From Human Digital Twins to Indigenous 5G Radios: Technologies Emerging from India’s Cyber-Physical Systems Mission

India’s effort to build indigenous capabilities in artificial intelligence, robotics, advanced communications, digital healthcare and autonomous systems is beginning to produce technologies with applications far beyond university laboratories. Among the most striking are a human digital twin capable of modelling organs such as the heart, lungs and eyes, an indigenous 5G-Advanced Open RAN Massive MIMO radio, long-range drone systems for mines and AI-enabled agricultural monitoring platforms.

These technologies are emerging from the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems, or NM-ICPS, a ₹3,660-crore programme implemented by the Department of Science and Technology. A government technology review released on 31 August 2026 highlighted how the programme is moving from fundamental research towards deployable technologies across healthcare, telecommunications, agriculture, mining, cybersecurity and autonomous mobility.

The scale of the mission has become substantial. As of August 2026, NM-ICPS had enabled 1,146 technologies and 1,329 technology products, awarded 5,824 research fellowships, provided specialised training to more than 2.46 lakh people and incubated 1,136 startups and spin-offs. Those ventures have contributed to more than 24,000 jobs, while the programme has established about 200 international collaborations.

The significance of the programme, however, lies less in the aggregate numbers than in the kinds of technologies now emerging from India’s academic institutions.

Connecting the Digital and Physical Worlds

Cyber-Physical Systems, or CPS, combine computation, communication, sensing and physical machinery into systems capable of observing their environment, processing information and responding to changing conditions.

A conventional machine performs a predetermined function. A cyber-physical system can incorporate sensors, artificial intelligence, communications networks and control systems so that it continually receives information about the physical world and modifies its behaviour accordingly.

An autonomous vehicle is one example. Cameras, radar and other sensors perceive the road, computers analyse that information and actuators control steering, acceleration and braking. An advanced medical-monitoring platform applies the same general principle differently: sensors collect physiological information, algorithms analyse a patient’s condition and digital models help physicians understand possible changes.

The growing integration of software with physical infrastructure means CPS technologies are becoming increasingly important in manufacturing, healthcare, telecommunications, agriculture, transportation, energy and defence.

India launched NM-ICPS in 2018 to create domestic capabilities across these emerging fields rather than remaining primarily dependent on imported systems and technologies. The mission has established 25 Technology Innovation Hubs at leading academic institutions, each concentrating on specialised areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous navigation, communications, cybersecurity, quantum technologies and digital healthcare.

CharakDT: Building a Digital Twin of the Human Body

Among the programme’s most unusual developments is CharakDT, created by the Drishti CPS Foundation at IIT Indore.

A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical object, system or process that can be updated using information obtained from its real-world counterpart. Digital twins were originally associated primarily with industrial equipment such as aircraft engines, factories and turbines. Engineers could create digital models of machines and use operational data to predict failures, test modifications or optimise performance.

CharakDT applies the same principle to healthcare.

The platform is designed as a unified human digital twin system capable of combining physiological information, clinical knowledge and analytical models into virtual representations of the human body. The government says the system can simulate organs including the lungs, eyes and heart, allowing researchers to study disease progression and explore treatments virtually.

IIT Indore describes CharakDT as a platform intended to support personalised and preventive healthcare. Instead of considering every patient according to a single statistical model, the longer-term objective is to construct computational representations that incorporate information relevant to an individual patient.

How a Human Digital Twin Could Work

A true healthcare digital twin would not simply be a three-dimensional anatomical model. Its value comes from combining multiple layers of patient information.

These could include medical history, physiological measurements, diagnostic images, laboratory results, information from wearable sensors and mathematical models describing how organs function. Artificial intelligence can then analyse those inputs and identify relationships that may be difficult to recognise through individual measurements.

For example, a cardiovascular digital twin could potentially incorporate heart rate, blood pressure, ECG information and other clinical parameters. The model could then help monitor how the patient’s cardiovascular condition changes over time.

The concept could eventually allow doctors or researchers to test possible interventions computationally before applying them to a patient. In principle, a model might indicate how different treatment approaches could affect a particular physiological system.

Such applications remain an active field of research globally and require rigorous clinical validation before they can be relied upon for medical decisions. CharakDT should therefore be understood as an emerging healthcare technology platform rather than a replacement for physicians or conventional clinical testing.

Multiple Medical Technologies Integrated into CharakDT

The wider CharakDT programme incorporates several digital-health technologies rather than focusing on one organ alone.

Drishti CPS has described components associated with the platform including technologies for blood-sugar estimation and management, three-dimensional brain modelling, digital prescriptions with alerts, automated glaucoma screening and contactless heart-rate estimation.

This modular structure is important because a useful human digital twin ultimately requires information from multiple physiological systems.

