Innovation in 5G will bring in integration with various industry verticals to take the benefits of 5G to all citizens, according to Hari Ranjan Rao, Joint Secretary, Deptartment of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications.
He was speaking after formally launching India’s first 5G Use Cases Lab at the Institute Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), an arm of the Reserve Bank of India, (RBI) on Friday.
The government is changing from more of a regulatory role to that of an enabler, for instance by establishing 5G test beds like the present one for the banking and financial sector and by providing liberal access to spectrum for research tests and trials.
AS Ramasastri, Director, IDRBT said that the impact of the 5G Use Cases Lab is likely to be as transformational as the INdian FInancial NETwork, which had ushered in inter-bank connectivity in the country. Similarly, this lab’s output is expected to not only significantly help in bridging last-mile connectivity gaps but also enabling next-level user experiences such as immersive doorstep banking.
5G readiness
The lab will identify India-specific use cases of 5G in the banking and financial services sector and help implement 5G technologies on par with developed countries.
Considering that India has the second-largest mobile penetration in the world and has a diverse digital divide, the security gaps in 5G technologies and services would also be identified along with 5G use cases.
The lab would collaborate with financial services organisations, service providers, academic institutions and most importantly start-ups, to promote agility and innovations for enhanced customer experience.
The lab will work on financial inclusion and rural connectivity, futuristic ATM/mobile banking, claim processing, fraud detection, enhanced customer experience leveraging IoT, distributed ledger, VR and AR, AI and ML, network slicing technologies and security technologies to ensure trust is built into the technology from the day of 5G adoption.
The Lab would be guided by a steering committee comprising the DoT, Department of Financial Services (DFS), Telecommunications Standards Development Society (TSDSI), among others.
White paper on AI
The IDRBT has also released a white paper titled ‘ AIin Banking: A Primer ’ in association with Microsoft India today. Aimed at supporting banks in their AI journey, the IDRBT in association with Microsoft has worked out a framework and strategy for the successful adoption of AI to accelerate innovation and growth. The IDRBT urges the BFSI organisations to increase focus on AI strategy, data management, internal digitisation, talent creation and developing safe systems to improve their AI readiness.
The white paper also introduces an AI maturity assessment model developed by Microsoft.