The International Relations Division of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has today notified the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for contributing to ITU Study Groups. The authority has requested all to comply with the SOP and, in particular, with the timelines for each contribution before submitting it to ITU.
The SOP outlines the reconstitution of NWG within a month of the conclusion of the study period and the formation of a new study period by ITU. The NWGs consist of management groups and members. The management group manages, monitors and drives the NWG. It comprises a chairperson, vice-chairperson, and convenor for coordinating the NWG activities.
The chairperson has to ensure the member’s participation from industry, academia, start-up, government, research organizations, patent holders/domain experts etc. The objective of the NWGs is to contribute to ITU activities while keeping in mind the interests of the Indian Telecom sector.
All members of each NWG will identify and prioritize the contributions based on India’s interests and build consensus and harmonize the interests of various stakeholders and proactively make necessary contributions for the study group of ITU during the first meeting of NWG.
The NWGs must convene regular meetings with at least two quarterly meetings. The submissions of contributions by members to the concerned chairperson/convenor of NWG within T-6 weeks for discussion in the NWG meeting. The last meeting of NWG and deliberations on the contribution should be completed by T-5 weeks.
The minutes of the NWG meeting approved by the chairperson of respective NWGs shall be circulated to all members and copied to the Nodal Officer of the respective sector. The chairperson/convenor of NWG should initiate the file for submission of contributions to ITU for approval of Member (S) through the Head of TEC/WPC.
In the case of ITU-R, the same must be initiated through Member (T) within T-4 weeks. In contrast, in the case of ITU-D, the same must be initiated for approval through AS (T) through DDG (IR) within T-4 weeks by the chairperson/convenor of NWG. In case of contributions to policy matters, the contribution must be submitted to Secretary (T) for final approval.
Lastly, the submission of uploading of contributions to the ITU platform by the chairperson/convenor before T-2 week or the deadline date set by the ITU Study Groups, whichever is earlier.
