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The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has successfully concluded a series of networking events under the Sangam-Digital Twin initiative, marking a significant step forward in infrastructure planning through advanced digital solutions. The finale held at T-Hub in Hyderabad capped off a series of productive sessions aimed at developing comprehensive blueprints for Digital Twin-enabled solutions leveraging diverse data sources.
These Sangam Networking Events took place at four prestigious institutions – IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, PES University Bangalore, and T-Hub Hyderabad – and brought together over 400 participants from leading companies, academia, and government sectors. The events focused on creating viable project blueprints and strategic roadmaps for implementing Digital Twin solutions that address various challenges.
Each event featured insightful keynote addresses by esteemed speakers who emphasised the importance of harnessing data to solve real-world problems. At the inaugural event in Delhi, Dr. Neeraj Mittal, Secretary of Telecommunications, underscored the initiative’s goal of developing viable projects, securing funding, and demonstrating the feasibility of a national-level infrastructure planning tool.
At the final event in Hyderabad, Shri Jayesh Ranjan, Special Chief Secretary of ITE&C, Telangana Government, highlighted the significance of industry collaboration in building digital twins.
The initiative’s breakout sessions covered key verticals such as Intelligent Traffic Management, Multimodal Public Transport Optimisation, Comprehensive Mobility Planning, Traffic Emission Management, Water Distribution Networks, Disaster Management, and Aspirational Blocks focusing on Health and Nutrition, and Education. Participants engaged in cross-sectoral collaboration, integrating data from diverse sources while ensuring privacy preservation through advanced technologies. Horizontal topics such as Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs), Data Provider and AI Governance Framework, Virtual World Creation and Interaction Capabilities, and Mathematical Modelling and Physics-Based Simulations were also explored.
The events yielded viable project blueprints and strategic roadmaps that will guide the design and architecture of future solutions. These blueprints define roles for various stakeholders, identify potential customers, and establish funding and governance mechanisms. Special emphasis was laid on Aspirational Blocks to enhance Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across Health and Nutrition, Education, and other themes.
Key outcomes and focus areas included:
- Transportation: Solutions to reduce traffic congestion through Intelligent Traffic Management, Multi Modal Public Transport Optimisation, and Comprehensive Mobility Planning.
- Assessment of Environment Quality and Its Impact: Initiatives for Traffic Emission Management and optimising Water Distribution networks.
- Healthcare: Development of the Sangam Health Twin platform for orchestrating various Health Digital Twins, including models for specific organs, training twins for healthcare providers, medical equipment twins for predictive maintenance, and community twins for managing communicable diseases.
- Disaster Management: Comprehensive rescue planning through advanced digital simulations and data integration.
The Sangam initiative aims to revolutionise infrastructure planning and design through cutting-edge technologies and collective intelligence, representing a collaborative effort to harness technology for sustainable and efficient infrastructure solutions.
OpenGov Asia reported that DoT had embarked on its pioneering outreach programme at IIT Delhi in February this year, aiming to revolutionise infrastructure planning and management by bridging the gap between innovation and planning processes.
In May, the department announced the selected participants for Stage 1 of the Sangam Digital Twin Initiative, marking a crucial step towards reshaping infrastructure planning and design.
The initiative received an enthusiastic response, with 112 organisations and 32 individuals, including industry giants, innovative startups, and top academic institutions, through the Expression of Interest process. These participants bring extensive technological expertise in unified data platforms, advanced AI modelling, immersive AR/VR applications, and sophisticated scenario planning.
Moving forward, the Sangam initiative will build on the momentum generated by these events, focusing on implementing the developed blueprints and roadmaps, securing the necessary funding, and establishing governance mechanisms for successful project execution.
