Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the present adversity of global pandemic should be turned to the country's advantage.
He said that, unlike the industrial era, the information age provides the country's tech industry with immense opportunities.
"’The amount of tech adoption that would not have happened in a decade, happened in just a few months. Working from anywhere has become the norm and is going to stay. We will see a high degree of tech adoption in the fields of education, health, shopping and more,’’ said Modi as he declared the 23rd Bangalore Tech Summit 2020 open.
The Prime Minister said digital technology and tech solutions have enabled his government to support farmers, social security schemes and ensured that the poor in the country receive quick assistance during lockdown.
“Technology is the prime reason our schemes have gone beyond files and changed the life of people at such speed and scale. Today, when we are able to help the poor build their home at an unprecedented scale, speed and transparency, it is thanks to technology,” he pointed out.
India at present has more than 750 million internet users, of which almost half were added in the past four years.
According to Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an autonomous body under the federal Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the IT sector was worth INR 4,800 billion ($56.7 billion approximately) from exports during 2019-20.
At a recent webinar, the boss of STPI, Omkar Rai, said that even during the lockdown period, exports of IT-related services from Karnataka was INR 364.6 billion (over $4.9 billion) during the first three months from March, 2020.