India Accelerates Towards 6G Leadership: “Bharat 6G Vision” Set to Secure 10 % of Global Patents by 2030

Why 6G Matters: A Leap Beyond Connectivity

While 5G continues its rollout and adoption globally, the discussion around 6G goes beyond faster mobile broadband. According to international assessments, 6G will support truly immersive applications: real-time virtual/augmented-reality, autonomous mobility, high-precision sensing, holographic communications, and Internet-of-Everything environments.

For India, the stakes are high. The country is not only aiming for connectivity ubiquity but also wants technological sovereignty, export capability and leadership in global telecom standards. Being a major player in 6G means influencing standards, owning intellectual property, securing supply chains and shaping future digital ecosystems.

The Roadmap: Bharat 6G Vision and Strategic Targets

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Bharat 6G Alliance have laid out an ambitious blueprint. Key components include:

• Launch of the “Bharat 6G Vision” document which emphasises affordability, sustainability, inclusivity and domestic manufacturing as guiding principles.
• Commitment to secure at least 10% of global 6G patents by 2030 — a substantial intellectual-property and innovation goal.
• Establishment of 100 5G/6G R&D labs across India to build a foundational ecosystem for future networks.
• Formation of the Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA) bringing together telecom service providers, academia, industry, standards bodies and start-ups.
• International collaboration and Memoranda of Understanding with space agencies, global research alliances and standards organisations to align India with global development of 6G.

One of the statements made during the International Bharat6G Symposium called for 6G networks to be “secure, open, resilient, inclusive and sustainable” — signalling a conscious move toward designing for society, not just speed.

R&D Infrastructure: Bridging Academia, Industry and Government

The creation of 100 new 5G/6G labs is a cornerstone of India’s strategy to build capabilities from the ground up. These labs will serve multiple purposes:

• Basic research in terahertz communications, optical fibre links, massive-MIMO, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces and hybrid terrestrial-non-terrestrial networks.
• Prototype development and proof-of-concept testing for industry and start-ups.
• Talent development programs, hands-on innovation labs and industry-academia incubators.

Government-industry skilling funds, grants and start-up challenges are being mobilised to ensure that Indian engineers and researchers move into high-value areas of 6G rather than just assembly or deployment roles. The focus is shifting toward high-value contributions—chip modules, radio design, system software and standard contributions.

Global Collaboration & Standards: Positioning India on the Stage

India has signed several high-profile MoUs and launched international collaboration platforms under B6GA to ensure it is not isolated in the 6G race. Some of the partnerships include:

• A Memorandum of Intent with the European Space Agency (ESA) to advance space-enabled 6G networks integrating satellites and high-altitude platforms with terrestrial systems.
• Collaboration with the Telecommunications Standards Development Society India (TSDSI) to align India’s standards work with global bodies.
• Joint statements with major global 6G alliances pledging 6G development as a global public good — emphasising trust and inclusivity over purely commercial objectives.

This approach reflects a dual objective: contribute meaningfully to global 6G architecture and secure export-ready indigenous technology platforms (from radio units to software stacks).

Strategic Implications for India’s Economy and Growth

The 6G initiative is not just telecom-centric—it has strategic implications across the economy:

• Industrial Manufacturing & Supply Chains: India aims to capture a larger share of global telecom-equipment manufacturing rather than just importing radios and passive infrastructure. The domestic manufacturing push will link into Make-in-India, export-accentuated regimes and local value chains.
• Innovation & Patent Ownership: With the 10% patent target, the emphasis is on moving beyond deployment to innovation—designing chips, radios, network software and system-integration platforms that can be globally relevant.
• Services & Ecosystem Value: 6G will enable new services—autonomous systems, remote healthcare, industrial IoT, smart cities, digital twins and next-gen entertainment ecosystems. India wants both domestic value-capture and export of solutions.
• Defence and National Security: High-frequency communications, satellite-terrestrial convergence and ultra-low latency networks converge with defence, secure communications and surveillance capabilities—areas of strategic national interest.

Challenges & Hurdles Ahead

Despite the momentum, India faces several key challenges in achieving its vision:

• Global timetable and competition: Major countries (US, China, South Korea, Japan, EU) are racing toward early 6G roll-out. India needs to not just catch up but leapfrog in certain segments.
• Infrastructure deployment cost and complexity: 6G will demand very high-band spectrum, new radio architectures, dense deployment, optical backhaul and substantial investment in devices. Ensuring affordability and sustainability is difficult. The “affordable” principle in the vision will be put to test.
• Standardisation and spectrum governance: Acquiring and allocating high-band spectrum (terahertz bands), managing regulatory coordination, and aligning with global standards remain complex tasks. India’s regulatory agility will be tested.
• Talent and research depth: While the country has large engineering output, moving into frontier R&D in terahertz, photonics, system-on-chip and network architecture is a different magnitude. Building that talent base is critical.
• Connectivity and affordability gap: India still has large numbers of unequipped regions; making 6G accessible to rural and lower-income communities will require careful policy design and financial models.

What to Watch: Key Milestones to Track

Over the next 12–18 months, several milestones will indicate whether the vision turns into delivery:

• Launch of first domestic 6G test-beds from Indian industry and labs; showing working prototype systems in terahertz or cell-free architectures.
• Publication of whitepapers and spectrum-roadmap notifications for terahertz bands and hybrid networks. The B6GA already released several whitepapers at the Symposium.
• Allocation of new high-frequency spectrum for 6G trials and public-private partnerships announced by the Department of Telecommunications.
• Number of patents filed and international standards contributions by Indian firms—it will become a visible metric of India’s progress toward the 10 % patent goal.
• Availability of India-designed network radio equipment, system-on-chip modules and open-RAN architectures rolling out nationally or in export modes.
• Service launches oriented toward 6G use-cases (e.g., autonomous vehicles, industrial robotics, XR/VR networks) though initial commercial scale may remain 5G-advanced.

A Strategic Shift: India from Deployment to Innovation

The broader message of the 6G push is that India wants to climb the value-chain—from being a mass deployer of global technologies to becoming a global supplier and standard-setter. The earlier 5G roll-out demonstrated India’s capacity for scale; the next frontier is control and innovation.

As one regulatory insider put it: “If 5G was about speed and scale, 6G’s value will be in intelligence, autonomy and inclusion. India is positioning to make those value-layers its competitive advantage.”

Conclusion

The Bharat 6G initiative represents a clear strategic inflection point for India’s digital infrastructure, industrial ambition and technology diplomacy. By setting high targets, mobilising research networks, incentivising domestic manufacturing and entering global partnerships, India has established itself as a serious contender in the future of telecommunications.

Of course, ambition must translate into results. The next two to three years will be decisive—whether India’s labs, patents and manufacturing ecosystem can deliver working 6G systems, ecosystem platforms and export-ready technologies. If successful, the reward will be long-term influence on telecom infrastructure, global standards, digital sovereignty and economic value creation. If not, it risks falling behind while others commercialise the next generation networks.

India’s journey in 6G is less about “just connectivity” and more about “connectivity plus”—+ intelligence, + autonomy, + inclusion. The world will be watching whether Bharat’s promise becomes reality.