Indian Government to Set-up 100 5G Labs: Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at IMC 2022

As one of the biggest telecom exhibitions in the country, IMC 2022 is now posed to be launched on a global scale and rebranded as the Asia Mobile Congress, said Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

After the historic launch of 5G services in India,  Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister  for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology said the Indian Government is going to set up 100 5G labs across the country. He was speaking on Day 2 of the 6th edition of Asia’s largest technology exhibition India Mobile Congress (IMC 2022) at Pragati Maidan in Delhi.  The Minister also invited comments for the draft of the Indian Telecommunication Bill, 2022. 

He added Government is working significantly towards simplifying the license regime for all telecom players and urged the telecom industry to convert a minimum 12 of these labs into incubators to train students, promote innovation, research and experiment. The 2nd day of the ongoing edition was also graced by the presence of Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal who visited the exhibition and   lauded efforts of researchers, private organisations, startups and others.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, said: ” We are going to set up 100 5G labs across the country. I request the telecom industry to come together and convert at least 12 of these 100 labs into telecom incubators to train students and do experiments. The Govt. is working significantly towards simplifying the license regime for all telecom players. I am really happy to see the energy of startups and MSMEs who are going to rural areas to benefit people.”
During his visit to the exhibition later in the day, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said: “The launch of 5G is going to be a defining moment for not only India but for the world. A large economy like India which has talent is emerging from the shadows to take a leadership role. We are now indigenously designing, developing and manufacturing goods and showing the world the scale and speed with which we will take 5G through the length and breadth of India. Some of the products that I saw displayed here, at one point of time it was assumed that they had to be imported. I must compliment all the researchers, private organisations for their innovative work. I must compliment the startups for the way in which they are finding very practical solutions to the day to day problems of business and people’s living.”

IMC 2022 is being jointly organized by the Department of Telecommunications and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).   The endeavors of IMC perfectly fall in line with the vision of Digital India and promoting Made-in-India technology to address the challenges in areas of commerce, healthcare, education, communication and financial inclusion. It seeks to highlight how 5G technology can improve quality and access to healthcare facilities by ensuring medical aid in remote areas, tele-health, specialized healthcare at primary care centers and connecting them to specialty hospitals. 

Moreover, in education, 5G is important for connecting schools in rural areas, providing remote education, offering AI-ML based deep learning, and digitalization of curriculum. It can empower the agriculture sector and farmers with real time data transfer, monitoring, utility services, automation and drone-based utilities.