Scindia announces India's first Telecom Manufacturing Zone in Gwalior

Centre and Madhya Pradesh to sign an MoU for the Phase-I project as India looks to strengthen telecom manufacturing and accelerate 6G ambitions

Communications and Development of North Eastern Region Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday announced the launch of the country's first Telecom Manufacturing Zone (TMZ) in Gwalior.

 

"(A TMZ is) an ecosystem only for the telecom sector, for data centres, for chip manufacturers. We are putting in place a full plug-and-play system between the Government of Madhya Pradesh and the Government of India," Scindia said while speaking at the theme launch event for the 10th edition of the Indian Mobile Congress (IMC).

 

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Government of Madhya Pradesh will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in New Delhi on Thursday for the establishment of Phase I of the TMZ in Gwalior.

   

While India has Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for export promotion, the TMZ is intended to spur a manufacturing ecosystem for telecom equipment and allied technologies by enabling investments, innovation, and encouraging indigenous design and manufacturing, according to the communications ministry.

 

"We will lead the world on 6G," Scindia said, adding that India is likely to secure a place for the first time in the standards-setting framework of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

 

The ITU is a specialised United Nations (UN) agency responsible for matters related to information and communication technologies. The 3GPP is an international collaboration that develops global specifications for mobile telecommunications technologies.

 

Speaking earlier at the event, Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar said the government is reviewing security aspects in light of spam and financial fraud.

 

"We are taking reviews every two weeks, bringing every stakeholder into the system."

 

"We were able to build a 6G ecosystem and expand it to 90 partners. We take monthly reviews and quarterly reviews to clear all the bottlenecks," Chandra Sekhar said.

 

"The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has taken on the responsibility of modernising more than 130 years of legislation to enable a new ecosystem that would further strengthen and deepen the quality of digital infrastructure in the country," said Rahul Vatts, chairman of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

 

The theme for the 10th edition of the IMC is "Scale without Boundaries". The four-day forum, scheduled from October 7 to 10, 2026, in New Delhi, is projected as Asia's largest digital technology forum, organised by the DoT and the COAI. It is expected to feature the board of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), along with policymakers, start-ups and investors, besides attracting 150,000 attendees and 300 exhibitors. Earlier this year, the IMC signed an MoU with the GSMA, the global industry body for mobile network operators.