PM Narendra Modi raised Karnataka’s rail budget ninefold since 2014: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Bengaluru: Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday said the railway budget for Karnataka has risen from Rs 835 crore before 2014 to Rs 7,500 crore after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister.

Speaking after PM Modi flagged off the yellow line of Bengaluru Metro, Vaishnaw said, "Such an important state like Karnataka was only getting a meagre Rs 835 crore before 2014. Thanks to Modi, it is now getting Rs 7,500 crore. Also, projects worth Rs 54,000 crore are underway in Karnataka. We are redeveloping 61 stations in the state under the Amrit Bharat scheme."

The Amrit Bharat Station Scheme is a long-term plan to upgrade railway stations in phases, with detailed, need-based plans for each station, according to the PIB website.

Vaishnaw said India’s electronics sector had seen “electrifying” growth in the last 11 years.

"Our electronics production has grown sixfold in the last 11 years, with production touching Rs 12 lakh crore," he said, adding that exports have increased eightfold to over Rs 3 lakh crore during the same period. "Eleven years ago, nobody could have imagined India exporting electronics," he added.

He said Prime Minister Modi’s efforts to lay a strong foundation for 'Viksit Bharat 2047' had benefited the entire nation, including Karnataka.

'Viksit Bharat 2047' is the Indian government’s vision to make the nation developed by its independence centenary in 2047.

"If India has become the second-largest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world, then in Namma Bengaluru, Devanahalli is emerging as a major iPhone manufacturing hub," Vaishnaw said.

According to him, Modi’s vision is to democratise technology.

"That’s why we have the India AI Mission, under which 34,000 GPUs are available as a common compute facility for all our innovators. I know Bengaluru is making the maximum use of it. The cost of using these GPUs is less than USD 1 per hour, making it the most affordable common compute facility in the world," he said.

He added that Bengaluru-based startup Sarvam is developing an indigenous Large Language Model (LLM)—an AI neural network trained on massive datasets of text and code—using Indian data, free from biases, and capable of understanding the country’s multilingual diversity.

Vaishnaw said India’s long-held dream of building its semiconductor industry had materialised after 60 years. "Today, six semiconductor plants are under construction in the country, and very soon we will see the first ‘Made in India’ chip roll out of these factories," he said.