IIT-Madras starts work on ‘Metaverse India Policy and Standards’ project with industry veterans

The metaverse market, which is expected to grow at an annual rate of 37.7 percent over the next six years, is appreciated to reach a valuation of $74.4 billion (roughly Rs. 6,20,918 crore) by the end of 2024. Gearing up to withstand the force of Web3 advancements, IIT Madras has begun drafting policies to oversee the metaverse sector. Called XTIC (eXperential Technology Innovation Centre), a research and development body incubated by IIT-M has started work around something called ‘Metaverse India Policy and Standards (MIPS)’.

XTIC created a special committee to conduct research around the foreseeable use cases and loopholes in the current metaverse ecosystem. The committee will address technical and ethical shortcomings to make the industrial use of this digital technology safer and more advanced.

Rrahul Sethi, a veteran of India’s tech space who recently launched a metaspace experience center in NCR’s Noida, is part of this committee. Speaking to Gadgets360, Sethi noted that MIPS will not single-handedly prepare policies and standards around the metaverse, but will collaborate with industry players, conduct dialogues and publish reports for the government to refer to while centrally implementing policies related to with Web3.

“The metaverse is a rapidly evolving concept. Experts and leaders from across India and other parts of the world will join here collectively to discuss these standards and create awareness around them,” Sethi said.

A fully functional virtual universe, the metauniverse ecosystem is built on blockchain networks. The technology offers a hyper-realistic virtual ecosystem where people can work, communicate, play games and shop windows from the comfort of their homes.

In a recently published report, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said that 92 percent of US manufacturing firms are already exploring ways to add a metauniverse twist to their existing business operations.

“The industrial metaverse is projected to be a $100 billion (approx. Rs. 8,29,018 crore) market globally by 2030. The metaverse will drive the next phase of the industrial revolution through the convergence of digital twins, a core building block of the industrial metaverse and four fast-growing areas – spatial computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Web3 and blockchain,” the report said at the time.

Now that IIT-M has launched the rulemaking process to oversee the Web3 sector, the committee will analyze the potential impacts of the metaverse in various sectors, including education, healthcare, gaming and enterprise, and propose strategies to maximize the benefits.

Addressing ethical, privacy, and security issues related to the metaverse and collaborating with stakeholders from industry, academia, and government to gather diverse perspectives and insights are part of the committee’s agenda.

“These are basic targets for final results, but we are still discussing more. Government bodies will also use the reports to set standards,” Sethi added.

In January, China also formed a body that will set standards for the use and research of the metaverse there.

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