Category: Communications

Satellite communication companies such as Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb, and Jio will have to pay 4% of their adjusted gross revenue as spectrum charges to the government, as per the telecom regulator’s recommendations issued.

This is steeper than what these companies had been lobbying for. Elon Musk’s Starlink and Amazon Inc.’s subsidiary Kuiper Systems had during consultations with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India urged it to keep the spectrum charge below 1% of their adjusted gross revenue, with no other charges.

TRAI, however, has also recommended ₹3,500 per MHz as annual minimum spectrum charges for companies offering both fixed satellite services and mobile satellite services, and an annual charge of ₹500 per subscriber for fixed satellite services providers in urban areas.

Fixed satellite services deliver data communication and internet to fixed locations like homes, offices, or remote sites using stationary satellite dishes.

Mobile satellite services provide voice calls, text messaging, data, and internet access to users who are on the move—such as people on ships, airplanes, or in remote vehicles—using mobile terminals that can maintain a connection while in motion.

TRAI said the annual spectrum charges should be paid quarterly, within 15 days of the commencement of a quarter. The minimum charges should be paid in advance at the time of assignment of spectrum and at the beginning of every year, it said.

The spectrum will be assigned to the operators for a period of five years, TRAI said in its recommendations issued on Friday. The government may extend this for up to another two years, it added.

Satellite communications companies had pitched for a 20-year validity of spectrum.

For remote regions
TRAI’s recommendations come after the government on Wednesday issued a letter of intent to Starlink for providing its satellite internet services in India. Eutelsat OneWeb and the Jio-SES joint venture, which have already secured licences, have been waiting to secure spectrum from the government to commercially launch satellite internet services in the country.

In September, TRAI issued a consultation paper on the terms and conditions for the assignment of spectrum for certain satellite-based commercial communication services.

For targeted subscribers in unserved or underserved regions in rural and remote areas, the regulator has recommended that the government consider a subsidy for each fixed user terminal at an appropriate amount. The amount of subsidy may be decided by the government, TRAI said.

Satellite spectrum being a shared resource, TRAI recommended that the frequency spectrum in higher bands like C, Ku, Ka, and Q/V for satellite telecommunication services be assigned on a shared basis. It also suggested that all authorized entities using such shared spectrum coordinate with each other in good faith.

It recommended that the government provide spectrum to satcom firms in the frequency of C-band (4-8 GHz), Ku-band (10-15 GHz), and Ka-band (17-31 GHz, Q/V band (33-75 GHz), and L&S bands (1-4 GHz).

TRAI added that frequency ranges already identified for telecom services, such as 27.5-28.5 GHz and 42.5-43.5 GHz, satellite earth station gateways should be permitted to be established at uninhabited or remote locations where there is less likelihood of telecom services being provided.

“DoT (department of telecommunications) should prescribe the exclusion zone requirement for co-existence of IMT and satellite earth station gateways,” TRAI said.

To mitigate a scarcity of gateway sites, satellite earth station gateways should be installed and commissioned within 12 months from the date of permission granted to the satcom companies, TRAI said. LiveMint

Having secured the Letter of Intent from the telecom department and agreed to security norms for offering satcom services, Starlink will now have to formally sign acceptance of the terms and conditions of the agreement and pay the stipulated entry fee to procure the licence, according to sources. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is on the verge of finalising its recommendations on pricing of administrative allocation of satcom spectrum, and an announcement can be expected any day now, sources said.

Starlink has been issued the LoI for Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite (GMPCS), ISP and VSAT, they further said, adding that this has been the practice even for other players. Eventually, the system will work under a GMPCS licence.

Sources said Starlink has agreed to the stringent security norms for satellite communication services after conditions were tightened earlier this week.

Now that LoI has been issued, the next steps involved are acceptance of the letter of intent and the agreement. The licence will be issued after the entry fee is paid, they added.

While the DoT licence will authorise Starlink to build its network, it would require approvals from the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) and obtain spectrum from the government to become operational.

Starlink provides high-speed and low-latency broadband internet worldwide, using satellite technology and is aptly described by some as broadband beamed from the skies.

Unlike conventional satellite services that rely on distant geostationary satellites, Starlink utilises the world’s largest low Earth orbit or LEO constellation (550 km above Earth). This constellation of LEO satellites (7,000 now but eventually set to grow to over 40,000) and its mesh delivers broadband internet capable of supporting streaming, online gaming, and video calls.

