Respected Prime Minister Modi, honorable Minister of Communications, Mr. Scindia, honorable Minister of State Dr. Chandra Shekhar, other senior government dignitaries, Secretary General ITU and a long-standing friend of mine for over 20 years, Doreen, and many of my industry colleagues who are here today, and ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure today to be once again standing in front of you during IMC 24, and that it coincides with a very important ITU meet here in India makes it even more special. This event showcases India's development in telecom infrastructure and its digital technologies. In this very hall, not too long ago, the leaders of the world's top 20 countries assembled and witnessed India's rise on the global standing in both political terms and economic terms. But what the world has set up and noticed and has been awestruck is the digital revolution in this country.
I have been a long traveler on this journey since 1983. I've been a part of India's telecom story, but I can tell you that the real story began when Prime Minister Modi took charge in 2014. He knew the power of technology. He used it in Gujarat for the benefit of the citizens of Gujarat and the society. He realized that if India has to achieve its place on the top table of the world, technology needs to be put to use, and one of the main pillars of his vision was Digital India. That fired up all the entrepreneurs who are connected with telecom and digital services. That ushered in the 4G revolution in this country within two years of his assumption of office. That brought in smartphones in the hands of not just rich urban Indians but in the poorer Indians in the most rural and hinterlands of India. That, as our minister rightly said, ushered in a revolution of digital broadband connectivity that connected them to wonderful services that both private sector and indeed the government and public sector had to offer. That spawned a number of startups in this country, turning many of them into unicorns and bringing in billions of dollars from the world.
That stage was set to be used for Prime Minister's second term in 2019, when he came in and recognized that India is highly dependent on imports of telecom equipment and digital equipment. India at that time was importing nearly $500 billion worth of equipment from all over the world, including from our neighboring country. He asked Indian entrepreneurs and world corporations to come and set up manufacturing bases in India. And I mentioned this before here, India had lost the manufacturing race in the previous 20-30 years to China and other parts of the world. That call to action has resulted in today India becoming a major manufacturing hub where the animal spirits of Indian entrepreneurs and the global corporations are unleashed by the support of a massive Production Linked Incentive program, the PLI, as well as ushering in the most complicated, complex process which no other country has really initiated in a manner that India has, of trusted sources and trusted products.
Today every element in this country that is coming goes through the detailed eye of the National Security Council on telecom. Every source, every product, every element of India's network that connects our nation passes through that rigorous test of trusted networks and trusted products. This is a seminal development which other countries need to follow very quickly. Before the second term expired, he recognized that India may be left behind and become a follower once again in 5G. He asked the Department of Telecom and the Indian operators to gear up and launch 5G at the fastest pace possible. And I'm glad to report, and I'm sure most of you in this room are connected to a 5G network, India not only launched the fastest 5G networks in the country, not just in urban areas but including all the villages and rural areas, and more network rollouts are happening as we speak every day, every month, and within a matter of next 12 to 18 months, again each and every part of the country will be connected through a very powerful 5G network. That was to my mind the seminal contribution of the second term of honorable Prime Minister Modi.
But as we know, he never rests on his laurels. You achieve something, he will give you a bigger task to do. India has now dialed up its ambitions to be a semiconductor destination as well. A number of initiatives by the government of India have been taken to now start the process of manufacturing semiconductors in this country. Alliances globally are being built. India and the US have recently signed a critical technology partnership. India has gone ahead and signed partnerships with France, with UK, with Japan, and many other leading countries including Taiwan to come and set up shops here in semiconductors. Another big part of the third term is going to be opening up of the space industry for the private sector. That to my mind is again one of the huge developments that India is seeing.
Friends who are here from the world, from mobile industry, recognize that it's almost impossible for terrestrial services to cover every square inch of any country, or our oceans or our skies. In the past, just like 2G, we had VSATs which were connecting on a very slow 2G type of dial-up speeds some of the critical areas. With the launch of LEO networks, the low earth orbit networks, now we have the possibility of connecting 4G speeds and massive capacities in the hands of those who have been left behind. India has 95% of population covered, but they live in 75% of the places. There are 5% of people who are in those remote areas, in mountains, in forests, in deep remote rural areas where USO is trying to catch up and provide the services. And I want to assure the Prime Minister that with the launch of satcom services in this country, anybody anywhere in the country, however remote or in difficult conditions they may be, will be able to connect on a fast speed network to the internet using voice, data, videos, whatever is required, as is done on a 4G, 5G network.
Doreen is here. ITU assigns the spectrum and orbital slots globally, and that job will keep on happening. However, there is now a debate going on across the world, and there is where I would like to draw the attention of the honorable Prime Minister that inter-temporal choices will have to be made as to how satellite, which is moving fast in technologies, need to coexist with terrestrial networks. My message is very simple. Telecom companies around the globe have done seminal work in connecting the world. They will take the satellite services into the remotest parts of the nations through the USO program and directly through themselves. And those satellite companies who have ambitions to come into urban areas, serving elite retail customers, just need to take the telecom licenses like everybody else, be bound with the same conditions. They need to buy the spectrum as the telecom companies buy, they need to pay the license fee as the telecom companies do, and also secure their networks like telecom companies do. This is a simple solution which can be done on a global scale, and India can again show the way in this particular regard.
Finally, honorable Prime Minister, I'd like to assure you that Airtel has been at the forefront of India's telecom revolution. It has stood the test of time. It has seen the journey right from the 2G and dial-up modems to where we are in India today, creating a digital revolution that the world is seeing. And Airtel will be a very responsible company while building these fanciful networks. It'll be responsible towards its customers, it'll be responsible towards the stakeholders. And I'm glad that Airtel took the initiative of launching India's first anti-spam network, blocking in billions of calls coming from scamsters, billions of messages coming from fraudsters, to secure the lives of our customers. We are now working with the industry to ensure, and with the Department of Telecom, that our people, when they are using these networks and enjoying all those services, are safe and secure. Honorable Prime Minister, Airtel will play its role in your vision of building a very powerful India. Thank you very much.
