The Narendra Modi led government is trying hard to improve the digital economy of the country with aims to create a trillion dollar economy in few years, the Minister for Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, has said. Prasad was delivering the inaugural address at the three-day CyFy 2016, the India conference on Internet Governance and Cyber Security, organised by Observer Research Foundation (ORF) every year in Delhi.
Arguably the most promising internet market in the world, India has attracted over $20 billion of global venture capital, primarily from Silicon Valley. The Chinese are expected to add billions more to this pool.
India is the third hottest startup nation in the world— just behind the US and the UK, with over 4,000 startups.
India also has the largest user base for Facebook, Google and WhatsApp.
The minister, who is spearheading the Digital India, one of the dream projects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the mobile penetration has already crossed the billion (1.03) mark. He further notified that the government is of the firm view that Digital India can empower the poor and underprivileged in a big way, helping them in their overall economic growth.
While India is already in the forefront in the IT software area, the government is also working on to strengthen the IT hardware industry, the minister said adding many mobile manufacturers are setting up manufacturing units in the country. Last year, nearly 40 million phones were manufactured in India
The minister said the government is committed to see that India do not miss out in the Digital Revolution, pointing out that how the country had lost out, missing the Industrial Revolution.
By Baishakhi Dutta
