AIR Discussions (March 1st Week)
4th March, 2022
AIR SPOTLIGHT: TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA
Context:
The Prime Minister addressed webinar on Technology-enabled development in India to encourage stakeholders to fully implement the themes of the budget in a time bound manner.
More on the news:
- In the light of emerging new global systems, it is critical to move forward with a focus on Aatmnirbharta.
- He 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.
- Referring to the dictum ‘Science is Universal and Technology is Local’, the Prime Minister emphasized on how to make maximum use of technology for the Ease of Living.
- He mentioned investment in house constructions, railway, airways, waterways and optical fibres. He called for ideas of using technologies in these important areas.
- Prime Minister said that the budget has focussed on Animation Visual Effects Gaming Comic (AVGC). Similarly he also stressed the need to have toys adapted to Indian milieu and needs.
- Stressing the centrality of communication centres and fintech, the Prime Minister asked for indigenous ecosystem with less foreign dependence for the both.
- The Prime Minister also exhorted the private sector to take maximum advantage of change of rules for the use of geo-spatial data and the infinite opportunities that have emerged due to the reform.
- The Prime Minister also emphasized the importance of a robust data security framework for the country and asked the gathering for a roadmap for setting standards and norms for that.
- Referring to the third largest startup ecosystem, i.e. Indian startup ecosystem, the Prime Minister assured the sector of full support from the government.
- Prime Minister also spoke about the 2 lakh crore rupees worth PLI schemes in 14 key sectors, in order to promote manufacturing in the country.
- Prime Minister gave a clear direction to the stakeholders to provide practical suggestions in the areas like use of optical fibres in the citizen services, e-waste management, circular economy and electric mobility.
Reforms in budget:
- Under the Union Budget 2021-22, the government announced allocation of Rs. 14,794.03 crore (US$ 2.02 billion) to the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Department of Atomic Energy has been allocated Rs. 18,264.89 crore (US$ 2.50 billion). The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has been allocated Rs. 6,067.39 crore (US$ 831.63 million). The Ministry of Earth Sciences was allocated Rs. 1,897.13 crore (US$ 260.03 million).
- Union Budget 2022 sets the tone for India's 'techade' and establishing the country as a global hub in terms of technology innovation.
- The government's sharp focus on technology-enabled development and aligned investments in key sectors like healthcare, fintech, education, infrastructure, R&D, start-ups, agriculture and manufacturing is a testament to India's technology prowess and the capabilities of the Indian technology industry to provide a fillip to sectors across.
- Budget introduced measures ranging from taxation to investment to help boost the country's economic activities, digital governance, ease of doing business, ensuring job creation, and marking India's transition to an inclusive digital economy.
- Budget has "magnified" the Digital India vision and importance of technology in all focus areas like infrastructure, inclusive development, sustainability, sunrise industries and skilling.
- FM's key announcements on blockchain and setting up e-passports with futuristic technologies are a step in the right direction to help India emerge as a global technology leader.
- The focus on innovation and R&D with an emphasis on strengthening talent capacity...will enable India to become a global hub for skilled talent.
- Announcements such as 'Drone Shakti' and for Drone-as-a-Service (DrAAS), besides the one-year extension for the incentives provided to them would immensely encourage existing and new players to focus on these areas.
- The announcement of reforms in customs administration of SEZs, which will be fully IT-driven is commendable
- The theme of continued ease of doing business, consistency and stability in tax rates, rebates, push to further digitise the economy, issue of the RBI backed digital currency, legitimising digital assets, etc seem to aid and support the all and in specific the IT industry which is expected by Nasscom to grow to become USD 350 billion in size in 5 years.
- Initiatives such as digital rupee and e-passports - based on futuristic technologies - are positive for the tech industry.
Nine missions:
- Prime Minister’s Science, Technology & Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) has identified nine national science missions aim to address major scientific challenges to ensure India’s sustainable development.
- Mission 1: Natural Language Translation
- Mission 2: Quantum Frontier: It aims to initiate work in control of the quantum mechanical systems, with a large number of degrees of freedom, as one of the great contemporary challenges in fundamental science and technology.
- Mission 3: Artificial Intelligence (AI): It will focus on addressing societal needs in areas such as healthcare, education, agriculture, smart cities and infrastructure, including smart mobility and transportation.
- Mission 4: National Biodiversity Mission
- Mission 5: Electric Vehicles (EVs)
- Mission 6: BioScience for Human Health: It aims to construct comprehensive reference maps of genomes and to understand the dynamics of how exposure to different environments have impact on our bodies.
