Highlighting a nearly 80 per cent reduction in train accidents over the past decade, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday expressed optimism that the ‘Kavach’ train protection system would be fully deployed across India’s rail network within the next six years.
Speaking at the News18 Rising Bharat Summit, Vaishnaw said, “The response of the pilot was good… There has been good progress. Work on implementing it in 10,000 Loco, along 15,000 km, is underway. Many of the rich countries took about 20 years to cover their network, and I think we should be able to do it in six years.”
The Kavach Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, developed in India, is moving towards nationwide adoption after the Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO) approved its Version 4.0 in July last year.
Discussing the Vande Bharat Express trains, Vaishnaw said the train surpasses most of the top trains that exist in India in terms of acceleration, noise levels inside, and vibration levels. “…That’s because the design has been done with a lot of thought in it.”
Referring to the upcoming launch of the Katra-Srinagar Vande Bharat train on April 19, he emphasised its significance, stating, “It is a big dream of the country to connect Jammu and Srinagar via rail. PM Modi has dreamed this with a very strong resolve. This is a project which required tremendous tenacity, tremendous design work, lots and lots of engineering inputs were there. It’s a very difficult project, but it is the political willpower of the PM that this project has been completed.”
India’s First Homegrown Chip On Track For Launch This Year: Ashwini Vaishnaw
The first made-in-India semiconductor chip is likely to launch this year, along with the construction across all five units progressing as planned, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw also announced on Wednesday at the News18 Rising Bharat Summit.
Tata Electronics is building the country’s first semiconductor fab in Dholera, Gujarat, in partnership with Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC).
Giving a detailed explanation on its progress, Union Minister Vaishnaw said, “All the five units’ construction is going on very well. The plants are now getting set up, and at some locations, machinery validation is already underway. It’s absolutely on track to roll out the first Made-in-India chip this year.”
The minister further reaffirmed that the timeline of 5–6 months remains realistic on India’s progress in building a foundational AI model. “We are on track. India has one of the highest concentrations of talent globally,” he said.
Emphasising the efforts of India to democratise access to AI compute power, which attracted the appreciations internationally, Vaishnaw said, “We’ve already empaneled 14,000 GPUs, with more coming soon. This combination of talent and compute is giving a strong edge to our startups and developers.”
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw highlighted the impressive growth of India’s electronics sector, stating that production has increased fivefold and exports sixfold over the past ten years. He credited this surge to a phased approach—starting from assembling finished products to now producing components—combined with supportive policies like the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for electronic components. “Electronics manufacturing is giving employment to 25 lakh people, many of whom are from rural areas,” he noted.
Vaishnaw also reaffirmed India’s openness to international partnerships. “Any country or company that wants to come and work in India has full freedom to do so. Companies generally prefer JVs more than they want to go up the learning curve at a faster pace,” he said.
While speaking at the Rising Bharat Summit 2025 in New Delhi, Vaishnaw defended India’s startup ecosystem and lauded the government’s efforts in nurturing it.
“In our economy, there is space for everything. Some of the startups are working on very difficult technologies,” Vaishnaw said, adding, “The government has played a big role in fostering startups in the country. There are 1.5 lakh startups in the country as opposed to a few hundred a few years ago.”
He highlighted the growing presence of deep-tech startups in India, particularly in semiconductors. “We have startups in semicon, IIT Madras has over a 100 deep-tech startups. Startups focusing on problem-solving are needed in every space,” he added.
A heated discussion is emerging around the future and impact of India’s startup ecosystem, as senior government officials and industry leaders remain deeply split on its significance in driving innovation and contributing to national development.
Highlighting the basic social etiquette when putting out content on various social platforms, Union Minister Vaishnaw also reflected on the recent Ranveer Allahbadia/Samay Raina controversy and said, “We are all staying in a society. We must, as users of technology, whether we are content creators or consumers of technology, we should understand our responsibility. I should see what my boundary should be.”
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