The government has already issued licences to Eutelsat OneWeb and Jio Satellite Communications, the terms of which will be recommended by TRAI. The players will be able to start their services after the allocation of radio-wave frequencies.

Earlier this week, the government issued stringent security norms mandating legal interception of satellite communication services and barred companies from linking the connection of users in any form with any terminal or facility located outside the country’s border, as well as processing of their data overseas.

The tighter security rules also mandate service providers to indigenise at least 20 per cent of their ground segment of the satellite network within years of their establishment in the country.

According to the instruction, the satcom service licence holder will require security clearances for specific gateway and hub locations in India and compliance with monitoring, interception facilities and equipment requirements.

India’s rules mandate satcom firms to demonstrate system capabilities with respect to security aspects, including monitoring, to the Department of Telecom (DoT) or its authorised representatives before starting operations in India.

On Tuesday, Union Minister Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, while speaking at an industry event, had said that grant of approval to Elon Musk-led satellite internet provider is a complicated issue, but it is in the final stages.

The Minister of State for Telecom had said the government’s security norms for satcom are important, especially in the present scenario, where the hostile nation Pakistan is making an attempt to hack the country’s system.

The minister, however, added that Starlink will have a minuscule role in connectivity compared to traditional telecom networks. According to him, the role of Starlink or other satcom players will be mainly to connect the remote areas where the traditional networks find it difficult to reach, and it will be primarily for the inside home connectivity, not for mobile services.

The minister had also sought to allay fears around satcom services eating into the addressable market of traditional telecom services, saying, “I want people to know whether Starlink and all that stuff, whether they come or not… they will be very small players even if they come”.

“It’s very expensive to install the initial equipment. It is 10 times more expensive than our traditional models.”

He said that the monthly payment for consumers will also be quite expensive.

Starlink, which had been vying for an Indian licence for some time now, recently signed pacts with Ambani’s Reliance Jio and Mittal’s Bharti Airtel, which together control more than 70 per cent of the country’s telecom market, to bring the US satellite internet giant’s services to India. PTI

ABI Research, a global technology intelligence firm, awarded eight satellite operators a “Hot Tech Innovator” title for their contributions to the satellite IoT industry. Each awarded operator has been instrumental in maturing the satellite IoT ecosystem, creating new standards-based services or investing in large, IoT-compatible constellations to expand IoT customers’ options beyond terrestrial limits.

“Though it is ramping up, the satellite IoT market has developed a reputation of being out-of-step with IoT customers’ pricing and power requirements,” says Lizzie Stokes, Senior. Analyst at ABI Research. “Each of these Hot Tech Innovators is responsible for reversing that trend, bringing to market new technologies and service offerings that are both innovative and IoT-friendly.”

One Innovator, Globalstar, is known for its affordable IoT services. Its historical focus on one-way messaging in IoT-heavy markets, like asset tracking, has allowed the company to become an expert in low-cost, low-data communications. It will continue its accessible legacy by introducing a new two-way messaging offering. Globalstar’s accompanying LTE and 5G terrestrial spectrum for private networks is also an important differentiator, allowing the company to become a comprehensive connectivity provider. Iridium, another awarded Innovator, has focused its IoT innovation efforts around multi-mode capabilities, announcing in January 2024 its own 3GPP NTN service. This service will shake up the satellite IoT competitive landscape, as it competes directly with the 3GPP NTN services offered by two other Hot Tech Innovators, Sateliot and OQ Technology.

Though fairly new to the market, Sateliot and OQ Technology have been at the forefront of 3GPP NTN adoption, building LEO constellations based on the new standard. Both companies are forming cellular partnerships with influential MNOs and MVNOs to grow their platforms as their satellite infrastructure ramps up.

The LoRa NTN standard is also pertinent to satellites’ uptake in the IoT world, serving as an NTN technology that suits the IoT’s cost and power constraints. Hot Tech Innovators Lacuna Space and EchoStar Mobile are taking different paths to the standard’s adoption, with EchoStar Mobile primarily focusing on its pan-European LoRa NTN while Lacuna Space builds its constellation and expands into new markets.

