Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated the new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Area Office and Innovation Centre here.

Modi also unveiled the Bharat 6G Vision Document and launched the 6G R&D Test Bed.?ITU is the United Nations' specialized agency for information and communication technologies (ICTs). Headquartered in Geneva, it has a network of field offices, regional offices and area offices.

India signed a Host Country Agreement in March 2022 with ITU for establishment of an area office. The area office in India also envisaged to have an Innovation Centre embedded in it, making it unique among other area offices of ITU.

The area office, fully funded by India, is located on the second floor of the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) building at Mehrauli in New Delhi.

It will serve India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan and Iran, enhancing coordination among nations and fostering mutually beneficial economic cooperation in the region, a statement said.

Bharat 6G Vision Document is prepared by Technology Innovation Group on 6G (TIG-6G) that was constituted in November 2021 with members from various ministries/departments, research and development institutions, academia, standardization bodies, telecom service providers and industry to develop road map and action plans for 6G in India.

The prime minister also launched 'Call before u dig' mobile app.?