WTSA-2024: India leads standards development process at global level

New Delhi : Leading the standards development process at global level, India saw its candidates being elected in leadership positions in all 10 study groups of the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) Standardisation sector (ITU-T), it was announced on Saturday.

While India retained Chair position in one group, it secured Vice-Chair positions in all other nine study groups and the SCV Committee, thereby increasing its leadership positions in ITU-T from seven in WTSA-2022 to 11 positions in WTSA-2024, said the Ministry of Communications.

Study groups are technical grouping of experts responsible for developing international standards for telecommunications technologies.

The International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) 2024 is currently being organised in New Delhi. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 15 and will continue till October 24.

It is for the first time that WTSA is being conducted in the Asia-Pacific region and it would set the direction of standardisation activities ITU-T and its work for the next four years (2024-2028).

During the WTSA-24, participating countries elected leadership positions of the various study groups.

India has significantly strengthened its position in the global telecommunication landscape, securing key leadership roles in all the ITU-T study groups.

The ongoing discussions at WTSA focus on promoting standardization activities on emerging technologies and developing new ITU-T resolutions on topics such as Digital Public Infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence, post-quantum cryptography, Metaverse, Over-the-top (OTT) services and Sustainable Digital transformation.

These topics would be pivotal in shaping the future of technology and ensuring a connected, secure, and inclusive digital world.

“The existing ITU-T resolutions are also being updated. Once the roadmap is set during the WTSA-24, the standardisation activities would be taken up by the various ITU-T study groups in the form of development of Standards and Technical reports,” said the ministry.