New Delhi, May 29 2025 (ANI): Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw Stated that India has become the largest manufacturer of locomotives on May 29. The Union Railways Minister further announced that that the Indian Government Will Replace the older coaches with new in the next three years.
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00:00Today, our country and our economy is on a major infliction point.
00:06If we look at the entire global scenario today,
00:10the world is on the way, the kind of uncertainties which are there,
00:16the kind of geopolitical, geoeconomic and geocultural changes which are happening today,
00:23in that regard, there are some new challenges in that regard.
00:27And there are some new opportunities in that regard.
00:31How to face those challenges and how to utilize those opportunities,
00:37that is the common goal all of us have together,
00:41whether it is the government or the industry or the people or the designers or the scientists,
00:46we have to face that challenge and make sure that we are able to take that opportunity.
00:53Today, we are about 331 lakh crore.
00:57GDP, 31st March ka datagram dekhte hain.
01:02This is a significant substantial number.
01:06We are growing real 6 to 8 percent band.
01:11In that band, we are growing real basis.
01:14We have moderate inflation.
01:16We are practically growing at a nominal growth rate of 10 to 13 percent ka band mein we are growing.
01:26And since this entire growth story is based on a very clearly thought through strategy,
01:32very clearly thought through process,
01:34this growth story is going to continue for a substantial period going forward.
01:39I can say that with 95 percent confidence interval,
01:44we will be growing at this pace for quite a few years from now.
01:51Which basically means that the way the world looks at us and our role in the world
02:04and our responsibilities vis-a-vis the citizens,
02:09all that is going to change substantially over the next few years.
02:14That is the theme on which I would like to make a very short intervention here,
02:20maybe about 15 to 20 minutes.
02:22Then if time permits,
02:24then we can do some questions also.
02:26I will begin with
02:27the way technology has shaped our economy,
02:36the way we have utilized technology,
02:40as well as the way we have created and added to the growth of technology.
02:46Then I will come over to railways.
02:48Then I will share with you
02:51one ambition that we as a nation should have.
02:56We started using technology as a part of Prime Minister's Digital India Mission
03:02and one by one we developed artifacts and systems
03:09which is today collectively called as the DPI, Digital Public Infrastructure.
03:14And there are many other countries which are using this concept to develop their own payment systems.
03:39More or less that is one major success which has transformed the people's lives on the one hand
03:46and given us a global recognition on the other hand.
03:49We use that success to develop many financial services.
03:58Mr. Puri would be the right person to share good examples out of it,
04:04whether it is micro insurance, micro credit, whether it is digital credit,
04:09all kinds of solutions we are able to do today.
04:13We feel very comfortable using technology in our country.
04:17Even a small shopkeeper would like to use it.
04:21Whereas there are many rich countries which still feel very diffident when it comes to using technology.
04:28We use all that to build the next level which was electronics manufacturing.
04:35Part of the Make in India vision of our Prime Minister
04:38and it started with the finished goods.
04:44That's the way most of the countries have started in practically every sector.
04:48So we have reached where we can say that we have reached a take-off point.
05:17We have reached a take-off point.
05:47ka exports hai. Telecom manufacturing has grown multifold 70-80,000 crore rupees ka telecom
05:54manufacturing hai. Defense manufacturing mein defense ka electronics has grown multifold.
06:00Medical electronics has grown multifold. In sabka jabdi aap industry ke logon se baat
06:05karte hai general sense is that joh 30 saal mein ni huwa woh 10 saal mein huwa. That is the sense
06:12which people share. Industry wale kudi bolte hai. That's the sense. Now from this level
06:23when I said right at the beginning we are at an inflection point. How do we build from
06:30here to the next level? That's something which we really need to concentrate upon.
06:36And that's why we decided to take the semiconductor mission. When a prime minister in a very calibrated
06:46way starting with DPI, starting with then going to electronics manufacturing, then going to
06:53components and then going to semiconductor. There are many people who criticized ki semiconductor
07:03banana. Kya humare liye sambh bhi hoga? Those kind of question marks were put in. But we adopted
07:11a very pragmatic approach and we said that okay in this entire universe of semiconductors, what
07:19is it that we should target? And we decided to target a particular segment which has close
07:25to 60% of the market volume and which directly feeds into our automobile industry, our telecom industry,
07:32our power industry, our industrial sector, our industrial goods. Us segment ku liya. 28 nanometre,
07:40say 90 nanometre ka segment liya. And we started the work in 22. Toh, aaj we have today about
07:506 units which are under construction. And our first made in India chip will roll out this year. But what has changed is, the mindset has changed.