A patient does not experience diabetes, cardiovascular disease or eye disease as completely isolated digital datasets. Conditions can interact with one another. A future integrated platform capable of combining information across different organs could potentially provide a more comprehensive picture than individual monitoring applications.

The approach also reflects a wider movement in medicine from periodic measurement towards continuous monitoring. Instead of relying only on a patient’s condition when they visit a hospital, connected sensors and digital platforms could eventually reveal how health parameters change between appointments.

From IIT Indore Research to a Digital Healthcare Research Park

The government has given IIT Indore a larger role within the national mission by upgrading its technology hub into a Technology Translation Research Park focused on digital healthcare.

During 2025-26, four of the programme’s stronger Technology Innovation Hubs were upgraded into Technology Translation Research Parks. IIT Indore was selected for digital healthcare, IIT Kanpur for cybersecurity, IISc Bengaluru for robotics and artificial intelligence systems, and IIT (ISM) Dhanbad for mining technologies.

The change represents an important evolution in the programme. India’s universities have historically been strong at generating research papers and prototypes, but translating successful academic work into commercial products has often proved more difficult.

The new research parks are intended to bridge that gap by moving promising technologies through validation, industry partnerships, pilot deployment and ultimately commercialisation.

For CharakDT, this could mean closer collaboration with hospitals, clinicians, medical-device manufacturers and healthcare companies rather than keeping the technology confined to an academic demonstration.

Indigenous 5G-Advanced Massive MIMO Radio

The other major technology highlighted by the government is considerably different but equally strategic.

The IIIT Bangalore COMET Foundation, working with academic collaborators, is developing an indigenous 5G-Advanced Open RAN Massive MIMO base-station system. At the centre of the programme is a 32TR Radio Unit, meaning it contains 32 transmit and 32 receive radio-frequency chains.

The radio operates in the n78 band around 3.5 GHz, one of the principal frequency ranges used for 5G networks internationally. It has been designed to comply with both 3GPP cellular standards and Open RAN specifications.

According to COMET, the radio’s architecture and Engineering Validation Testing have already been completed. Design Validation Testing is continuing, with a commercial version targeted during 2026.

The programme involves collaboration between IIIT Bangalore, IIT Hyderabad and IIT Rourkela, with critical components being developed domestically rather than simply assembling an imported base-station architecture.

Why Massive MIMO Matters for 5G

Massive MIMO — Multiple Input Multiple Output — is one of the technologies that makes modern 5G networks fundamentally different from earlier generations of mobile communications.

Traditional base stations use relatively limited numbers of antennas. Massive MIMO systems employ much larger antenna arrays capable of transmitting and receiving multiple data streams simultaneously.

Using digital signal processing and beamforming, the system can direct radio energy more precisely towards users instead of broadcasting signals uniformly in every direction.

This produces several advantages. Network capacity can increase because the same spectrum can support multiple users more efficiently. Coverage can improve, interference can be reduced and available radio spectrum can be used more effectively.

Designing a Massive MIMO radio is consequently not a straightforward electronics project. It requires integration of dozens of radio-frequency channels, amplifiers, antennas, digital signal-processing systems, thermal management, synchronisation and sophisticated software.

The complexity explains why the ability to develop such equipment domestically has strategic importance for India’s telecommunications sector.

Open RAN Could Change Telecom Supply Chains

The second important aspect of the Indian system is its compliance with Open Radio Access Network, or O-RAN, architecture.

Historically, telecom operators often purchased tightly integrated radio equipment and associated software from a small number of multinational vendors. Components supplied by one manufacturer were not always easily interchangeable with equipment from another.

Open RAN attempts to change that model by defining standardised interfaces between major parts of a cellular network.

An operator could therefore theoretically combine a radio unit from one supplier with computing hardware and software from other vendors, provided they comply with the required standards.

For India, that could expand opportunities for domestic telecom companies. Instead of having to manufacture every part of an entire base station before entering the market, specialised Indian companies could develop individual interoperable components.

It could also reduce strategic dependence on a small number of foreign telecom-equipment manufacturers.

An Indigenous Radio Unit and Open DU Accelerator

The COMET project goes beyond the 32TR radio itself.

IIIT Bangalore has also designed an Open Distributed Unit accelerator card used for high-performance 5G physical-layer processing. The system is built around a 16-layer printed circuit board and provides a high-speed optical front-haul interface for connection with the radio unit.

The project aims eventually to integrate the radio and distributed-unit technologies into a near-commercial-grade indigenous Massive MIMO base station.

That distinction matters. India already has significant capabilities in telecom software, network operation and electronics manufacturing. Developing key radio-access hardware domestically moves the country deeper into the technology stack where intellectual property and engineering barriers are much higher.

COMET describes the programme as an attempt to create a genuinely indigenous platform developed from first principles rather than imported equipment carrying an Indian label.

