Ashwini Vaishnaw promises first made in India chip by December 2024: Here’s the Q&A

Last year, 5000 kilometres were added, and in this year's also, I was seeing the report that 5,246 kilometres have been added to the railway network, till yesterday. This means that every year, a railway network equivalent to that of Switzerland is being added to India's railway network.

Completely new generation Vande Bharat trains have arrived, Namo Bharat trains have arrived. Today, in Vande Bharat trains, our middle class and aspirational youth are experiencing an experience that is on par with the best railway systems in the world. The Namo Bharat train itself is very successful for regional transit. Vande Bharat sleeper is coming, Vande Metro is coming, Amrit Bharat train is coming. So, all these foundational elements that you have seen in the last 10 years to build a developed India, which are the foundation, the cornerstone, have been laid. We will strengthen this foundation further in the next 5 years."

You are saying that this foundation was laid in 2014, what was happening before that?

Before that, if I talk about the railways, it was considered to be a cow only be milked. Such was the condition where the railway ministers only focused on stopping or extending trains or announcing new trains. There was no concern about the capacity of the tracks. This is how the administration of the railways was being run by the railway ministers of that time and the governments of that time, where the focus was not on the railways, not on the passengers, but only on their politics. PM Modi depoliticized the railways, brought the railways into his primary focus in a technical manner, in terms of operational efficiency, in terms of absorbing new technology. He merged the railway budget into the general budget. Where Indian Railways used to get around Rs 15,000 crore from the general budget, today it receives support of Rs 2.52 lakh crore for the railway budget. Funding increased, costs decreased, many types of reforms were implemented, almost 38 major structural reforms took place, which has led to the railway being in such a condition today that a good foundation has been laid. In the next 5 years, we will strengthen this foundation further. We will further strengthen the new technologies that have been brought in, and in the next 20 years, we will see a completely new transformation of the railways.

The changes at the railway station are visible to everyone, and everyone will agree to this. But when we go to that same railway station, it is true that 41 Vande Bharat trains have come, Namo Bharat trains have come, Amrit Bharat trains have come. But the passengers at the station today are still troubled by the crowd, troubled by the reservations in trains. Minister Vaishnaw, by when can you say that this figure of 700 crore passenger journeys per year will reach 1,000 crore per year?

By 2030, 1,000 crore people will travel by train, and the capacity is being built accordingly. You see, there is a fundamental difference between train and highway. You cannot run a train without tracks. No matter how the road condition is, a vehicle can run on it temporarily. That's why it is essential to increase the capacity of the railway network as much as possible. Whatever technology is available, laying new tracks, bringing in automatic signalling, going towards the complete control system of the entire railway network, which is called Centralized Train Control (CTC) technology, reducing the time for acceleration and deceleration of your trains, massive technical work like 25 kV electrification, in all this technical work that is progressing rapidly. I can confidently say that by 2030, we will have the capacity to carry 1,000 crore passengers annually. Today, we carry approximately 700 crore passengers every year. If you look at the entire network of railways in the country and the economics of transportation, approximately 700 crore people travel by railway, about 250 crores by road or highway, and about 35 crores by air. This is the current network. By 2030, this 700-crore figure will reach 1,000 crore.

In recent years, what has happened that you have accelerated all these trains, whether it's Namo Bharat or Vande Bharat? Is it just the will or were there other factors as well that put your work on the fast track?

Three things are there: first is a strong focus on bringing in technology, a strong focus on depoliticizing the railways, shifting the focus of the railways towards operational efficiency, and changing the method of working in the railways to some extent. Second, PM Modi increased funding. Third, PM clearly asked to take tough decisions. For example, there has been a new improvement in the maintenance process of the railways. Earlier, what used to happen was that the daily maintenance had to be done, let's say the track needed daily maintenance.

So, on the day you had to do the maintenance work, all the contractors, machines, spares, materials, labour would come, they would wait from morning till evening, waiting for permission till four or five o'clock, sometimes not even getting permission and going back. This was a practice that lasted for 60-70 years. But today, every Friday, a detailed plan for the next 26 weeks is prepared by the railways. The method of maintenance is like that of Japan or Germany, or any developed countries, the railway is also doing advanced planning. So, making such tough decisions is not easy. You have to instil in the entire organization the habit of changing together, and you have to come into practice of working in a new way. So, this is not an easy task; it requires a lot of hard work and continuous communication with the top to bottom layer. Today, if you talk to any supervisor or section supervisor, they are so happy that they get the time what they need for maintenance.

You were saying that everything used to happen easily, only politics was happening, work wasn't happening. Now, you are making them work more, and yet they are happy.

Absolutely happy, and when you actually meet them, I at least interact a lot with the officials at the ground level, even those who are not officers but work in Group C, I interact a lot with them and take a lot of input, take a lot of feedback. They are so happy with this fact that in the last 10 years, Modi ji has brought the railway to that technical stage where it should ideally operate as a technical organization.

I would like to discuss the accidents in a little detail, especially the decrease in accidents. But the accidents that have occurred, and you have also seen them, you stayed there for so many days, people saw tears in your eyes. Then there is also politics on the same ground about the safety measures. The opposition has attacked a lot on the issue of Kavach.

Look, 'Kavach' is a class of technology, which we call automatic train protection (ATP) technology. ATP was introduced in major railway systems worldwide in the 1980s, saw significant use in the 1990s, and by the early 2000s, it was fully implemented in the world's major railway networks. So, what did the governments do then? Was it their responsibility to introduce ATP, or was it not their responsibility? They did nothing to bring in new technologies for safety. In 2016, ATP technology was recognized for the first time in India. Modi ji did it in 2016. The country should have been fully covered by ATP technology during the period from 1980 to 2014. It was recognized in 2016. By 2019, all certifications had been received, and due to COVID in 2020-21 there was a little delay, but then it progressed rapidly afterward.

