HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that with the world on the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution driven by new age technologies, utilising them for the public good would herald the dawn of lasting prosperity for mankind.
“We stand today at the cusp of the fourth Industrial Revolution. Technology, if used well for public good, can deliver lasting prosperity to mankind and a sustainable future for our planet,” he said, delivering the inaugural address at the World Congress on Information Technology in Hyderabad.Pointing out that India was now a hotspot of digital innovation across sectors with a large and growing market, coupled with one of the most tech friendly populations in the world, Modi said that it was the ‘best placed to leverage the power of technology and leap-frog into the future while ensuring the empowerment of every citizen’.
Modi, with his penchant for catchy statements, also observed that the Digital India mission and other government schemes have already begun doing this over the NDA’s current term.
Such measures have already resulted in substantial savings, said Modi, with the JAM trinity of combining 320 million Jan Dhan bank accounts with Aadhaar and Mobile resulting in savings of Rs 57,000 crore through direct benefit transfer of subsidies.He also stated that progress has been made in several other spheres, including the online National Agricultural Market (eNAM), the National Scholarship Portal and digital transactions.
“Today, 2.8 lakh Common Services Centres have come up… About 10 lakh people work in these centres, including thousands of women entrepreneurs. In order to leverage the skills and talent of our youth, BPOs have started operating from places including Kohima and Imphal in the Northeast to areas of Jammu & Kashmir,” he said.