Digital Communications Commission

Digital Communications Commission

Subject: Economy

Context :Telecom Regulatory of India (TRAI) has made recommendations to improve the data centre infrastructure in the country.

Details:

• TRAI has argued that the policy aspects of data centres, content delivery networks, and Internet exchange points should be handled by the Digital Communication Commission (DCC).
• TRAI also suggested the formation of the Data Digitisation and Monetisation Council (DDMC), an apex body to oversee all issues related to data digitisation, data sharing and data monetisation in the country.

Concept:

Data center infrastructure

• It refers to the core physical or hardware-based resources and components – including all IT infrastructure devices, equipment and technologies – that comprise a data center. It is modeled and identified in a design plan that includes a complete listing of necessary infrastructure components used to create a data center.
• A data center infrastructure may include:
  • Servers
  • Computers
  • Networking equipment, such as routers or switches
  • Security, such as firewall or biometric security system
  • Storage, such as storage area network (SAN) or backup/tape storage
  • Data center management software/applications
• It can also include non-computing resources, such as:
  • Power and cooling devices, such as air conditioners or generators
  • Physical server racks/chassis
  • Cables
  • Internet backbone

Digital Communication:

• It is also known as data communication or data transmission.
• It  is the transfer of data or information using digital signals over a point-to-point (P2P) channel. A P2P connection is a mode of communication between two communication endpoints.
• Communicating digitally is a communication technique in which thoughts, data or information are digitally encoded as discrete signals. These signals are electronically transferred to the recipients.
• Digital communication is a popular technology used today in electronics. It allows us to access video conferencing, digital meetings, online education, etc. The data can travel upto long distances within a second with the help of the internet and other modes of digital communication.

Related law:

As per allocation of business rules, ‘data’ is allocated to the Department of Telecommunications, but policies related to Digital Communications are being handled by the Ministry of Electronics & IT-MeitY. 

Digital Communications Commission (Erstwhile Telecom Commission)

• The Telecom Commission was set up by the Government of India vide the Resolution dated 11th April, 1989 with administrative and financial powers of the Government of India to deal with various aspects of Telecommunications.
• It has been re-designated  as the ‘Digital Communications Commission’ in 2018 through a government resolution.
• The Digital Communications Commission consists of a Chairman, four full time members, who are ex-officio Secretaries to the Government of India in the Department of Telecommunications and four part time members who are the Secretaries to the Government of India in the concerned Departments.
• The Digital Communications Commission is responsible for:
  • Formulating the policy of Department of Telecommunications for approval of the Government;
  • Preparing the budget for the Department of Telecommunications for each financial year and getting it approved by the Government; &
  • Implementation of Government’s policy in all matters concerning telecommunication.