India's startup environment currently ranks within the top three globally

On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the seventh edition of the India Mobile Congress (IMC), a three-day event taking place at the Bharat Mandapam convention centre in Pragati Maidan, Delhi, the same venue that hosted the G20 Summit in September. During the event, the Prime Minister also launched 100 5G labs, located in several prominent engineering colleges across the nation. Emphasizing the immediacy of technological advancements, Modi highlighted that the future is no longer distant but rather at hand.

Furthermore, he underlined the significant growth of India's startup ecosystem during his government's nine-year tenure, positioning it as one of the world's largest and ranking within the top three. With over one lakh startups in the country today, Modi expressed pride in this achievement. Reflecting on the recent introduction of 5G technology in India, which he inaugurated on October 1 last year, the Prime Minister noted the rapid deployment of approximately 5 lakh 5G base stations nationwide within a year.

At the congress, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw underscored the critical role of telecommunications as the 'gateway' to Digital India, highlighting that the country presently exports telecom equipment to over 70 countries. Vaishnaw also announced that the upcoming World Telecommunications Standardisation Assembly will be hosted in the national capital. Notable figures such as Akash Ambani (Chairperson, Reliance Jio), Sunil Bharti Mittal (Chairperson, Bharti Enterprises), and Kumar Mangalam Birla (Chairperson, Aditya Birla Group) also delivered speeches during the event.