Modi dubs India as a hot-spot for digital innovation
HYDERABAD: Describing India as the hot-spot of digital innovation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was the best place to leverage the power of technology and leapfrog into the future.
Modi was speaking after inaugurating the World Conference on Information Technology (WCIT-2018) in Hyderabad through video-conferencing from Delhi. The event is being held for the first time in India in partnership with NASSCOM, WITSA and the government of Telangana.
Modi said India had made a great leap forward in digital technology, with one lakh villages connected through optical fibre network, more than 100 crore people using mobile phones, 121 crore people with Aadhaar connections and 50 crore internet users.
He added the Digital India programme has not remained a government initiative but has become a way of life. “It is helping in inclusive growth of the nation. While most government initiatives depended on a government push, Digital India is succeeding because of the people’s pull,” he said.
Union minister for IT and communications Ravi Shankar Prasad explained the initiatives taken by the Centre for the promotion of the IT sector in the country.
He urged IT companies to keep the interests of common man in mind while coming out with innovations in technology.
He also called for ethical values in technological innovations.
NASSCOM LAUNCHES NEW PLATFORM
At the event, the PM also launched the FutureSkills platform by Nasscom, to upskill two million IT employees and skill two million youngsters in eight technologies.
Nasscom also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) to collaborate in fostering, cultivating and strengthening reskilling initiatives.