Starlink is another influential player in the satellite IoT market, with plans to offer an IoT service in 2025. The company has an impressive mega-constellation of 6,791 LEO satellites as of October 2024. However, Starlink’s dominance could face competition from Amazon as it invests in its own satellite company, Amazon Project Kuiper. Amazon Project Kuiper also plans to use a huge constellation of LEO satellites to support a wide range of customer segments, from broadband services to IoT devices.

“A satellite operator’s success in the IoT market depends on various factors. The size of its constellation, its orbital regime, and its chosen protocols can affect how an operator appeals to an asset tracking or condition-based monitoring customer,” says Stokes. “Each operator listed in this report has displayed a thorough understanding of the IoT’s inherent constraints and prioritized offerings that will bring more IoT users into the non-terrestrial market.” ABI Research

Italy said on Wednesday it is considering handing KKR-backed FiberCop part of the work assigned to rival Open Fiber to speed up a European Union-funded fibre network rollout plan as it tries to meet COVID-19 recovery plan targets.

FiberCop and its smaller rival Open Fiber were entrusted with cabling more than 3 million buildings across Italy by the end of June 2026 under a 3.4 billion euro ($3.9 billion) programme aimed at rolling out ultra-fast broadband networks.

About 1.7 million of the currently targeted 3.4 million buildings were cabled by the end of February, government data showed, with Open Fiber, which has more buildings to connect, lagging behind FiberCop.

The latter in April told the Italian government it was ready to take over in full the work assigned to its rival.

During a meeting with government officials on Wednesday, representatives of both companies said they were open to start discussions to hand FiberCop the areas where Open Fiber is lagging far behind the scheduled programme, the government statement said.

Both FiberCop and Open Fiber are backed by the Italian state, and the government is considering a potential combination of their respective network infrastructures.

FiberCop was spun off last year from Telecom Italia and sold to a KKR-led consortium, including Italy’s economy ministry, under a deal worth up to 22 billion euros.

Open Fiber is 60% owned by Italian state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), with Australian fund Macquarie holding the remainder.

The country lags European peers in high-speed fixed-line internet coverage, with some 59% of households having access to ultrafast broadband against an EU average of 79%, according to the latest EU data. Reuters

Seventy-four percent of B2B buyer teams demonstrate unhealthy conflict during the buying decision process, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc.

Unhealthy conflict occurs when buying team members have conflicting objectives, disagree on the best course of action, or are overruled by external decision-makers.

A survey of 632 B2B buyers conducted in August through September 2024 found buying groups that reach consensus are 2.5 times more likely to report that their deal was high-quality.

“Buying groups are more diverse than ever, ranging from five to 16 people across as many as four functions. Each member may have differing priorities and opinions,” said Delainey Kirkwood, Principal, Research in the Gartner Sales Practice. “Fostering buying group consensus and minimizing conflict must be a key priority for chief sales officers (CSOs).

“CSOs must properly equip their sellers to foster agreement and alignment among diverse buyer groups. By focusing on buying group relevance, sellers can aid members in understanding each other’s viewpoints and validate the decision-making process. In doing so, sellers can secure a higher number of high-quality deals.”

Tailored Content Drives Consensus, Leading to Better Deal Outcomes
While many sales leaders believe the key to driving buying group consensus is tailored content, the survey found the level of relevance is crucial. Tailoring for buying group relevance positively impacts consensus by 20%, aiding members in understanding each other’s perspectives and validating the decision-making process.

However, content that focuses on individual-level relevance can create conflict within the buying group, resulting in a 59% negative impact on buying group consensus.

“Messages that are tailored to the buying group or the organization can foster understanding and consensus among stakeholders,” said Kirkwood. “However, content with individual-level relevance can lead to confirmation bias, reinforcing individual perspectives so that stakeholders are less likely to embrace a unified direction as a group.”

The survey revealed that when buyers experience buying group relevance, they are three times more likely to report a high-quality deal. This highlights the importance of prioritizing shared interests and goals over individual buyer priorities. Gartner

There’s a high risk of cyber attacks on India’s digital infrastructure, government officials and cyber and telecom experts warned hours after Operation Sindoor.

The department of telecommunications (DoT), along with the telecom operators are evaluating measures to enhance telecom security infrastructure in border and sensitive areas, according to officials.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), under the ministry of electronics and IT (Meity) has issued advisories to high risk stakeholders such as banks and financial institutions informing of the cyber attack risks and the need to strengthen their systems, a government official said.

