India rapidly digitised its economy in last eight years: MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar

London [UK], November 1 : Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said India has rapidly digitised its economy in the last eight years.
The MoS said the country has moved the needle on the digital economy from about 4.5 per cent of the total GDP to a target of 20 per cent by 2025-26 and is at 11 per cent today.
"India has rapidly digitised its economy in the last eight years, we have moved the needle on the digital economy from about 4.5 per cent of the total GDP to a target of 20 per cent by 2025-26. We are at about 11 per cent today but the digital economy and the innovation economy are growing 2.5 or 3 times faster than the non-digital part of the GDP," the MoS for Electronics and Information Technology said during the global AI summit hosted by Britain.
The delegates included international digital ministers, technology sector leaders, top academics and civil society representatives. They discussed shared risks from emerging AI technology and explored mitigations.
Chandrasekhar said the Indian government has maintained that International collaboration "such as this (Global AI summit), international conversations between countries, are extremely important as we move forward to shaping the future of tech at a time and in a year where technology is certainly throwing up the most exciting opportunities ever in the history of mankind.
The Global AI Summit is a conference that brings together policymakers, investors, and innovators to discuss AI. The summit explores the state of AI, investment cases, commitments, and governance.
Chandrasekhar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi "has argued for several years that the future of tech, whether it be innovation, whether it be partnerships or indeed the institutional framework for regulating the technology and innovation for the common good of all humans and all mankind should be driven by a coalition of nations rather than just one country or two countries and that the institutional framework should be less episodic and a lot more sustained and with strategic clarity."
He said: "So for us, all things digital represent real bread and butter, real goals and real objectives and artificial intelligence is a kinetic enabler of the already accelerating digital economy, growth and governments."
The UK and its global partners on Wednesday announced an 80 million pound project for funding artificial intelligence projects around the world, beginning in Africa.
The announcement was made on the first day of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety Summit that began today at the historic British technological landmark, Bletchley Park, near London.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar is representing India at the two-day summit.
The 80 million pounds (USD 100 million) funding is the result of a collaboration between Britain, Canada and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to boost "safe and responsible" programming, according to the UK Foreign Office.
The UK AI for Development Programme will contribute 38 million pounds to the collaboration which shows the UK investing in partnerships that are using cutting-edge technology to solve global challenges.