India shows tech can demolish have-have not divide: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Speaking at Business Standard TechTalk in Bengaluru on Friday, the minister said that India has moved from becoming a follower and consumer of tech trends to becoming a key participant

India has shown that technology can demolish the have vs have not divide, said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union minister of state for electronics and information technology at Business Standard TechTalk earlier today.

Business Standard TechTalk on AI and Business: Navigating the opportunities and challenges, was held at Bengaluru on Friday.

Recalling the government's initiatives a few weeks ago on the launch of the new version of Skill India, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who also holds the portfolio of Union minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship, said that the edition of the programme is focused on being both industry and future ready.

Elaborating on the programme, Chandrasekhar said that it was clear from the industry that AI skills and adjacent skills will be in great demand in the years to come.

The minister also said that the country was earlier a mute observer and consumer of tech, trailing global indicators such as the tech bubble burst and other trends. Today, however, the country is a key participant in trends such as semiconductor manufacturing, and the transition from Web2 to Web3, among others. He added that Indian talent and skills could be found in all these trends.

Chandrasekhar noted that the first perspective on AI went back to PM Modi's thoughts expressed in a quote he made in 2018, the purport of which was: "We need to make AI, make AI work for India."

He added that just like UPI was created to solve a problem and has emerged to become an enabler of digital payments that has cut across all sections of the country's socio-economic structure, technology per se is not the preserve of innovation and big industry but trickles down to the grassroots.

The minister recalled having driven for a good nine and a half hours to a remote village while visiting Nagaland. Once there, he asked the inhabitants how many were getting benefits directly transferred into their accounts. "All hands were raised," he said. How many had an internet connection? "Again, all hands were raised.

On the fear of tech disrupting jobs

"We should be prepared for this dispruption," said the minister, adding that it is affecting not just India but the entire world. "We have the talent pool, we have young Indians willing to skill, reskill and upskill," Chandrasekhar asserted, adding that the temperament to skill/upskill is crucial as some roles down the will become redundant or diminish in importance. This trend, he said, would be seen across industries and sectors as diverse as accounting, auditing and the legal profession.

On India's AI thrust

Asserting that AI ought to be used as a transformational tool, not as a disruptive tool, designed to reach populations in the remotest of regions, Chandrasekhar said the government had launched the India AI programme, consisting of three Centres of Excellence, whose aim is to connect the various spokes of the AI ecosystem, such as academia, startups and big industry to these CoEs, which would serve as hubs.

India AI also has a datasets component in recognition that the country has one of the most diverse datasets. The government's priority is to build an AI application for the government. Observing that English and Hindi speakers accounted for only 68 per cent of the country's population, Chandrasekhar also dwelt on the Bhashini programme that aims to grant all Indians east access to the internet and digital services in their own language and increase the content in Indian languages.

Another key pillar of the India AI programme, he said, was healthcare.