08:00The mindset has changed. The change which is visible is, the mindset in our country is now changing. And that is what will take us to the next level of growth. And that mindset change which is visible whenever we interact with the industry, that change is in the confidence level,
08:26level, in the willingness to invest in design, in the willingness to be a product nation.
08:3610 years ago, when you would talk about product nation, people will say, nahi we are good about services.
08:48We are good about cable services. Generally, we are good about cable services. And some big economists say that we should do services. But manufacturing and services both are equally important for the next level of growth. That's the point I wanted to make.
09:12And that's the new mindset of becoming a product nation. Being able to design a product. Take it to the market. Not just working for.
09:26Because of the future. It's not easy to do. Wherever we get an opportunity in the world, we need to grow our business. But that's not the same.
09:35Together we are in our own IP rights. Our own products, our own design, our own development, our own specs, our own standards. We have to go to that. That is the change which has come in the last.
09:51last what we see, the change which has happened in the mindset, that change is today visible.
09:58Apna kud ka 4G telecom stack bana, now that is getting upgraded to 5G. Apne kud ke desh
10:07mein bene telecom equipment, those large radio sets and very complex basement receivers
10:14and all. Apne kud ke desh mein defense ka toh we have seen during Operation Sindur, the kind
10:22of success we had because we had taken the, our Prime Minister had given us the clarion
10:27call to be Atmanirbar. So those things are today available in the industry. What I would
10:34like to request you is, use this opportunity so that the challenges we are facing across
10:42the world, use this change in mindset, use this change which is happening in a thinking
10:49process to invest more in developing your design teams, wherever, ek MSME bhi, kuhi zirurur
11:03ni ke liye, us ke liye, p.h.d. ke, p.h.d. walay engineers lagay, ek apna kud ka joh common
11:09sense wala approach hota hai, us approach se bhi agar product design ki taraf bade e,
11:16or design mein bhoat sari chijay experience se aati e, ek, is microphone ko design karna
11:26hai, is ka placement kisa hona chahi hai, is mein flexibility kitnhi rhani chahi hai, length
11:32agar hai toh length ko variable rakhna chahi hai, fixed length rakhna chahi hai, common
11:36sense ki baat e, is ke liye koji ph.d nahi chahi hai, so that kind of approach if we follow,
11:43then we can really really make a big change in our country, we can really take our economy
11:50to the next level. So that was my first point giving the context of how we started developing
12:01technology both on the software and hardware side, how we moved up from finished products
12:07to components to semiconductors and using the change in mindset which we have today,
12:16can we develop as a product nation, can we grow as a product nation and to be that product nation,
12:26can we put in that required effort and put in that design thought process in whatever we do,
12:36then we can really really take our growth to the next level.
12:39My second point is about the big change which is happening because of AI and all of us experience it,
12:48all of us see the uses, see practically every person sitting in this room would be using AI in some way or
12:56other. Now that's a reality, AI is here for good, it's going to be here.
13:07The way humongous changes happened in the past, internet came, internet changed everything,
13:15the container came, the container came, the box came, that was a big driver for globalization,
13:25electronics, transistor, then integrated circuits, then Chipska, Moore's law, continuously things changed.
13:36Similar phenomenon is now happening because of AI,
13:38it will bring in humongous changes in our society, in our industry.
13:47So I think when that kind of change is coming, we should stay prepared for that change.
13:54Whichever industry we are working in, whichever sector we are in, we must be prepared for this change.
14:01From the government side, the way we have approached is, our Prime Minister always tells us that we must
14:10democratize technology. We must make sure that access to technology is available to everybody.
14:17We must make sure that technology is not concentrated in the hands of a few.
14:24That's the approach we followed when we developed the digital public infrastructure.
14:28That's the approach we are following in AI mission.
14:34So in the first round, our target was to have 10,000 GPUs made available to everybody.
