In a recent interview with newsX, Ashwini Vaishnav presented his views on Union budget 2023. Ashwini vaishnav is an Indian politician and former IAS officer, currently serving as Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology.
TDG NETWORK: What do you make of the budget? Has it covered everything that the Aam Aadmi Party was hopeful for? How would you rate the budget?
ASHWINI VAISHNAV: I will focus on the three responsibilities that I hold today, railway, telecom and Information and electronics. Now first of all I would like to thank the Honourable PM for giving a visionary budget in these hard times when India has already emerged as a ray of hope and a bright spot. This budget will make India the global engine of growth. First of all, within railways, the allocation for investment in infrastructure is very good. We have given Rs two lakh 41 thousand crores. This will help us meet the deficit infrastructure, the deficit which has been there for decades and as you can see that it is now getting completed in the last 8 years. Using this allocation, there will be a lot of focus on improving passenger amenities. We are taking up 1275 stations for complete redevelopment to world standards. Then Vande Bharat Express trains which are very well received by the passengers and which was developed as per his vision. The production will now be ramped up; right now it is manufactured in Chennai, now it will also be manufactured in Haryana, UP, Maharashtra. In the spirit of green growth, Railways is developing a hydrogen train by December 2023. It will be indigenously designed, made in India, manufactured in India, and designed in India. That way the budget is very good for railways. I thank the Honourable PM and Honorable FM for that.
TDG NETWORK: 2.4 Lakh crores for the railways. The railway is the backbone of India when it comes to the common man and his aspirations. In your opinion, how is India poised, even if you consider the capital expenditure announced today, how do you think India is poised, to become the next destination for the world when it comes to investment and an alternative to China?
ASHWINI VAISHNAV: I will give an example, electronic manufacturing which has brought great results when the Prime Minister announced the make in India programme 7 years back. At that time electronic manufacturing was practically negligible. Today, it is close to 87 billion dollars. The export of smartphones itself is 9 billion dollars. It is one of those multiple factors which have propelled India to the situation where the entire world sees India as a bright spot, a very reliable and trusted partner. With diverse talent and stable policies, India is emerging as an investment destination in the world.
I will take the example of telecom also. See, on 1st October last year, PM launched 5G and the target was to complete 200 cities by March 2023. I am very happy to share with all of you that we are in February and we have already covered more than 200 cities. So this is one of the fastest cases of 5G rollout. The Union Budget 2023 has provided enough for the industries.