Queries emailed to CERT-In, telecom operators and DoT, on Wednesday, did not initiate a response.

India launched targeted missile strikes on nine sites in Pakistan and Occupied Kashmir in the early hours of Wednesday in an operation codenamed “Sindoor” in retaliation of the Pahalgam terror attacks.

Since the Pahalgam attacks, there have been numerous attempts to hack Indian websites and change their content or appearance, the official added.

On Tuesday, minister of state for communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani also acknowledged that Pakistan has been attempting to hack cyber networks in India.

“DoT is actively reviewing network security measures. Monitoring has been intensified in sensitive regions, and telecom operators have been issued directives to strengthen security protocols,” a second government official said, adding that the home affairs ministry has also issued directions.

According to industry executives, lawful interception and real-time surveillance capabilities, prevention of mobile signal spillover into neighbouring countries, and monitoring of unauthorized roaming connections near the borders, are among key steps that can be taken.

“With cloud infrastructure holding vast amounts of sensitive data, cyber domains are now the first lines of attack and in the coming years cyber sabotage could be as damaging as a missile strike,” said Rakesh Bhatnagar, director general at Voice of Indian Communication Technology Enterprises (VoICE), which represents domestic telecom equipment makers and solution providers.

According to Bhatnagar, Chinese telecom, power equipment, drones, SIM cards with their chips and operating systems can play havoc during war. “We need to be prepared based on our security considerations.”

Dhiraj Gupta, co founder of cybersecurity provider mFilterit, said, “In a military context, cyber attackers employ sophisticated tactics beyond conventional ransomware attacks, aiming to disrupt and destabilize enemy systems, create panic, or embarrass the adversary’s government.”

“Expected attack vectors include Denial of Service (DoS) attacks that crash websites by overloading them, defacement attacks that alter content for showing off the hackers capabilities, and stealthy intrusions to gather sensitive intelligence from government systems that usually go unnoticed and are a more serious risk than any other form of attack,” Gupta added.

Cyber experts caution that not just the large public and private entities but individual systems and devices are also prone to cyberattacks as a part of parallel cyber warfare that is going on with the cross border attacks.

“It is the responsibility of threat intelligence teams to monitor the dark web closely, track hacker chatter and identify vulnerabilities before they’re exploited,” said Prasanna Kumar, co-head of Financial Services and Professional Group (FSPG), India, Aon, a professional services provider.

“Based on our observation, cyber attackers are no longer targeting just individual corporations, they’re focusing on entire systems of unpatched devices, posing a serious threat not just to governments and businesses, but to every connected individual,” Kumar added.

Kumar said attackers are focusing on critical infrastructure which can disrupt public utilities, leading to a challenging environment for people. “Public infrastructure like electricity, internet, and mobile networks are modern lifelines and when disrupted, the impact is immediate and widespread,” he said.

Another top cyber security consultant, suggested companies take action to tighten their line of defence against possible cyber attacks.

“After the Pahalgam attack, amid the tension between the two nations, Pakistani hackers have been actively trying to attack government websites, specifically on the northern front of India,” said the head of forensics and cyber security at a top consulting firms, requesting anonymity.

This could be seen in Pakistani hackers defacing Rajasthan’s education department website in a cyber attack last week, he said, adding that after the latest attacks by India, “we will continue to see specific targeted attacks on Indian digital infrastructure and the cyber security industry will be operating on high alert at least for the next two-three weeks”.

“To mitigate the risk, Indian companies need to bolster their digital defence by assessing vulnerabilities, having a response plan in place, and closely monitoring network activity and the dark web for potential threats. With the situation likely to escalate, vigilance and preparedness are crucial to mitigate potential cyber risks,” this person said. LiveMint

Fixed wireless access (FWA), which leverages 5G spectrum to deliver high-speed home internet without requiring fibre connectivity, is gaining steady traction. With telecom majors Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel actively scaling their broadband offerings, the technology is emerging as a key growth lever for the industry.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the total number of FWA subscribers rose to 6.77 million in March, up from 6.27 million in February, marking a net addition of nearly 500,000 users in just one month. This upward trend underscores the growing popularity of FWA as both an urban and rural broadband solution. Notably, TRAI began disclosing FWA-specific subscriber data only in January this year, highlighting the service’s growing importance.

