japan have recently signed an agreement to increase cooperation in the area of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The agreement also includes cooperation on 5G standardization.
Key Points
- As per MoU signed between India and Japan, both the countries will increase mutual cooperation in the field of 5G technologies, spectrum management, submarine optical fibre cable system to islands of India, telecom security, a high-altitude platform for broadband in unconnected areas, smart cities, public safety, and disaster management.
- Under the agreement, it has been decided that apart from Ministry-level cooperation, Indian government organizations like ITI Limited and C-DOT, along with Japan’s industry partners, will also be part of this cooperation.
- This agreement was virtually signed between Minister for Communications, Electronics, and IT Minister of India Ravi Shankar Prasad and Takeda Ryota, the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan.
- This MoU will take cooperation between both countries in the field of ICT to another level. The cooperation between India and Japan is already close in the field under the Japan-India ICT Comprehensive Cooperation Framework 2014.
Japanese firm NEC has already laid the submarine optical fibre cables between Chennai and Andaman & Nicobar. This project was inaugurated by PM Modi last year in August.
Recently, Japan has also provided assistance up to 30 billion yen to India for mitigating the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.