The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi today addressed seventh webinar in the series of post-budget webinars to consult and encourage stakeholders to fully implement the themes of the budget in a time bound manner. “This is a collaborative effort to ensure how, in the light of budget, can we implement the provisions quickly, seamlessly and with optimum outcome”, he said explaining he rationale of these webinars.
The Prime Minister emphasized 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 advance 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”, said the Prime Minister. He talked of President Biden’s latest address to underline the importance of Aatmnirbharta as developed countries like the USA are also talking about this. “In the light of emerging new global systems, it is critical that we move forward with a focus on Aatmnirbharta”, he said.
Shri 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.
Referring to the dictum ‘Science is Universal and Technology is Local’, the Prime Minister said “We are familiar with the principles of science, but we have to emphasize 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.
Noting the expanding global market for gaming, the 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 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”, Prime Minister Modi said.
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. “A portal has also been proposed for skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling of youth in the budget. With this, youth will get the right jobs and opportunities through API based trusted skill credentials, payment and discovery layers”, the Prime Minister informed.
The 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. The 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.
