Ashwini Vaishnaw discusses infrastructure growth strategy linking railways and digital networks in New Delhi; India aims to become developed by 2047
India Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw: Exceptional Leaders Interview | Morgan Stanley
August 19, 2026 The success of India’s transformation isn’t just about building rail lines, data centers or chip fabs – it means connecting them into a cohesive strategy that is widely beneficial. “Technology should not be left in the hands of a few,” says Ashwini Vaishnaw, who is India’s Minister for Railways, Electronics and Information Technology and a key figure in India’s development. In this episode of Exceptional Leaders, Morgan Stanley’s Head of India Research and Chief India Equity Strategist, Ridham Desai, sits down with Minister Vaishnaw in New Delhi to discuss the role of physical and digital infrastructure as a growth engine for India and its goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047. MINISTER VAISHNAW When we say democratized technology, we mean that technology should not be left in the hands of a few. It should be accessible to a wide section of the society, and people should be able to use them, create solutions, and make a difference in their own lives. RIDHAM DESAI India is the world’s fifth-largest economy, and it’s building at a pace and scale that few countries have attempted simultaneously: new rail corridors, a nationwide 5G rollout, a fast-growing electronics export sector, and an ambitious push into AI and semi-conductors, all at once. One of the architects of this transformation is Ashwini Vaishnaw, India’s Minister for Railways, Electronics, and Information Technology. An engineer and former entrepreneur, Minister Vaishnaw oversees two of the country’s most consequential platforms: the rail network that moves billions of passengers and millions of tons of cargo every year and the digital infrastructure that underpins data, payments, and compute for a country of nearly of nearly 1.5 billion people. As Head of India Research and Chief India Equity Strategist, I was curious to learn more about what it takes to lead ambitious change in a country as large and diverse as India. So I sat down with Minister Vaishnaw in his offices in New Delhi to talk about what it takes to modernize a country’s physical and digital backbone and what this means for India’s continued development. DESAI It’s great to have you here, Minister Vaishnaw, on Exceptional Leaders. MINISTER VAISHNAW Thank you, Ridham, for having me here. DESAI You have been at the helm of what I would consider as the world’s largest scale transformation: Indian Railways. How did you do this? And that too, in such a short span of time? MINISTER VAISHNAW It is a very complex organization and a very large organization: 1.2 million employees, 135,000 km of railway track, 7.4 billion people traveling on the network. Very complex network. The biggest challenge that we faced was to understand how this organization operates and then find out where the constraints are, then making sure that the solution is accepted by the people, and then go forward. Everywhere we looked at, “What is the constraint? What are the problems?” Go down to the root of the problem. Solve for the root. Whether you have to make a change in the process, whether you have to make a change in technology, whether you have to make a change in the machines which are used, whether you have to make a change in the training: it’s like going deep dive practically in every part of this huge, big organization. DESAI How critical is this transformation to India’s manufacturing aspirations? And also on tech diffusion? MINISTER VAISHNAW Manufacturing competitiveness has logistics cost and logistics efficiency as a major element. And when we are improving the railway operations, this is directly impacting the cost of logistics and the efficiency of logistics. A decade ago, we used to carry just about 1,000 million tonnes of cargo. Today, we are carrying 1,670 million tonnes of cargo. This directly impacts the way industries operate. If the industries are located close to a railway terminal, then it becomes very easy for them to manufacture straight away, put it on the wagons, and ship it to the place they would like it to go. DESAI India now operates one of the largest rail freight networks and one of the largest 5G ecosystems in the world and has done both on an impressive timeline. The Minister makes the case that these aren’t separate initiatives but a single coordinated growth engine. The question now is whether India can extend that momentum into the next frontier: artificial intelligence. DESAI On the two foundational networks you run: rail and digital. At first sight, they seem very different from each other, but they do intersect. MINISTER VAISHNAW They look very different, but basically, they are part of that same growth strategy that India is following for the last decade. These two networks are basically increasing India’s productivity, improving the efficiency in our economy, and third, they are making a big difference in people’s lives. Railway: today, we are the second-largest goods career in the entire world. If we invest in this network, then it makes a huge difference in the growth. Second, it is bringing the logistics efficiency. Third, we can have affordable travel for our people. If you look at this Vande Bharat Express: designed in India, made in India, semi-high-speed 180 km
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