Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi on Friday awarded 100 ‘5G Use Case Labs’ to educational institutions across the country and inaugurated the 7th Edition of the India Mobile Congress 2023 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
India Mobile Congress (IMC) is the largest telecom, media, and technology forum in Asia to be held from October 27 to 29, 2023 with the theme ‘Global Digital Innovation’. The IMC 2023 aims to strengthen India’s position as a developer, manufacturer, and exporter of key cutting-edge technologies.
Addressing a gathering here, Modi recalled that the 5G rollout which took place last year in India came as a surprise for the rest of the world. He emphasized that India did not halt after the success of 5G and took on the work of taking it to every individual. “India moved from the 5G rollout stage to 5G reach out stage”, he said.
Within one year of 5G rollout, the Prime Minister informed about the development of 4 lakh 5G base stations which cover more than 97 percent of the cities and 80 percent of the population. He underlined that the speed of median mobile broadband speeds have increased 3 times within one year.
“India is not only expanding the 5G network in the country but also laying emphasis on becoming a leader in 6G”, he remarked. He said, beyond ranking and number improvement in internet connectivity and speed lead to enhanced ease of living. He narrated the benefits of improved connectivity and speed in education, medicine, tourism, and agriculture.
The ‘100 5G labs initiative’, is an endeavour to realize the opportunities associated with 5G technology by encouraging the development of 5G applications which cater, both to India’s unique needs as well as the global demands.
The unique initiative will foster innovation across various socioeconomic sectors like education, agriculture, health, power, transportation etc, and propel the country into the forefront of usage of 5G technology. The initiative is also a pivotal step for building a 6G-ready academic and start-up ecosystem in the country. More importantly, the initiative is a step towards the development of indigenous telecom technology which is critical for national security.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, Akash M Ambani hailed the Prime Minister’s commitment to improving the lives of younger generations by inculcating the use of the latest technologies there by powering India’s Digital public infrastructure.
He highlighted that the Prime Minister is an inspiration for millions of youngsters in the country in making the Digital India programme inclusive, innovative and sustainable. He informed that Jio has installed over 10 lakh 5G cells across all 22 circuits of India, making an 85 per cent contribution to the overall 5G distribution where the rollout of the 5G stack is designed, developed and manufactured by Indian talent.
“India ranks among the top 3 5 G-enabled nations with a user base of 125 million. He underlined that the Prime Minister has unified the entire nation and gave examples of GST, India’s Digital Revolution and the tallest statue built in the world. “Your efforts motivate all of us at the India Mobile Conference”, he reiterated.
Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Bharti Mittal said,“India has grown very deep roots in manufacturing. Companies like Apple to Dixon, Samsung to Tatas, every company, small, big or startup are involved in manufacturing and India has emerged as a manufacturing nation, especially for digital infrastructure at a huge scale of a world leader.”
Chairman of Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla thanked the Prime Minister for his visionary leadership in driving India’s Digital transformation and lauded his commitment towards digital inclusion which is rooted in the principle of ‘Antyodaya’ where benefits are ensured for everyone.
“India has emerged as a champion of the Global South inspired by the Prime Minister’s vision,” he said as he underlined that many countries are eager to adopt India’s path-breaking public infrastructure assets across identity, payments and data management.
