The Indian government has sanctioned Rs 304.7 million for 110 research and development projects focused on 5G and 6G technologies under the Telecom Technology Development Fund scheme, as of June 30. The initiative, launched on October 1, 2022, aims to foster innovation and collaboration across academia, start-ups, MSMEs, research institutes, and industry to strengthen India’s telecom ecosystem.
The approved projects span durations of one to five years and are currently in early development stages. The scheme supports a wide range of technological domains involving both public and private institutions.
In parallel, the Department of Telecommunications has developed the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator, a metric that categorizes mobile numbers based on their association with financial fraud risk levels—Medium, High, or Very High. This tool is accessible via the Digital Intelligence Platform and is designed to help banks, NBFCs, and UPI service providers implement enhanced customer protection measures.
The Reserve Bank of India has issued advisories to banks and Payment Service Operators to integrate the indicator into their systems and adopt real-time response protocols such as alerts, transaction delays, warnings, and declines.
Based on Action Taken Reports submitted on the platform, 34 financial entities have frozen 10.02 million bank accounts and payment wallets, and imposed debit and credit restrictions on 3.05 million accounts and wallets.
The Digital Intelligence Unit project under the Department of Telecommunications includes multiple components aimed at curbing the misuse of telecom resources for cybercrime and financial fraud.