- Mission 7: Waste to Wealth: It aims to identify, develop and deploy technologies to treat waste to generate energy, recycle materials and extract worth.
- Mission 8: Deep Ocean Exploration: It aims to scientifically explore the deep oceans towards improving India’s understanding of the blue frontier.
- Mission 9: AGNIi (Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovations)
Significance of building India’s own technology capability for development:
- Economic development: Growing adoption of technology will play a crucial role in India’s economic development. Inventions and innovations boost economic growth as was seen most of the developed countries.
- Reduce dependence: At present India’s technological needs are mostly fulfilled from imports which put it at a disadvantaged strategic position. For instance major defence technology including missiles, guns etc. are being imported from Russia, Israel etc. India should gradually move from Make in India to Made in India.
- Poverty alleviation: Technology helps lift millions from poverty through technology driven economic growth. For instance, new technologies, such as solar power can provide access to energy. Access to energy enables people to work their way out of poverty, access education and improve their own health.
- Agriculture: Half of India’s population is employed in agriculture. Mechanisation in agriculture has not been incentivised as pointed in Economic survey 2020. For instance, high yield varieties are must to ensure agricultural productivity for which technological capabilities must be developed.
- Employment: Building technological abilities would help create employment and reap India’s demographic dividend. According to a World Economic Forum’s ‘The Future of Jobs 2018’ report, machines and algorithms in the workplace are expected to create 133 million new roles and jobs by 2022.
- Security: With technology being outsourced, there is always a threat to security and data of the nation. For instance, increasing cyber-threats calls for building India’s own capabilities.
- Good governance: Technology helps in good governance by connecting people to the government. For instance, e-governance allows the government to reduce inefficiencies and grievance redressal in various departments.
- Education: Technology enables better and inclusive education. It helps especially people of rural areas through tele-education. For instance, the government has launched Swayam platform to boost online learning in India.
- Healthcare: Technology made healthcare affordable and accessible. Tele-medicine allows doctors to treat patients in rural areas where doctors are not available. Further, enhancing technological capabilities would make health infrastructure affordable and cheap.
- Bridge gaps: There is disparity between urban and rural areas and rich and poor that lead to exclusion and marginalization of certain groups. Technology is crucial towards eliminating these disparities and differences. For instance, it allows rural youth to learn and innovate.
- Income generation: Technology plays an important role in diversifying income. For example, internet penetration helps tribal people to sell their products online through e-commerce platforms and earn for their family.
India and The Tech World:
- India’s efforts for planning and industrialisation in the early 1950s was possibly the most ambitious of such initiatives in the developing world.
- Public sector funding of the latest technologies of the time including space and atomic research and the establishment of institutions such as the IITs were among the hallmarks of that effort.
- In terms of growth in IT and pharmaceutical industries, the development has been the fastest in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
- India ranks third among the most attractive investment destinations for technology transactions in the world.
- India is among the topmost countries in the world in the field of scientific research, positioned as one of the top five nations in the field for space ex The country has regularly undertaken space missions, including missions to the moon and the famed Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
- India now ranks 46 among 50 countries in the Global Innovation Index (GII); this is an improvement from the 48th position in 2020.
- India’s gross expenditure in R&D was forecast to reach US$ 96.50 billion in 2020.
- IT spending in India is estimated to reach US$ 93 billion in 2021 (7.3% YoY growth) and further increase to US$ 98.5 billion in 2022.
- India's National Artificial Intelligence Strategy prepared by NITI Aayog outlined a way forward to harness the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in different fields.
- India ranks 10th in the Global Cybersecurity Index 2020 that was launched by the International Telecommunication Union.
- India possesses favourable supply and demand factors that can propel it into the frontlines of technology.
- India is a large market for all kinds of new technologies. However, the domestic industry has not yet managed to derive the benefits.
- The country is operating far below its potential in electronic manufacturing; electronic goods and components are the second largest item in India’s import bill after oil.
- As of 2020-21, India’s imports are almost five times its exports in this technology sector.
Impact of COVID:
- Covid-19 has accelerated the adoption of technology in India, for e.g. telemedicine and online education Changing perception of India:
- Infrastructure for development of the technology sector has improved. For e.g. JAM trinity
- Better internet coverage with enhanced 4G network and expanding Bharatnet
- Ease of payment with BHIM, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) etc.
- Leapfrogging to a digital-led era where businesses are shifting their essential services towards automation and online availability. For e.g. use of chatbots instead of Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs).
- Most industries have reported a decrease in various costs like real estate costs, rental premises or electricity bills, as a result of employees working from home.
