Union Minister for Railways, Communications and IT, Mr. Ashwini Vaishnaw today said that India is set to emerge as a global hub in semiconductor manufacturing and telecom services and will see generational change in years to come. Addressing the Viksit Bharat Ambassador event in Mumbai, Mr. Vaishnaw said India has come a long way from importing over 98 percent of its mobile phones a decade ago to using 99 percent of mobile phones that are Made in India.

Talking about the rapid pace of the 5G network deployment in India, Mr. Vaishnaw said India has rolled out the world’s fastest 5G network with indigenously developed equipment. He informed that 5G services started in India in October 2022 and since then more than 4 lakh and 35 thousand 5G towers have been installed across the length and breadth of the country. He added that almost 80 percent of the equipment used in the 5G rollout was made in India.

Speaking about the transformation of Railways that was treated as ‘milch cow’ during the previous regime, Mr. Vaishnaw said a four kilometer rail track is being built per day. He informed that India built a 5,300 kilometer rail network in the last financial year, which is equal to Switzerland’s entire train network. The minister added that 44,000 km of railway networks were electrified in the past 10 years, as compared to 20,000 km in the past 60 years of Congress governance. He said that Vande Bharat and Bullet trains are the realisation of the government’s consistent and committed focus on developing Railways as one of the key growth engines of the country.

Mr. Vaishnaw said India has continued to report stable and sustained growth post COVID-19 pandemic even when numerous other countries are battling recession.

The minister added that citizens are excited to see such development and have made up their mind to re-elect Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure a bright future for all.