We are open to new technology and innovation : Views of Ravi Shankar Prasad

Digital India is a programme to empower citizens, facilitate digital inclusion, bridge the divide between digital haves and have-nots, and much more. The government has realised that these objectives can only be achieved through technologies that are not only innovative, but also cost effective. Significant progress has been made under the programme in the past few years, as can be seen in the fast evolving digital profile of the country. At the inauguration of the India Mobile Congress 2020, a virtual event, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, talked about India’s changing digital landscape and the role of telecom in making the government’s Digital India vision a reality. Edited excerpts…

Digital technology, communication tools and IT platforms all have established their extraordinary worth during these challenging times. During the Covid-19 lockdown, when there was no flight, no train movement and no road movement, India remained united through digital technology. Covid-19 created a new opportunity, enabling people to talk, meet, communicate and share virtually through videoconferencing. Responding to the challenges, we as a country completely liberalised our work-from-home ecosystem. Today, 85 per cent of India’s IT operations are being managed from home and not from regular offices. This has become the new normal, and, in many ways, the new norm.

We had designed the Digital India initiative to bring in digital inclusion. The onset of Covid-19 has brought the inclusive character of the Digital India initiative and the far-reaching impact of communication and digital tools into focus.

The extraordinary performance of digital platforms during the crisis has set a new milestone. I am confident that new technologies, whether it is 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) or any other new innovation, are going to work together to create a favourable ecosystem in India with mobile at the centre, thus creating future opportunities.

I have always believed that digital technology should be smart, taking on board new innovations; safe and secure, such that extremists cannot abuse it; and sustainable, in the sense that common people have a stake in the process.

We are expanding the communications footprint of the country in our own way. After initiating the very transformative BharatNet programme, to ensure that optical fibre reaches every gram panchayat  of India, the prime minister announced on this Independence Day that we will strive to extend optical fibre connectivity to all the 600,000 villages in India over the next 1,000 days. We have also launched a key broadband progamme, the National Broadband Mission, to provide broadband access to all villages by 2022.

We are also very keen for India to become 5G ready. To this end, test beds have been created and further provisions will be provided soon. We want good innovation in this space. Indians have significant talent and innovative spirit, which we all have experienced in the past few years. Be it in the field of communication or IT, Indians have done exceedingly well. Our start-up movement has become the third biggest in the world. Therefore, we are keen to leverage the strength of Indian human resource and start-ups for innovation, creation and empowerment of the 5G process. Our state-led entity must create a robust 4G ecosystem for Indian companies and innovators to participate in.

We are not against foreign direct investments (FDI) and they are most welcome. We are now allowing 100 per cent FDI into the sector through the automatic route. I am proud to say that the IT and communication sectors have registered an over 7 per cent growth rate and the highest FDI even during the challenging times of Covid. Therefore, foreign capital and innovation are welcome, but the safety and security of the country must be upheld. We want to encourage an enabling environment for Indian minds to think, innovate and create a robust 4G network that will serve as a precursor to the 5G network.

We have always been keen to develop India’s potential to become a major manufacturing hub in the global communications and electronics supply chain. We have taken a number of steps in this regard and the results are already showing. India’s talent, its innovation, the government’s focus and the extraordinary ease of doing business is attracting global capital to the country. This is evident from the great success of the production-linked incentive scheme, which was launched at the height of Covid. It has attracted billions of dollars of investment and will create close to a million jobs, direct and indirect, with big global mobile and communication companies setting up or planning to set up shop in India.

We are very keen that India should become one of the top mobile manufacturers in the world, but in a fair and transparent manner, by creating an enabling atmosphere for all stakeholders. We also want India to emerge as a big centre for components, tools, electronic equipment and mobile manufacturing. For all this, we have created a very robust production incentive scheme.

I urge innovators, manufacturers and others to come explore and tap the extraordinary enabling atmosphere available in India. Through our production-linked incentive scheme, we are encouraging innovators and manufacturers to produce in India and export outside while earning good incentives. I am very happy to share that a large number of foreign companies are already shifting base to India in a very significant manner.

Yes, we are open to new technology and innovation, be it AI, IoT, or machine learning; there is enough opportunity in India for all these technologies to thrive. We want India to become a big centre for AI. Like Digital India, which focused on the attribute of digital inclusion, empowering the common people, AI must also lead to empowerment, benefiting the common people in the fields of healthcare, education and agriculture. Most importantly, AI should not become the monopoly of a few and an instrument of weaponisation. These are some of our objectives in the pursuit of AI. We have set up centres of excellence, and also framed a robust policy in this regard.

Even in the communications space, we have liberalised the entire ecosystem as far as policy is concerned by allowing spectrum trading and sharing, and notifying the Right of Way Rules. We not only talked about the optimum use of public digital platforms, but delivered on it. Look at the Jandhan, Aadhaar and Mobile (JAM) trinity. Aadhaar is a public platform made by Indian minds. The goods and service tax operation is being done digitally. India’s fintech industry has also grown exceptionally well. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become one of the biggest platforms of digital payment globally in terms of transactions. Therefore, we have already demonstrated the inclusive character of digital platforms to empower common people. This is a model that can be replicated globally. At the centre of this revolution is one small instrument, the mobile phone. This is the extraordinary power of mobile technology, and Indians have innovated to make it the most shining instrument of inclusion. This is the message of India to the world.

We want this mobile technology to expand further and fuel the growth of our public digital platforms. We want to go for skill enhancement in this field. We are willing to reciprocate and exchange information and also invite value addition from stakeholders outside India.

India is poised to become a $1 trillion digital economy in the coming five years. The gig economy is going to play a very crucial role in India’s future. Given the government’s push for creating an enabling environment for all stakeholders, we do not have the slightest doubt that the coming years will see India’s robust digital ecosystem maturing to create an enabling ecosystem, both for services and manufacturing, resulting in significant business opportunities for one and all.