How does hosting global telecom forums (ITU-WTSA, GSMA) improve India's role in setting technology standards?

Technology standards decide whose technologies, priorities and equipment shape global networks. India hosted ITU-WTSA 2024, the first held in India and Asia-Pacific [1]. It also hosted the GSMA Board meeting alongside IMC 2026 [2]. Together, these moves help India shift from being a standards-taker to a standards-shaper.

How hosting strengthens India's standard-setting role

• Agenda-setting: WTSA sets the ITU's standardisation agenda for 6G, AI, IoT and cybersecurity. As host, India framed debates before 3,000+ delegates from 190+ countries [1].
• Permanent institutional footprint: the Host Country Agreement for an ITU Area Office & Innovation Centre in New Delhi [3] gives South Asian priorities a lasting channel into ITU work.
• Industry alignment: the GSMA represents mobile operators worldwide. Hosting its Board [2] lets India push for low-cost, high-density network needs to be built into industry specifications.
• Proof through scale: C-DOT's indigenous 5G NSA Core was launched at IMC 2022 [4]. 5G now reaches every district through 5.5 lakh+ base stations [2]. This scale makes Indian technical proposals more credible.
• Regulatory credibility: the Spectrum Regulatory Sandbox and the abolition of the Wireless Operating Licence [5] present India as an easy place to test new standards.
• Global South voice: IMC's theme, "Scale without boundaries" [6], puts the case for affordable access, an issue developing nations share.

Limits to converting visibility into influence

• Hosting is not the same as contributing. Lasting influence depends on steady technical submissions to ITU study groups and on owning essential patents, not on event visibility alone.
• Weak domestic demand: a Parliamentary Standing Committee found that key 5G use cases were not yet realised and that operators' returns were too low [7]. This weakens the field evidence India can bring to standards bodies.
• Displayed vs deployed: IMC 2026 showcases 2,000+ use cases [6], but demonstrations at an expo are not adoption.

Hosting global forums gives India agenda access, coalitions and credibility. The next step is to turn that convening power into technical authorship. India can do this by funding R&D at C-DOT and academic institutions, encouraging patent filings, and moving sandbox pilots into ITU contributions. This would make India a co-author of global digital rules, in line with Atmanirbhar Bharat and SDG 9 (resilient infrastructure and innovation).