India will lead the world on 6G: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking at the India Mobile Congress in New Delhi on Friday reeled out statistics to show how India has turned into an exporter of mobile phones from being an importer and how big tech companies -- from Apple to Google -- are lining up to become manufacturers in the country.

He said after the fastest rollout of 5G mobile telephony services, India will lead the world on 6G.

Recalling the launch of 5G technology in the country on October 1, 2022, he remarked that within a year there are about 5 lakh 5G base stations across the country.

"Everyone knows what happened during the 2G (telecom spectrum allocation during the UPA government).

“During our government, 4G was expanded but there was no stain on us," he said. "I am confident that India will lead the world in 6G technology."

Modi said the coming to power of his government led to a sea change - "At that time we were importers of mobile phones.

“Now we are an exporter of mobile phones.

“At that time our presence in mobile manufacturing was negligible.

“Now we are the world's second biggest mobile phone manufacturer.

“Then there was no clear vision on electronics manufacturing.

“Today we are exporting around Rs 2 lakh crore worth of electronics."

Recently, Google announced that they will make their Pixel phones in India.

This comes on the back of Samsung already making its Fold-5 and Apple manufacturing iPhone-15 in India, he said.

 "Today we all are proud that the entire world is using made in India mobile phones."

India Mobile Congress (IMC) is the largest telecom, media, and technology forum in Asia.

The IMC 2023 aims to strengthen India's position as a developer, manufacturer, and exporter of key cutting-edge technologies.

During the programme, the prime minister awarded 100 '5G Use Case Labs' to educational institutions across the country.

The speed of median mobile broadband speeds have increased 3 times within one year and India moved from the 118th position to the 43rd position in terms of broadband speed.

"India is not only expanding the 5G network in the country but also laying emphasis on becoming a leader in 6G," he said.

He said beyond ranking and numbers, improvement in internet connectivity and speed leads to enhanced ease of living.

He narrated the benefits of improved connectivity and speed in education, medicine, tourism, and agriculture.

"We believe in the power of democratization.

“The benefit of development should reach every section and region, everyone should benefit from the resources in India, everyone should have a life of dignity and the benefit of technology should reach everyone.

“We are working rapidly in this direction," he said.

"For me, this is the biggest social empowerment."

The prime minister emphasised that India's start-up ecosystem has made a significant place for itself in the world in the last few years.

"India has made a century of unicorns in fairly less time and has now become one of the top 3 start-up ecosystems in the world."

Before 2014, India was home to only a few hundred start-ups which have now grown to about one lakh.

He stressed on the need to take the success in mobile and electronics manufacturing even further.

"For the success of both hardware and software in the tech ecosystem, it is important that we build a strong semiconductor manufacturing sector in India," he said, adding the Rs 80,000 crore PLI scheme is going on for the development of semiconductors.