FWA is currently the only consumer use case for 5G that is generating revenue for telecom operators, offering them an opportunity to scale quickly without the delays and costs associated with laying fibre. Analysts said that FWA allows telcos to immediately address markets beyond the metros, especially in regions where deploying fibre is either difficult or economically unviable.

In places like Assam, for instance, Jio has tapped into demand by providing FWA services in areas with poor fibre connectivity along the Brahmaputra. As a result, rural areas now account for roughly one-third of the total FWA user base, with Reliance Jio leading the charge in these markets.

Urban deployment has also picked up pace, especially in localities where obtaining right of way for fibre has been a long-standing challenge. Both Airtel and Jio launched their respective FWA services during the second quarter of FY24, bundling high-speed connectivity with entertainment options. Plans are priced between Rs 599 and Rs 699 per month, offering higher average revenue per user (Arpu) compared to traditional mobile services.

A recent Goldman Sachs report said that Jio’s home broadband business, including fibre and FWA, contributed about 9% to its Rs 30,018 crore revenue in the fourth quarter of FY25. Jio currently serves around 18 million home broadband users, with FWA accounting for 5.6 million of those connections. Half of these additions have come from beyond Tier-1 cities, as the company pursues its goal of reaching 100 million home connections.

While Airtel’s Q4 results are still awaited, the company has consistently emphasised home broadband as a strategic focus. As of March, it had around 1.2 million FWA subscribers, as per TRAI data.

With just 41.39 million wired broadband users nationwide, household internet penetration stands at around 14%, leaving ample room for FWA to expand. Industry experts note that Indian telcos are outperforming global peers such as AT&T and T-Mobile in terms of quarterly FWA additions, thanks to the vast scale of the Indian market and faster adoption of 5G technology. Financial Express

As India waits for the final draft of its first space law and guidelines for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the space sector, homegrown space startups remain in line to grab larger pieces of the incoming businesses and investments.

Stakeholders of the industry that Mint spoke with, requesting anonymity, said a formalization of India’s operating procedures for space project procurement, coupled with on-paper confirmation of how foreign investors can approach the government for large investments in India in space, can open up a multi-billion-dollar opportunity for the sector, which seeks to quadruple its net annual revenue within eight years.

“There is a lot of scope for India to create demand in the domestic space industry internally itself. To do that, a formalized procedure is crucial, which the first space law will help establish. This is a potential setback to the industry, which right now is in a waiting phase of over two years for a formalized set of laws and rules to truly take off,” a senior executive of one of India’s top space startups said, requesting anonymity since they work closely with the Union government.

Work, to be sure, is underway. In November, Pawan Goenka, chairman of the Department of Space’s regulatory and promotion body, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (In-Space), told Mint that the first draft of India’s first space law was “almost ready”—with the timeline then being pitched for March this year.

On Monday, Goenka said the law is in its final stages, and it will give In-Space formal regulatory powers to represent the domestic space sector. In the long run, the law will enable In-Space to take up tenders for private space startups and play a larger formal role in helping the firms take up global orders.

Law coming soon
“The FDI rules are soon to be approved in the coming months. Right now, beyond the automatic FDI route, government approvals for space funding rounds will become much easier when the foreign funding guidelines come in. This will help the domestic space sector attract up to $2.5 billion in foreign investments within the next eight years,” Goenka said.

The move is key for India and the growth of its private space industry. In October 2023, Goenka said the domestic space sector can grow to $44 billion in annual revenue within 10 years. On Monday, he estimated that the industry is roughly worth $10 billion—indicating a growth of 7% annually since the Department of Space assessed it to be worth $8 billion in 2022.

For India to scale the space industry up to $44 billion by 2033, it would need an annualized growth of 21%—a growth that’s currently absent in the industry.

On Monday, Mint reported that India’s largest space sector funding rounds have been driven by foreign investors—including Pixxel and Skyroot Aerospace, which have each raised $95 million in venture capital funding to date. While none have published their valuations so far, two senior space officials said the top firms are worth $250-500 million today.

As a result, the space law and the FDI rules would be crucial for more startups to raise funding at scale.

“Space is a capital-intensive sector, which makes the need for a concerted push even more important. What India needs is to either not follow the American way of doing business and create its own internal ecosystem, or enable rules that will let businesses chase large funding rounds and procure foreign business demand at will,” said Chaitanya Giri, space fellow at global think tank Observer Research Foundation.

