We expect to be partners with Private Sector in areas of future technology development or strategic areas where we want India to create competencies like AI, Cyber Security, Semiconductors – Rajeev Chandrasekhar at CII Future Tech 2021

New Delhi: At MeitY, we have very clear objectives, we expect to be partners with the Private Sector in areas not just limited to soliciting business – business development or advocacy but even in areas of future technology development or strategic areas where we want India to create competencies like artificial intelligence, cyber security, semiconductors etc, said Mr Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Hon’ble Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology, and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India at the inaugural session of CII FutureTech 2021.

He further highlighted that Hon’ble PM has set some very serious ambitions in the Tech space and soon we are going to roll out a five-year strategic perspective plan, detailing the competency and capabilities that needs to be developed for realizing these ambitions.

He shared that this is the time to reset our ambitions and re-imagine the future in very different ways from pre-covid era. The post covid era provides very different opportunity framework that is at play today for companies in India. He further added that in the last six years we have made tremendous strides in digitizing our economy and public services within the economy which has helped India prove to be resilient during the COVID Pandemic.

Hon’ble Minister mentioned that the Narendra Modi Government’s three-pronged approach to promote use of technology in the country focuses on improving governance and transforming lives of people, expanding digital economy and creating more opportunities and creating strategic capabilities in certain areas of technology.

He further highlighted that the velocity of the train we are trying to compete with should not bother us. We are in a position to leapfrog and move at a rate much faster than any other country because this Govt is fully committed right from the Hon’ble PM at the top and down to the officials of Ministries and other Departments to work towards India’s roadmap to be a significant tech player in the post covid era.

Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, Past President, CII, Chairman, CII Digital Council, and Co-founder, Infosys Limited suggested that under a PPP project; we must look at building an ERP solution for MSMEs at reasonable price to facilitate digital adoption especially when quite a few MSME have started extending their customer base across the border as well. He highlighted some key recommendations shared by CII Task Force of Digital Infrastructure on setting-up of a ‘Broadband Infrastructure Fund’ for efficient Digital Infrastructure Rollout.

Mr CP Gurnani, Managing Director and CEO, Tech Mahindra Limited said that technology has now become a glue for citizens and especially MSMEs to bring in inclusiveness across all sections of the society. He highlighted that India would need to specially emphasize on much larger high-end technologies like quantum computing, better connectivity, Cloud and AI as these have now become a fabric for various sectors. He emphasized that India previously never realized a need for backward integration of semi-conductors and hence there is an urgent need to create a taskforce on how to bring in semi-conductors in India.

Mr. Sandip Patel, Chairman, CII National AI Forum and Managing Director, IBM India / SA said that every business must now innovate through exponential technology like Hybrid cloud, AI, Quantum. He highlighted that as an action plan for the decade, three critical priorities that will elevate the role of science in India’s road to become a trillion-dollar economy has been laid out by MeitY includes Creating a national Strategic Computing reserve which would offer computing power and expertise in the next crisis, Launching a national Charter to pull public and private investments to drive technology for all and Accelerating Government of India’s investment in science and technology research to become an innovation led economy.

CII is organising FutureTech Week with support from Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India from 19-27 October 2021. FutureTech Week have components of Digital Infrastructure Summit, Digital Transformation Summit, AI Conference, Smart Manufacturing Summit, DX Secure Summit, Future Business Summit, Digital Gaming Summit etc.