Potential Importance for Rural Connectivity

The government has highlighted the 32TR system particularly for its potential contribution to connectivity in remote and underserved regions.

Massive MIMO and beamforming can help operators use available spectrum more efficiently and improve coverage. However, the final economics of rural deployment will depend on far more than the radio alone, including tower infrastructure, fibre or microwave backhaul, spectrum costs, electricity availability and network density.

An affordable domestically manufactured radio could nevertheless reduce one important component of deployment cost.

If successfully commercialised, the technology could potentially be used not only by Indian telecom operators but also exported to countries seeking lower-cost Open RAN infrastructure.

A Foundation for India’s 6G Research

The project’s importance extends beyond current 5G networks.

COMET says the hardware platforms are already supporting pre-6G research at IIT Hyderabad, including work on an indigenous physical-layer waveform.

This is strategically significant because countries that participate early in next-generation telecommunications research have greater opportunities to contribute intellectual property and technical standards.

India largely entered earlier generations of mobile telecommunications as a major consumer and network operator. The long-term objective is increasingly to become a developer of core technologies.

An indigenous 5G-Advanced base-station platform provides researchers with hardware on which emerging 6G concepts can be developed and tested without being completely dependent on proprietary foreign systems.

IIT Bombay’s Agri-IoT System Takes CPS to Farms

Healthcare and telecommunications are only two of the mission’s application areas.

At IIT Bombay, researchers have developed an Agri-IoT Farm Management System that uses connected sensors to monitor agricultural conditions including soil parameters, weather and local microclimates. The information can support decisions involving irrigation, fertiliser use and farm management.

Agriculture is particularly suited to cyber-physical technologies because conditions can vary considerably even within a single farm. Soil moisture, temperature and humidity continually change, while conventional farm decisions may be based on general forecasts rather than measurements from the field itself.

Networks of low-cost sensors can provide more precise information. Algorithms can then identify when irrigation is actually required or warn farmers when conditions become favourable for particular crop problems.

The objective is not simply to introduce more electronics into agriculture, but to use better information to reduce unnecessary inputs while maintaining or improving productivity.

IIT Dhanbad Develops Long-Range Drone Monitoring for Mines

Mining presents an entirely different CPS challenge.

The TEXMiN Technology Innovation Hub at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad has developed systems allowing drones to transmit information over distances of up to 50 kilometres, according to the government’s August review.

Mining operations can cover enormous areas and often include unstable, hazardous or difficult-to-reach locations. Drones equipped with cameras and sensors can inspect these areas without requiring personnel to enter them physically.

Long-range communications expand the area that can be monitored from a central location. Information could potentially support mine mapping, safety assessment, environmental monitoring and operational supervision.

The value of such systems becomes especially important when drones are combined with artificial intelligence capable of automatically identifying hazards or changes in terrain.

IIT Kanpur Works on Cybersecurity for Connected Infrastructure

As more physical systems become connected to digital networks, cybersecurity becomes increasingly important.

A cyberattack against an ordinary information system may expose data. An attack against a cyber-physical system can potentially affect a real machine or physical process.

The NM-ICPS hub at IIT Kanpur is therefore developing technologies designed to protect both traditional information-technology networks and the operational-technology systems used to control physical infrastructure.

The government review highlights an IT-OT Security Operations Centre capable of monitoring both environments. IIT Kanpur’s hub has also developed crypto-forensic tools intended to assist law-enforcement agencies investigating cryptocurrency-related offences.

The need for such systems will increase as factories, power networks, transport infrastructure and other critical systems become increasingly connected.

India’s Autonomous Navigation Testbed

At IIT Hyderabad, the TiHAN Foundation has created a dedicated proving ground for autonomous navigation technologies.

The facility allows researchers and companies to test autonomous ground vehicles and aerial systems in controlled conditions before deploying them in public or operational environments.

Testing infrastructure is an often-overlooked part of technological self-reliance. Developing autonomous-driving software is only one stage of the process. Engineers must subsequently expose vehicles to different road conditions, obstacles, communications failures, positioning errors and unexpected situations.

A domestic testbed allows Indian companies to repeatedly validate these systems without having to depend on overseas facilities.

The government describes TiHAN as India’s first dedicated proving ground for autonomous navigation covering both aerial and terrestrial vehicles.

IISc and AI-Based Road Safety

The mission’s mobility work also includes the iRASTE road-safety platform, associated with the robotics and autonomous-systems ecosystem at IISc Bengaluru.

The system uses artificial intelligence to identify accident-prone locations and provide alerts intended to reduce road risks. It is currently being piloted in Nagpur, with wider expansion planned.

This represents another important category of cyber-physical application: using information gathered from vehicles and roads to improve physical infrastructure without necessarily requiring fully autonomous vehicles.

