Infrastructure

Under the leadership of Raipur Municipal Corporation, and with the participation of technical experts, builders, institutions and citizens, the city launched a large-scale rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge drive. During 2025 alone, nearly 32,000 rainwater harvesting and recharge structures were created across the city. These include recharge wells, percolation pits, injection wells, recharge shafts, rooftop harvesting systems and stormwater recharge structures.

SkyCast is important because aviation safety depends heavily on what happens in the lower atmosphere around an airport. Aircraft descent, final approach, landing and take-off are all sensitive to visibility, wind shear, turbulence, moisture, fog density and vertical atmospheric changes. Delhi’s airport faces some of the most difficult winter fog conditions in the country, where dense fog, pollution particles and low visibility can delay flights, divert aircraft and disrupt passenger movement. SkyCast brings these atmospheric details into one integrated monitoring framework.

Under the Semicon India Programme, the government has so far approved 12 fabrication and packaging projects, along with 24 semiconductor design projects. This means the country’s semiconductor strategy is expanding across multiple layers of the value chain: chip design, fabrication, assembly, testing, packaging and ecosystem support. The new portal is meant to act as a bridge between policy ambition and investor execution.

According to the Minister, the revival effort began by identifying practical problem areas: work culture, tower condition and outdated infrastructure. In states such as Andhra Pradesh, tower uptime was earlier around 75%, and the target was raised to 95%. BSNL replaced 50,000 batteries across 50,000 towers, upgraded power plants and replaced ageing cables to improve service reliability.

A large share of the monitored projects is already at an advanced stage. Around 801 projects, or roughly 40%, have achieved more than 80% physical progress, while 277 projects, or about 14%, have crossed 80% financial completion. This is a crucial indicator because it shows that a significant portion of the infrastructure pipeline is moving towards completion, while another group of newly started projects is entering the implementation cycle.

The data reveals a clear pattern: India’s telecom story is now overwhelmingly wireless-led, broadband-heavy and increasingly shaped by digital demand beyond voice calling. Out of the total subscriber base, wireless connections accounted for 1,288.96 million, while wireline connections stood at 48.58 million. Wireless services contributed around 95% of the net subscriber additions during April, showing that mobile connectivity remains the main engine of India’s communication economy.

The initiative is powered by Excelsoft Technologies and supported by ecosystem partners including Karnataka Digital Economy Mission, TiE Mysuru, SJCE-STEP and Young Indians. This gives the platform an important local foundation: industry support, startup mentoring, academic incubation and community mobilisation coming together around a subject that is usually seen as highly specialised and inaccessible.

The Hyderabad centre is important because it is far more than a routine support office. Reuters reported that Southwest plans to expand the facility to about 1,000 employees over the next few years, with an immediate focus on platform engineering, cloud engineering and network engineering. The company is also expected to build capabilities in data science and machine learning as the centre grows.

The project is located in Puga Valley, a high-altitude geothermal field in Ladakh’s Changthang region, at over 14,000 feet. Unlike solar or wind power, geothermal energy does not depend on sunlight, cloud cover or wind speed. It taps heat stored beneath the Earth’s surface and converts it into usable energy through hot fluids and steam. For Ladakh, where winter conditions are severe and energy logistics are difficult, this makes geothermal power especially valuable. It can provide a steadier renewable-energy source while reducing dependence on transported fossil fuels.

During the visit, the Minister reviewed the operations of HMT’s Machine Tool Division, Foundry Division and strategic manufacturing sections. He also inspected manufacturing, assembly and testing processes related to CNC systems, precision machine tools, specialised engineering equipment and indigenously developed Sonar Directing Gear systems used for Indian Naval platforms. This defence-linked capability gives the visit a deeper strategic meaning, because HMT is not only serving commercial industry but also supporting India’s self-reliance in sensitive engineering domains.