'The intent is to make India an export engine of tech'

In an extensive interview covering railways, information technology, and telecom, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw spelt out the government’s vision on multiple fronts—from making India an export engine of indigenous technologies, to strengthening and expanding the railway network with the right technologies to ensure safe and efficient operations, to ensuring that regulation keeps up with technology and therefore the Digital India Bill, to planning for India to take the lead in 6G where standards are yet to be set. New financial incentives for the components ecosystem may also be considered going forward. Edited excerpts:

- Gulveen Aulakh & Subhash Narayan

What is the Railways’ plan of strengthening safety and security of operations after we saw three major rail accidents/derailments in the past few months?