Kavach is not just a device that you install on a train and it's done. Kavach is a whole system. You have to lay optical fibre cables along the entire railway track, just like Airtel, Jio, or BSNL networks. Every eight kilometres, you have to install telecom towers. Devices are placed on those telecom towers, as well as on the trains. It requires full integration with the signal system. A data centre is set up at every station, a complete data centre. The central control for the trains is backed by a data centre at the station. It's very complex technology. It took 20-25 years for small networks to grow in various countries. Our network is now 70,000-75,000 kilometres, but work is progressing rapidly on it. Manufacturers are involved, new designers are involved, various innovations are happening. The designs for the stations are being made so that they can be automated. This is a commitment that PM Modi has clearly made to make the country's railways safe. Rs 1.87 lakh crore have been invested in safety over 10 years. If you compare it, it's 2-1/2 times more than the investment made in safety from 2004-14. The result is evident, very unfortunate if there was a setback in between, but we will make even greater efforts to move towards 100% safety."

How does the introduction of a bullet train go beyond traditional transportation, potentially acting as a catalyst for the creation of an integrated regional economy similar to the Japanese model?

Don't perceive the bullet train merely as a transportation means. If you observe, the bullet train, as it traverses along its path, connects the economies of all the cities along that route. I'll give you a very good example: Japan's first bullet train started operating in 1969 between Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Kyoto, and Osaka. All these economies come together to form one economy. Covering approximately 550 kilometres in just two to three hours means if you're working in Osaka, you can finish your work and return home in Kyoto by the evening. Such development has significant reasons and multiple benefits. If you see, Mumbai, Thane, Vapi, Surat, Vadodara, Sanand, or Ahmedabad will all merge into a single economy zone. You will have breakfast in the morning in Baroda, with an hour you will reach Mumbai, do all your work during the day, catch the evening train, and reach home.

So, when will these dreams be fulfilled?

In 2026. In 2026 – see, I had reviewed 10-12 days ago – 284 km are already complete. Tracks are being laid; electrical systems are being installed overhead, the train’s manufacturing – all these things are parallelly, running fast. At many countries – I won’t name any – it took 20 years to complete one project of 500 km. Here, within 8-10 years this will be done. In 2026, the first Surat to Billimora section train will run, and it is absolutely world class.

Moving towards Digital India, Narendra Modi’s dream project. The most important in this is semiconductors. You are saying that very soon India will get its first semiconductor. I would want the answer in brief, that why has it not happened so far? Now that it is happening, what have you done as such?

In December 2026, made in India chip will come into the market. Efforts have been made since 1962, but behind every effort, till the right strategy and right fundamental conviction isn’t present, it’s not possible. PM Modi has such a strong conviction that the developed India that we want to make, what all do we need in the foundation? One thing which is very important in its foundation is electronics manufacturing.

Be the light, missiles, train, aeroplanes, fridge, everything that turns on or off, needs a semiconductor chip. The kind of commitment that PM Modi has shown, I can personally give you examples. When we used to ask the Prime Minister’s 30-45 minutes for discussions – I am saying this today in front of the public, he would give us 3-3-1/2 hours. He used to discuss each thing, line by line. Whatever the concerned departments were – the PM used to call them personally tell them we must be successful in semiconductors. Such commitment is impossible for any other Prime Minister.

The opposition, especially P Chidambaram is saying this is jobless growth. He is saying that the workforce numbers are less than 50% and this number is since the last 9 years.

Let me give Mr. Chidambaram a challenge. Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) is one organisation in which, whoever goes to work, he has a registration, there is a deduction from his salary and there is a deduction from the salary. There is absolutely such data which gets accepted everywhere. According to the EPFO data, the new people who have started jobs, less the people who have left the jobs, plus the people who have come back to the jobs– the net number would be total job opportunity. That’s the simple math. Those total job opportunities were 6 lakh per month a few years ago. Today, on average, it is 12 lakh per month or 1.44 crore per year. Please ask Mr. Chidambaram if this number is correct or not? This is the data that many economists and newspapers have verified.

We’ll convey this challenge of yours to him. These is another accusation of the opposition. They say that you say that we have become a manufacturing hub. But you don’t manufacture anything, you’ll only assemble it. You have given it a name.

In any country, when any industry starts, be it for example the car industry which started around 1980. What happened first? The CKD unit came which is the completed knocked down unit. Then came SKD, semi-knocked down unit. Then a few components manufacturers’ ecosystem was made, tier I, II, III vendors were created, exports started. This is a cycle; every industry has its own life cycle. Had the Congress government started this lifecycle in 1970, what would the situation have been? The last four decades of Congress have become loss decades of India, because Congress had such policies within which manufacturing was stifled, there was a complex legal framework, in which no person could manufacture. There were such situations before 1990 wherein if you wanted to change the design of your car handle, you would need the permission of some Indian government official. There was such a complex framework back then, but we have come out of that complex framework and there are simplifications happening. Now, a foundation has been laid to become a manufacturing hub.

It’s important to cite numbers because we should talk with data, just accusations don’t stick. For Mobile manufacturing, the numbers were practically negligible 10 years ago. It $55 billion today. Electronics manufacturing was practically negligible but last year’s data was $5 billion and there is at least a doubt-digit growth happening there. There was nothing in defence manufacturing but today $2 billion worth of defence equipment are being exported. A Telecom industry veteran who has 35 years of experience had said, can’t even imagine telecom manufacturing would happen in India. Today $1 billion worth of telecom gears are being exported.

(This translation of the interaction has been edited for clarity)

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