Looking outwards
Narayan Prasad Nagendra, chief operating officer of Dutch space services vendor Satsearch, added that a lack of commercial space demand is creating a conflicted business environment for space startups. “With a lack of formalized space laws and rules, Indian space startups are going abroad chasing business opportunities. But, looking for space contracts in mature markets is like attempting to innovate in a saturated market where there are already a hundred competitors. This gives India’s businesses a downright limbo, and bringing in formal paperwork in space laws and rules would give less impetus than India’s space promoter actually creating business opportunities from internal markets,” he said.

Nagendra added that with most space economies being closed markets, a key part of the space laws and rules would be to create a clear regulatory environment that would offer a clear diktat for ministry bodies to become clients and generate internal space demand.

“There is some concerted push for the space sector to play a larger role in defence surveillance and reconnaissance, which may create a spurt of demand for satellite and infrastructure manufacturers in the space sector. But this needs to happen more regularly,” he added.

Goenka, on this note, added that In-Space is creating a framework through which specific sectors will be mandated to approach space startups and procure their services in fields such as agriculture, urban planning, disaster management and more.

For now, though, demand remains low. Firms such as Pixxel and Digantara are serving contracts generated by the US’ central space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), while the likes of Skyroot Aerospace and Agnikul Cosmos are yet to hit a regularized rhythm of space launches with their small rockets. LiveMint

Democratic lawmakers on key House committees raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest from Elon Musk’s dual roles as SpaceX CEO and a Special Government Employee overseeing changes at NASA and the Department of Defense, a letter sent to the agencies on Tuesday said.

The letter addressed to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro expressed alarm by House Democrats over Musk’s potential conflicts, given his role spearheading the Trump administration’s massive federal overhaul through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

“Musk’s dual role creates an inherent conflict of interest between SpaceX’s status as a large government contractor and DOGE’s influence at agencies overseeing SpaceX contracts, contract bids, and regulations governing the company and its activities,” the letter signed by the top Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee and the committee on Science, Space and Technology and others said.

DOGE is currently overseeing significant organizational changes at both the Department of Defense and NASA. These changes include the dismissal of probationary Defense employees, the cancellation of hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and contracts at NASA, and the elimination of entire programs at both agencies.

Simultaneously, SpaceX continues to serve as a large contractor for both DoD and NASA, bidding on and winning additional contracts even after Musk began his work for the Trump administration.

“Because SpaceX performs significant work for the federal government across the national security and civil space architectures, even the perception of a conflict of interest is very troubling, and Musk’s influence over the agencies awarding large contracts to his company goes far beyond mere perception,” the letter said.

Musk has been at the helm of SpaceX since its founding in 2002. The company has become a major player in the space industry, securing numerous contracts with NASA and the Department of Defense. Reuters

India has set up a panel to review if existing copyright law is sufficient to tackle AI-related disputes, an official memo showed, at a time when OpenAI faces legal challenges stemming from accusations of exploiting copyrighted material.

A case in the high court in New Delhi by a group of top Indian news outlets and book publishers who say the firm uses their content without permission to help train its ChatGPT chatbot could reshape how the sector operates in India.

OpenAI has denied wrongdoing.

The memo, which is not public, said the commerce ministry set up a panel of eight experts last month to examine issues related to AI and their implications for India’s copyright law.

The experts have been tasked to “identify and analyze the legal and policy issues arising from the use of artificial intelligence in the context of copyright,” the memo added.

The panel of intellectual property lawyers, government officials and industry executives will also examine the adequacy of the Copyright Act of 1957 in resolving such concerns and make recommendations to the government, it said.

India’s commerce and infotech ministries did not respond to Reuters’ queries.

The copyright law has been at the centre of the OpenAI lawsuits in India.

Billionaire Gautam Adani’s NDTV, along with the Indian Express and Hindustan Times newspapers and the Digital News Publishers Association, which groups top news outlets, say they share concerns over copyright law violations by AI platforms using their data to train such apps.

OpenAI says it uses public data to train its chatbot, which is not a violation of India’s copyright law, and also provides an opt-out for websites that do not want their data used.

Courts around the world are hearing claims by authors, news organisations and musicians which accuse technology companies of using their copyrighted work to train AI services without permission or payment. Reuters