Strengths of India:
- Recent policy-related interventions by the government for facilitating business. For e.g. Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat, PLI, Digital India etc.
- India is in a sweet demographic spot, where a major part of its population is in the workforce. the average age of India is approximately 29 years, which means that we have more working people than their dependents.
- Indian industry is not dependent upon foreign markets for the sale of products.
- India is recognised as back-office of the world. This is due to its recognition as a top-notch software development provider.
- Indian government, aided by public-private partnerships has been working in the direction of providing the necessary infrastructure to improve digital connectivity in India. For e.g.
- Widespread 4G infrastructure and ongoing trials in the field of 5G connectivity.
- Provision of reliable, last-mile electricity connections is a work in progress.
- With fast expanding reach of e-commerce website and decreasing delivery time, accessibility to equipment like mobile phones, laptops, internet routers has increased.
- Education infrastructure in the country is considered world-class due to presence of institutions like the IITs, NITs and IIMs.
Key Challenges:
- Industry has repeatedly complained about the lack of employability of Indian graduates. This is because of the mismatch between skills required by the industry and the skills acquired by the students.
- There has been a tendency among top scholars to migrate to western countries in search of better prospects and standard of life.
- There is a need for scaling up the technology to solve societal issues, like gender imbalance, lack of skill etc, to utilise it for the benefit of people.
- Presence of bureaucratic red tape and reports of over-regulation has impeded the growth of start-ups.
- While more famous start-ups have seen multiple rounds of investment, other lesser-known start-ups have shrivelled due to lack of investment and capital.
- There is an inherent bias in the consumer mindset in India in favour of services and products offered by foreign technology giants like Google and Microsoft.
- India is a highly price-sensitive market, which sometimes doesn’t allow investment in quality, due to focus on cost-cutting.
Way forward:
- The capability to undertake basic and applied research across a wide-ranging area is essential to generate applications and technologies of tomorrow.
- India should aggressively work towards the process of accelerating new technologies by tapping into what has already been invented elsewhere for creating an ecosystem of technology know-how, demand and skill creation.
- The missing piece in achieving overall technology leadership and domestic capabilities is India’s hardware and system design capabilities. India needs to seriously undertake development of domestic infrastructure for technologies crucial for its security and economy.
- India should provide lucrative incentives like subsidized electricity, tax breaks etc. to lure technology giants to set up business in India for building hardware and system software, for both meeting domestic needs and producing cost-effective exports for the rest of the world.
- India should retain the top talent from fleeing the country and incentivize them to stay home for developing technology companies with private-public partnerships.
- It is important to create brand loyalty by investing in marketing and development of a robust advertising industry
- Focus on conceptualisation and application of ideas, which showcases an abundance of talent in the country to the outside world and brings in foreign investment. For e.g., apple focusses on R&D, rather than manufacturing.
- India is perceived favourably by the Least developed countries, with whom India has been generous in providing technology transfer and technical know-how. It can leverage the goodwill created in such markets to promote itself as Information and Communications Technology tools supplier.
- There is a need to take small steps, to meet a larger objective: Incremental Manufacturing
- The government has a crucial role to play in positioning India as the Tech Garage of the World.
- A strengthened public sector will create more opportunities for private businesses and widen the entrepreneurial base.
- Small and medium entrepreneurs will flourish when there are mechanisms for the diffusion of publicly created technologies, along with greater availability of bank credit and other forms of assistance.
- To bring together emerging telecom technologies, such as artificial intelligence, internet of things, etc, with a sectoral focus on “solve for India and build for the world", we need to build on the success of special economic zones (SEZs). One way to go about it is to think of geographically-agnostic ‘super innovation clusters’ that are based on technological themes.
- Talent nation: It is an opportune time for the government to review polices so as to encourage hybrid work, especially by companies set up in SEZs.
https://economics.ucsc.edu/research/downloads/Singh_Paper_IGIDR25th_2014.pdf
https://www.ibef.org/industry/science-and-technology.aspx
https://dst.gov.in/sites/default/files/STIP_Doc_1.4_Dec2020.pdf
NEWS IN BRIEF: PRELIMS SPECIAL
International Women’s Day Week
- The Ministry of Women and Child Development decided to celebrate the International Women’s Day week from 1st to 8th March 2022 as a part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.
- The idea for an International Women's day arose around the turn of the 20th century out of a long-standing movement for women to participate equally in society.
- The first International Women's Day was observed on March 19, 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. That day, more than one million women and men showed their support by participating in public events.
- It was expanded by the United Nations in 1975 with the International Women's Year.
