Prime Minister Narendra Modi while speaking at the inauguration of Digital India Week 2022 in Gandhinagar stated that India wanted to become “chip maker from a chip taker”.
He said that India is targeting $300 billion worth of electronics manufacturing in the next three to four years. He also launched six digital initiatives and an E-book with the aim for enhancing technology accessibility, streamlining service delivery to ensure ease of living, and giving a boost to startups. Also, he announced the first cohort of 30 institutions to be supported under the Chips to Startup (C2S) programme. Investment in semiconductor production is on the rise.
The event was attended by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Union Ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology. Stakeholders from various other industries, including startups were also present on the occasion.
Addressing the gathering, Modi said the digital campaign which began eight years ago (in 2014) has been expanded with the changing times. “The country which fails to adopt modern technology will always be left behind. India was a victim of this during the third industrial revolution. But today we can proudly say that India is guiding the world in the fourth industrial revolution – Industry 4.0,” said Modi. He also mentioned Gujarat’s role in taking a lead in this revolution.
Modi said that “Today 40% of the digital transaction at the global level takes place in India, added to this by saying that next four to five years the government’s focus was on skilling, upskilling and re-skilling about 14 to 15,00,000 young people for Industry 4. 0. FinTech as a solution that was by the people, of the people and for the people.
PM said for the amusement of many in the audience in the event, “The world is discussing how we managed to give Covid-19 vaccination certificates to people just after they got jabbed, but a few people here (in India) were just focused on why there was Modi's photo on these certificates”.
“The world is amazed at the way record of each dose of vaccine given to such a large population was made available. People elsewhere faced trouble in getting vaccine certificates. But in India, once a person got a vaccine dose, he would immediately receive the certificate on his mobile phone,” Modi stated. Moreover, digital technology has changed lives. Modi added: “Mark my words. You can refer to my speeches way back in 2005 or 2006. Everything I said about what we envisaged at GIFT City is now taking shape”. He went on to say: “In the coming days, GIFT City will be India’s pride in the area of fintech, data security, and finance.”
