‘No Country Has More At Stake Than India As Far As Digital Technology Is Concerned’

She emphasized, “No country in the world has more at stake in digital technologies than India, because of the nature of our demographics and the fact that we are the youngest country of the world and the circumstance to leverage Infrastructure deficit and service deficit.”

The only way to scale education, healthcare, financial inclusion and services are to embrace digital technology to its full potential, she added.

Accentuating the importance of sustaining India’s growth at 7-7.5 per cent, we don’t have the luxury to wait for conventional infrastructure to set up because of the amount of catching up our country entails. As a result, digital technology and digital infrastructure becomes important.

Sundararajan talked about India being a sustaining developing economy and how there is a bend in the per capita income and digital technology becomes essential for the bridging of gap. For the developing Indians, digital technology is the way out to access all of the sectors of economy, she added.

Digital India over the last few years has been India’s leading sectors and leading job creators in the organised sector. India is the only country to have 3 digital platforms with over billion people. The smartphone penetration in India has reached 350 million and is expected to touch 700 million soon.

The digital payment platform is rapidly evolving with BHIM and Aadhaar-based payment methods. A business environment has been structured to create more jobs and wealth for the citizens. The Digital India movement will turn to be unique and unprecedented for India, Sundararajan added.

She underlined the vision of government, businesses, technology platforms and media working together to achieve the real significant of Digital India. “The three years of Modi government has envisioned a much larger and inclusive digital society than in past.”

Talking of the importance of digital payments and cyber security, Sundararajan talked about Rupay payment cards, IMPS and Bharat QR code. These approaches have changed the digital payment infrastructure. She added that with Bharat QR, digital payments and physical payments scenario will change once and for all. Bharat QR will be a cost effective technology to service a billion people.

The IT secretary talked about concluding works in the telecommunication sector including:
- 2G spectrum
- North Eastern India telecom connectivity
- Optic fibre networks setup
- BharatNet project
- Direct benefit transfer scheme to connect with all 500 major skills

She underlined the great progression of ‘Make in India’, and stated that the country will become the more rewarding destination to manufacture in the coming years with big technology players like Apple and Foxconn stepping in India. She added, the government will focus on large scale re-skilling of Indian youth.

Concluding her speech, Sundararajan highlighted the introduction of an open platform for education and healthcare in the future. The government will be partnering with IITs for working on emerging technologies. Cloud, mobility and data chains will grow and Digital India will set new standards, she concluded.

BW Businessworld Digital India Summit engages importance of Smart Villages, Digital payments, Healthcare technology and Cyber Security among the few areas in the summit.