Union Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Electronics & IT Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar spoke about India’s deep tech capabilities and how India stands out as one of the few countries leveraging technology to foster inclusivity.
During a conversation in New Delhi with the Editorial Director Andrew Staples from the Economist Impact, he highlighted that India’s capabilities are only increasing and Chandrayaan 3 is a testament that India has the full potential as a nation to execute deep-tech technologies.
The Minister said, “This is an exciting time for India’s tech space as we are building deep tech capabilities, no one would have thought that we would be at this stage. We are a highly capable country and Chandrayaan 3 represents how we can execute these deep tech capabilities and that self confidence leads me to believe that the vision of our PM can be realized where the digital economy will be 20-25% of the total GDP.”
Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar further highlighted how India is playing a leading role in helping nations that have lagged behind in technology and digitalisation through the India stack.
“The DPI is an extremely exciting conversation today and has gained momentum in the context of the Indian presidency of the G20. The fact that India is now a case study, a nation that has deployed technological tools for progress and growth. This is now increasingly being seen by countries that have lagged behind, as a way to follow India’s lead, taking the India stack, an open sourced digital infrastructure and then using these to digitize their own governments,” the Minister said.
Reflecting on his journey, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar stressed the importance of protecting citizens’ rights while promoting innovation. He expressed hope that the G20 would allow global companies to view India as a reliable partner, fostering a trust-based global order.
“What I expect from the G20 is that all these large companies who are looking at globalization look at India as a trusted, long-term partner. This will be a win-win since it will set the basis of a trust based global order. I recall in 2010 when I started a debate around privacy and data protection most people, especially in New Delhi, thought this was an elitist concept. The pendulum has swung from data being exploited to a point when we are having conversations around data protection in particular. There has to be guardrails for data processing of citizens’ data, how they should be used. As Government of India we take our duty very seriously of creating a balance and a symmetry between rights of individuals and data protection while boosting innovation in our country,” the Minister added.