Technologies like AI, 5G poised to transform many sectors: PM Modi

In a webinar today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on length about the transformative capabilities of new-age technologies and how they were playing a role in reshaping various sectors and government’s interactions with citizens. The webinar titled ‘Unleashing the Potential: Ease of Living Using Technology’ took place earlier today, February 28, and the PM discussed a wide range of issues that could be tackled with the help of technology including reducing compliance cost for small businesses, making tax system faceless and improving the grievance and redressal mechanisms.

PM Modi speaks on the role of technology in breaking barriers

Technology will help India achieve the target of becoming a developed nation by 2047, PM Modi said, as he mentioned the massive and modern digital infrastructure being created to ensure that benefits of digital revolution reach all citizens. He also mentioned that the government wants to reduce the cost of compliance of small businesses.

"We want to reduce the compliance cost of small businesses. Can you (industry) formulate a list of unnecessary compliances that can be pruned. We have finished 40,000 compliances," Modi said.

India is creating a modern digital infrastructure, and ensuring that benefits of digital revolution reach every section of the society, he noted.

Giving examples, he said technology is being used to make the tax system faceless to address problems of taxpayers.

Technologies like 5G and AI (Artificial Intelligence) are leading conversations now and poised to transform areas like medicine, education, agriculture, and many other sectors, Modi said adding technology formed the base of One Nation One Ration, and the JAM (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile number) trinity helped in giving benefits to the poor.

“Now between your grievances and the redressal there is no person, just technology," he said.

The prime minister urged stakeholders to identify 10 problem areas facing the common man which can be solved using AI. He said the 21st century is technology-driven, and one cannot restrict it to just digital, and internet technology.

"Every budget in the past few years has stressed the ease of living for people with the help of technology. In this year's budget also, the priority is given to technology and a human touch," he said.

He highlighted that the government interventions have now been reduced and citizens do not consider the government to be an obstacle. The prime minister asked various departments to collectively think about using technology for solving their problems and reaching global standards.

“Going a step further, we can identify the areas where dialogue with the government can be further eased," he added.

Further, he emphasized on the need to keep updating the training process under 'Mission Karmayogi' and highlighted that with modifications based on the feedback from the citizens, significant improvement can be witnessed.

PM Modi suggested creating a system where feedback can be easily shared to improve the training. He mentioned the Digilocker services for entities where companies and organizations can store their documents and also share them with government agencies. He suggested exploring ways to expand these services so that more people can benefit from them.

Highlighting the role of technology, Modi pointed out that it can help create a finished product that can help in capturing the global market.