New Delhi: Coming out of the despair, frustration, corruption and policy paralysis of the 2G era, the country has moved rapidly from 3G to 4G and now 5G and 6G, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday, adding that in the last eight years, new energy has been infused into the telecom sector with the ‘Panchamrita’ of reach, reform, regulate, respond and revolutionise.

Stating that connectivity will determine the pace of progress in 21st century India, he said that mobile manufacturing units in the country have increased from two to more than 200 bringing mobile phones within reach of the poorest of poor families.

PM Modi, who was addressing the programme marking silver jubilee celebrations of TRAI, said that self-made 5G test-bed is an important step toward self-reliance in critical and modern technology in the telecom sector. “5G technology is going to bring positive changes in the governance of the country, ease of living and ease of doing business,” he said.

“Today everyone is experiencing the need for collaborative regulation. For this it is necessary that all the regulators come together, develop common platforms and find solutions for better coordination,” he said, while citing the telecom sector as a great example of how self-reliance and healthy competition create a multiplier effect in society and the economy.

The Prime Minister said that now the country is going beyond thinking in silos and moving ahead with the ‘whole of the government approach.’ Today we are expanding the fastest in the world in terms of teledensity and internet users in the country, many sectors including telecom have played a role in it, he said.

He said that today India is connecting every village in the country with optical fibre. Before 2014, not even 100 village panchayats in India were provided with optical fibre connectivity. Today we have made broadband connectivity reach about 1.75 lakh Gram Panchayats. Hundreds of government services are reaching the villages because of this. /BI/