Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (PTI/File Photo) Delivering the inaugural address at the post-budget webinar organised by the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor looking at “Technology Enabled Development’’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday exhorted industry leaders from science sectors to increase investment in sunrise sectors outlined in the budget, including geo-spatial technology, drones, genomics and AI. The Prime Minister particularly stressed on the gaming sector, which he said had a huge international market, and that India was exploring increasing its footprint in.
“As you know, over the past two years, we have started some new traditions – the first is bringing forward the union budget by an
entire month. The budget is implemented from April 1st, so we get two months in between to prepare for this. We are trying to get all
stakeholders in this in-between period – from central and state governments, public and private players, departments etc – so that we
can all come together and look at how the budget can be implemented most efficiently. This is a collaborative effort to ensure how, in the
light of budget, can we implement the provisions quickly, seamlessly and with optimum outcome,” said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister said that for this government, science and technology is not an isolated sector. In the field of economy, the
vision is linked with areas like digital economy and fintech.
“Similarly advanced technology has huge role in infrastructure and public service delivery related vision. Technology for us is a medium
to empower the people of the country. For us, technology is the mainstay of making the country self-reliant. The same vision is
reflected in this year’s budget as well”, he said.
Modi highlighted the budget’s emphasis on sunrise sectors like artificial intelligence, geo-spatial systems, drones, semi-conductors,
space technology, genomics, pharmaceuticals and clean technologies to 5G. He said that the budget lays down a clear roadmap for 5G spectrum auction and PLI schemes have been proposed for design-led manufacturing related with a strong 5G eco-system. He asked the
private sector to increase their efforts in this area
“The gaming market is huge internationally and the number of youth connected to this market globally is increasing. That is why in this
year’s budget we have focused on Animation Visual Effects Gaming Comic (AVGC),’’he said.
Stressing the centrality of communication centres and fintech, the prime minister asked for indigenous ecosystem with less foreign
dependence for the both. “The world has seen our reliability from our self-sustainability to vaccine production at the time of Covid. We
have to replicate this success in every sector,” Modi said adding that in the future, most of India’s need of medical equipment should be met domestically.
The prime minister also emphasised the importance of a robust data security framework for the country for which he said India now needs to frame standards and norms.
Modi also spoke about the Rs 2 lakh crore worth PLI schemes in 14 key sectors, in order to promote manufacturing in the country. He urged stakeholders to concentrate innovations and investment in optical fibres in citizen services, e-waste management, circular economy and electric mobility.
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