5G To AI: Ashwini Vaishnaw On India’s Roadmap To Lead The Global Tech Revolution

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw highlights India’s strategic push towards future-ready tech education and innovation. Speaking on the government's vision, he credits Prime Minister Narendra Modi for emphasizing the importance of preparing universities for rapid technological transformation. Vaishnaw cites the successful rollout of 100 5G labs across institutes and the distribution of advanced EDA tools to 240 universities for semiconductor research. He praises the industry-academia collaboration, with pioneers like Vinod Dham setting up hands-on semiconductor labs, such as the one at DTU. The Minister also shared key updates under the IndiaAI mission. The evaluation of large language model (LLM) applications is nearing completion, with funding to begin for selected teams soon. He announced the addition of 14,000 GPUs under the mission, with a second tranche underway, enabling greater access to compute power for startups and AI researchers. Vaishnaw noted a surge in AI adoption across sectors like healthcare, education, and manufacturing—positioning India to fully harness the AI revolution for productivity and growth.