- By 1977, the United Nations had adopted a resolution designating March 8 as International Women's Day.
https://newsonair.gov.in/News?title=International-Women%26%2339%3Bs-Day-Week-begins-today&id=436399
SWIFT
- The US and European Union (EU) have decided to cut off a number of Russian banks from the main international payment gateway, SWIFT.
- The SWIFT system stands for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
- The SWIFT messaging network is a component of the global payments system.
- Its principal function is to serve as the main messaging network through which international payments are initiated.
- Established in 1973, it is a secure platform for financial institutions to exchange information about global monetary transactions such as money transfers.
- Based in Belgium, it is overseen by the central banks from eleven industrial countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, besides Belgium.
https://newsonair.gov.in/News?title=EU-bans-seven-Russian-banks-from-SWIFT&id=436493
SEBI
- Madhabi Puri Buch has been appointed Sebi chairperson for a term of three years.
- Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is a statutory body established under the SEBI act of 1992.
- Formation: It was formed in response to prevent malpractices in the capital markets that were negatively impacting people’s confidence in the market.
- Objective: Its primary objective is to protect the interest of the investors, preventing malpractices, and ensuring the proper and fair functioning of the markets.
https://newsonair.com/2022/03/03/madhabi-puri-buch-meet-the-new-sebi-chief/
IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report
· The second part of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report released.
· The Assessment Reports, the first of which had come out in 1990, are the most comprehensive evaluations of the state of the earth’s climate.
· This Geneva-based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessment reports gives the periodic status check that are most widely accepted scientific view of the state of the Earth’s climate.
· The four subsequent assessment reports, each thousands of pages long, came out in 1995, 2001, 2007 and 2015. These have formed the basis of the global response to climate change.
· The First Assessment Report led to the setting up of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the umbrella agreement under which international negotiations on climate change take place every year.
· The Second Assessment Report was the basis for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
· The Fifth Assessment Report of 2014, guided the Paris Agreement.
· The first part of the report was centred around the scientific basis of climate change.
· The second part talks about climate change impacts, risks and vulnerabilities, and adaptation options.
· The third and final part of the report will look into the possibilities of reducing emissions.
Operation Ganga
- As Russian invasion into Ukraine has left its major cities under siege, India is making efforts to evacuate its citizens stuck in the war-torn country.
- It is the initiative launched by the government of India to bring back Indians stranded in Ukraine.
- Under this, India has already successfully brought back more than a 1,000 of its nationals from the country.
- It has also set up 24×7 control centres to assist in the evacuation of Indians through the border crossing points with Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovak Republic.
- A Twitter handle, ‘OpGanga Helpline’, has also been dedicated to the mission, where all information regarding evacuation process and advisories of embassies are shared to keep everyone up-to-date.
Janaushadhi Diwas
- Janaushadhi Diwas to be observed from 1st March to 7th March 2022, under the theme “Jan Aushadhi-Jan Upyogi”.
- The Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Bureau of India (PMBI), under the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers is going to celebrate their 4th Jan Aushadhi Diwas by organizing week-long celebrations across the country covering all States/UTs.
- This will generate awareness about the significance of generic medicines and benefits of Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana.
National Commission for Protection of Child Rights
- 17th Foundation Day of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
- On the occasion, the Minister has launched the new motto of NCPCR ‘भविष्यो रक्षति रक्षित:’ and said “the new motto encourages us to protect the future”
- The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is a statutory body established under the Commission for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005.
- It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
- Under the act, a Child is defined as a person in the 0 to 18 years age group.
Relief and Rehabilitation of Migrants and Repatriates Scheme
- The Union Government has approved the proposal for continuation of the 7 existing sub schemes under the “Relief and Rehabilitation of Migrants and Repatriates” scheme.
- The 7 sub-schemes under the “Relief and Rehabilitation of Migrants and Repatriates” scheme are:
- Relief and Rehabilitation of displaced families of Pakistan Occupied Areas of Jammu and Kashmir.
- Relief assistance to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.
- Relief assistance to Brus lodged in relief camps in Tripura.
- Relief to 1984 Anti-Sikh Riot Victims.
- Financial Assistance and other facilities to the families of affected civilian victims of terrorist violence including militancy, insurgency, communal/ Left Wing Extremism violence and cross border firing and victims of mine/IED blasts on Indian Territory.
- Grants-in-aid to the Central Tibetan Relief Committee.
- Grants-in-Aid to Government of West Bengal for infrastructure development in enclaves of returnees from erstwhile Indian enclaves in Bangladesh. (Under 100th Constitutional Amendment Act).
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