PM Modi inaugurates Bengaluru Tech Summit; Says India is using technology for poverty alleviation and infrastructure development
Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India is emerging as the innovation hub of the world, with over 81 thousand recognised startups and over one thousand Research and Development centres of global majors.
Inaugurating the three-day Bengaluru Tech Summit through a video message today, Mr. Modi said, in India, technology is a force of equality and empowerment, and the youth are being connected with the information super highway. He said India has democratised technology and given it a human touch. Mr Modi said, India is using technology in the war against poverty.
The Prime Minister said, through technology, the Government is also transforming infrastructure development in the country. He said, PM Gatishakti, through an online GIS enabled portal, is helping multiple sectors work together to ensure multi-modal connectivity in the country.
Mr Modi said technology came into play to achieve the biggest Covid Vaccination drive through the use of Covin portal. It also helped students to pursue online classes during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, speaking at the third working session on the theme ‘Digital Transformation’ on the second day of G20 Summit in Bali today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized on the rapid growth of public digital infrastructure to eliminate digital divide.
The Prime Minister said, India will work jointly with G20 partners to spread the benefit of digital technology in the life of every human being. He said, data for development will be a key element during India’s presidency of G20 next year.
He said, it is the responsibility of G-20 leaders that the benefits of digital transformation should not be confined to a small part of the human race.
Mr. Modi asked the world leaders to take a pledge to bring digital transformation in the life of every human being in the next ten years so that no person in the world will be deprived of the benefits of digital technology.
He stressed that these benefits will be realized only when digital access is truly inclusive and widespread. He said, digital transformation is the most remarkable change of our era and the proper use of digital technologies can become a force multiplier in the decades-long global fight against poverty and climate change.
Talking about the digital transformation initiatives in India, Mr. Modi said, the country’s experience of the past few years has shown that socio-economic transformation can be brought with the inclusive digital architecture.
He said, digital use can bring scale and speed and transparency can be brought in governance. He said, India has developed digital public goods whose basic architecture has in-built democratic principles.
These solutions are based on open source, open APIs, open standards, which are interoperable and public. Giving the example of Unified Payment Interface, he said, over 40 percent of the world’s real-time payment transactions took place through UPI last year.
He said, 460 million new bank accounts have been opened in the country on the basis of digital identity, making India a global leader in financial inclusion. He said, citizens of most developing countries of the world do not have any kind of digital identity and only 50 countries have digital payment systems.