14:43So create a bank of GPUs, create a data center of GPUs and open it to all possible people who would
14:51like to use it for a fee. That was the model. So against a target of 10,000, in the first round
15:01itself we got 18,000 GPUs. Now we are about to get another 14,000 GPUs. So that's a substantial number
15:09which is now compute facilities available as a common compute facility. Simultaneously, we need to have
15:18models which are designed and trained on Indian conditions, Indian culture, Indian languages, Indian
15:27nuances, Indian social norms. So we are, we have taken up development of models. One of the first
15:36one is being developed by Sarvam. There are three or four applications which are in advanced stage of
15:43approvals. We are also taking up common data sets as part of this entire process so that you can develop
15:54your applications which are useful for you whether it is agriculture sector, whether it is healthcare
16:00sector, whether it is industrial sector, whichever way we can develop the models which are suitable for
16:09our own needs. That's the thought process. So you can see the data sets which are available and there are
16:19multiple small small very focused models which are there available on the AI coach which can be used for
16:28your own applications. Then we are developing many applications which will again be open source to
16:35everybody so that you can use those applications and see how you can improve productivity within your own industries.
16:47Simultaneously, we are developing a very unique approach on AI safety. We have set up a AI safety institute
16:57which is a totally virtual institute. The way we have approached this problem is we have to take a
17:12techno-legal approach. So techno-legal approach ka matlab ye hua ki agar technology related issues ko solve
17:21karna hai toh we will need to have technical solutions and a legal approach. So combine the two then we can
17:32have a effective way of dealing with the issues. Isi liye we have enrolled impaneled many institutes including
17:44IITs and NITs and NITs who are developing solutions for example IIT Jodhpur is developing a solution to
17:52authentically detect deep fake and their results are very good so far and our approach will be once
18:00these technologies are developed we will make it open source for all of you so that you can use those
18:07technologies without trying to access some very expensive tools these will be available to you as a part of the AI mission.
18:21So my request to the entire industry would be use it in a safe way use this technology in a very
18:29proper way and be humane have a humane approach when such disruptions happen then society goes through a
18:39very big change and that change must be dealt with in a very humane way is my request to the entire industry.
18:51That was my second point. The third point I wanted to share with you was about
18:55how the MSMEs how industries can participate in the growth journey of railways at this point of time.
19:07We have achieved a major milestone many milestones we have achieved in the last 10 years. One of the
19:15milestones is we have become the second largest cargo carrying railway in the world. We have overtaken
19:22Russian Russia and US one after the other and today at 1612 1612 million tons of cargo carrying
19:37we are second largest in the world now and this is a consistent growth now and this growth is helping the
19:45society in society in multiple ways. One it reduces the pressure on the roads. Two CO2 emissions are 95% less
19:57when you carry goods by rail compared to the carriage of goods by road. So 95% CO2 is saved
20:05and that amounts to millions of millions of tons of CO2. Three we save the import of oil because today we have
20:16practically electrified the entire railway network which was about 20,000 km in the last 10 years
20:26in the last 10 years 47,000 km in the last 10 years and in the last 10 years 47,000 km in the last 10 years
20:37so we have more than 20,000 km in the last 10 years. So we have more or less achieved complete electrification of the network and this year
20:49we have more than 10. So we have more than 10. So we have more than 10. So that will be a big thing for the country because so much emissions saved so much foreign exchange saved and so much pressure on the roads reduced.
21:05All those things happen in single go. And also the cost of logistics reduces and also the cost of logistics reduces.
21:24In the road comparison it is practically less than most of the sectors. There are certain places where things are different but most of the places it is very cheap.
21:33We have also become world's largest locomotive manufacturer. Today our locomotive manufacturing is
21:441600 locomotives produced in the last year and that is more than the combined production of US, Europe and Japan.
21:57If you have seen these three products, if you have seen the production production, then you will have more than that. And our requirements are because we are very rapidly expanding, rapidly growing.
22:05We are also bringing new technologies. Now you have seen Dahoud's locomotive which is by far world's most modern locomotive in the world. So it's very, very, very advanced features are there.
22:20We have also reached a major milestone in replacing our older coaches.
22:30Practically, in the last ten years we have manufactured 41,000 LHP coaches and in the next three years we have replaced the new coaches in the railway network.
22:44And our passenger, number of passengers carrying has also increased substantially.
22:51Now about 720 crores, about 700 crores, about 700 crores this time we have reached the target.
22:59So it's about 720-730 crores per year. So in a sense railway has reached a level where in many years the dream is now a step-by-step.
23:18The stations' development is running very fast.
23:21The first batch of about 103 stations has also been inaugurated.
23:30So overall railway has been completely transformed.
23:34In the 70s we are running more routes.
23:37The bullet train has been completed with 300 km.
23:42And the collaboration with Japan has been very good.
23:45So overall we are going in a very steady direction in railways.