BharatGen Adds an Indian AI Layer

Cyber-physical systems increasingly depend on artificial intelligence, and NM-ICPS is also supporting BharatGen, led by IIT Bombay in collaboration with several academic institutions.

BharatGen is developing indigenous multimodal foundation models designed around Indian languages and use cases.

Its Param-2 model contains 17 billion parameters and supports all 22 Scheduled Indian languages. Other technologies include Shrutam for speech-to-text, Sooktam for text-to-speech and Patram for conversational access to complex documents. Sector-specific models are being developed for fields such as Ayurveda, agriculture and Indian law.

The connection with CPS is potentially important. An agricultural machine, healthcare platform or government service becomes more accessible if users can communicate with it naturally in their own language.

India’s technological challenge is therefore not merely to develop AI models comparable with international systems, but to make them useful within India’s linguistic and social environment.

More Than 1,100 Technologies Enabled

The broader results of NM-ICPS show how large the ecosystem has become.

As of August 2026, the programme had enabled 1,146 technologies and 1,329 technology products. It had also incubated 1,136 startups and spin-offs, which the government says have contributed to more than 24,000 jobs.

The distinction between technologies and products is significant. Academic research frequently produces prototypes without creating something ready for widespread deployment. The mission increasingly focuses on moving technologies through higher levels of maturity towards practical products.

This is why the establishment of Technology Translation Research Parks is particularly important.

Rather than continually funding disconnected research projects, the programme is attempting to create institutions capable of taking promising technologies through the much harder stages of testing, certification, industrial partnership and commercialisation.

India’s Universities as Technology Foundries

The mission also illustrates a broader transformation in the role of India’s leading academic institutions.

IITs and IISc have traditionally been viewed primarily as centres for education and fundamental research. Increasingly, their campuses are becoming locations where technologies are developed with a clear pathway towards industrial deployment.

The Technology Innovation Hub structure is central to that change. Because the hubs operate as Section 8 entities associated with universities, they can interact with startups, companies and government agencies more flexibly than conventional academic departments.

Researchers can therefore move from publishing a scientific result towards developing intellectual property, creating prototypes, testing systems and eventually licensing technologies or establishing startups.

For India, this may prove as important as the individual inventions themselves.

From Research Funding to Strategic Capability

The ₹3,660-crore NM-ICPS programme covers technologies that increasingly determine national economic and strategic capability.

Digital healthcare can reduce dependence on imported medical technologies. Indigenous radio equipment can strengthen telecom security and create export opportunities. Autonomous systems have applications from agriculture to defence. Cybersecurity protects connected infrastructure, while AI and robotics increasingly influence manufacturing competitiveness.

None of these sectors can be developed through a single laboratory or company.

The strategy behind NM-ICPS is therefore to create a distributed national ecosystem in which universities specialise in particular technologies while sharing expertise with industry, startups and government.

The programme has now reached a stage where some of those investments are visible in functioning hardware and platforms rather than merely research proposals.

The Next Challenge Is Commercialisation

The transition from prototype to widely adopted technology remains the most difficult stage.

CharakDT will require rigorous clinical testing, integration with healthcare institutions and compliance with medical regulations before the most ambitious digital-twin applications can be used routinely in patient care.

The 32TR Massive MIMO radio must complete design validation, demonstrate reliability at telecom-network scale and compete commercially with products from established global telecommunications companies.

Agricultural technologies must prove affordable and maintainable for farmers. Mining drones must survive demanding industrial environments, while autonomous systems must meet strict safety requirements.

The government’s move to create Technology Translation Research Parks acknowledges this challenge directly. India already possesses significant scientific talent. The next objective is ensuring that research survives the journey from laboratory demonstration to mass deployment.

Two Technologies That Capture a Larger Transformation

CharakDT and the indigenous 5G-Advanced radio appear to belong to completely different worlds. One attempts to create virtual representations of human physiology; the other uses dozens of radio channels and sophisticated signal processing to transmit digital information through the air.

Yet both represent the same technological transition.

Sensors generate information from the physical world. Communications networks move that information. Computing systems analyse it. Artificial intelligence identifies patterns, while software models help determine what should happen next.

That convergence is the essence of cyber-physical systems.

The 31 August 2026 government review did not mark the initial invention date of every technology it highlighted; several, including CharakDT and the Massive MIMO system, have been under development for some time. What the review demonstrates is their place within a rapidly maturing national technology ecosystem and the government’s increasing emphasis on moving such systems towards deployment and commercialisation.

From a digital human capable of modelling disease to Indian-designed radio hardware for advanced 5G networks, NM-ICPS is beginning to show what becomes possible when universities are asked not only to conduct research, but to convert that research into technologies designed for India’s practical and strategic needs.

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