New Delhi (thestates.news)| Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) through video conferencing, on Tuesday termed the launch of indigenously developed 5G test-bed as an important step towards the self-reliant India campaign. The Prime Minister said India’s connectivity would determine pace of progress of country in the 21st century. He emphasised on modernising connectivity at every level.
Modi had earlier released a postage stamp to commemorate the silver jubilee celebrations of TRAI. During the event, the Prime Minister also launched a 5G test-bed developed as a multi-institution collaborative project by a total of eight institutions led by IIT Madras. The project has been developed at a cost of over Rs 220 crore. The Prime Minister termed the 5G test-bed as an important step towards self-reliance of critical and advanced technology in the telecom sector. He congratulated all the people associated with this project including IITs. He said that country’s own 5G standard has been made in the form of 5Gi.
Modi said that connectivity would determine the pace of progress in 21st century India. Therefore connectivity has to be modernized at every level. 5G technology is also going to bring positive changes in the governance, ease of life and ease of doing business in the country. This will boost development in every sector like agriculture, health, education, infrastructure and logistics and also increase convenience and create many employment opportunities. It will play a great role in bringing 5G technology to the villages of the country.
He said that efforts of both the government and industry were needed to launch 5G rapidly. The Prime Minister cited the telecom sector as a great example of how self-reliance and healthy competition create a multiplier effect in the society and economy. Referring to the 2G spectrum allocation scam, he said, “Out of the gloom, despondency, corruption, policy paralysis of the 2G era, the country has made rapid strides from 3G to 4G and now 5G and 6G.”
He said that in the last eight years, the government has infused new energy in the telecom sector through the five ‘R’s of reach, reform, regulate, respond and revolutionise. He credited TRAI for playing a key role in this. The Prime Minister said that the country was moving ahead with the complete vision of the government, moving beyond the silo mentality. Today, “we are the fastest growing in the world in terms of tele-density and internet users in the country”, so many sectors including telecom have played their part in it.
The Prime Minister said that when the Bharatiya Janata Party government came in 2014, they made ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ and extensive use of technology their priority. For this it was necessary that crores of people should join together, also join the government and all the units of the government should also move forward by forming an organic unit in a way. That’s why the government has decided to make the trinity of Jan Dhan Aadhaar and Mobile the medium of direct governance. He said that mobile phones should be accessible to the poorest of the poor, for that the government emphasised on manufacturing mobile phones in the country itself. The result was that the mobile manufacturing units increased from 2 to over 200.
The Prime Minister said that today India was engaged in connecting every village of the country with optical fibre. Before 2014, even 100 gram panchayats in India were not connected to optical fibre connectivity. Today, broadband connectivity has reached about 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. He further said that sometime back the government has made a big start to provide 4G facility in many tribal districts of the country affected by Naxalites.(HS)
