Long-term plan should be to invest more in R&D: Vice-President

: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu Thursday stressed the need for significant investments in research and development to enable the country become owners of cutting-edge technology and one of the global industry leaders.

The country must also boost exports and soon be a net exporter of technology, he said addressing a one-day seminar on 'New Paradigms in Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security' here, according to an official release.

Naidu said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in its first bi-monthly monetary policy statement (MPS) 2018-19, speaks about a marked shift in the countrys exports basket - a clear swing away from primary and traditional low value-added exports to higher value-added manufacturing and technology-driven items.

"We have to sustain this momentum and be a world leader in technology exports. The long-term plan should be to invest significantly in research and development so that we could, eventually, be the owners of cutting-edge technology and one of the global industry leaders," the release quoted Naidu as saying.

The Vice-President further said artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are the most exciting of these technologies with potentially endless applications and these technologies are capable of solving many complex problems.

AI and ML are extensively used in large enterprises and there is a need to explore the possibility of using these technologies in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), small-scale businesses, and seasonal businesses to make the business processes more robust, Naidu said.

With about 600 million young people who are below 25 years of age, no country has more youthful energy than India, he said adding the government of India has already embarked upon an ambitious initiative to equip the young people with skills.

The global cyber security landscape today is more challenging than it has ever been before and growing adoption of smart devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to a complete dissolution of previously secure network perimeters, he said.

At present, cyber security is often an after thought. We have to change this mindset. Cyber security must be an essential part of our technology culture. We must also be intensely aware of the data privacy concerns raised by the infiltration of internet into our daily lives, Naidu said.

"We have to keep updating technology, keep learning from setbacks and keep improving our systems, software and computing prowess to meet the myriad challenges that are confronting us, Naidu said.

Naidu, who also launched the Digital Wellness website set up by the e-learning centre at the University of Hyderabad (UoH), said : Launching quality online courses can prove to be a boon for students in rural areas as technology is a good equaliser and can be used to empower people."