Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that the 5G technology in India is completely indigenous, except for a few critical parts from Korea.
Sitharaman, during an interaction with students at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, revealed that India can now provide 5G to other countries as well. "The story (of India’s 5G) is yet to reach the public," Sitharaman said. "The 5G that we've launched in our country is completely standalone. There could be some critical parts coming from, say, countries like (South) Korea, but certainly not from somebody else," she was quoted by ANI News.
Adding that the spread of the technology is rapid, the minister said most of the country will be able to avail the technology by 2024. "On 5G we can be immensely proud of India's achievement," she added.
The 5G technology was launched by Prime Minister Modi earlier the month with India's No.2 operator Bharti Airtel rolling out out services in eight cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi and Bengaluru.
Reliance Jio, the country's top operator with most subscribers, too is set to launch its services in four metros sometime this month, while Vodafone Idea Ltd, the third operator, has so far not indicated any fixed timeline for its 5G rollout.
During its launch, Modi said with the 5G technology, India is setting a global standard in telecom technology for the first time. "India will play a big role in designing the future wireless technology, and manufacturing related to it," he added.
'India setting a benchmark'
The Finance Minister said that India was setting global benchmarks on the digital front and that there is a sense of confidence in the country that it will be able to face geopolitical and economic uncertainties and still perform.
On India's economic resilience amid global uncertainty, Sitharaman said the country has set the benchmarks on digital front, including in payment, identity, health and education. "There are countries which recognise that this scale of achievement is absolute watertight proof that it is unfailing over the years...," the minister added.
She added that the Indian economy's revival is on a sustained path, and it will continue to be resilient in the face of a possible global recession. "Because of the global recession, if my demand is going fall, exports are going to suffer and because of the strong dollar my Indian rupee would suffer --- all this taken on board --- there is a sense of confidence in India, we will go through this and we will be able to still perform," she said.
