Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar foresees digitalization boom

New Delhi [India], February 10 : The Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, on Friday emphasised the seismic shift towards digitalization, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Addressing the ET NOW Global Business Summit 2024, the Union Minister underscored the imperative for cultivating talent in cutting-edge domains like Artificial Intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and the future of the internet.
"The digitization of the world, post particularly post-Covid, the acceleration in that, digitalization is on the one hand and on the other hand the really deep tectonic changes in technology that are throwing up the opportunities and certainly new challenges are increasingly pointing to the need for more and more talented people in the areas like Artificial Intelligence (AI), semiconductors, the future of the internet and many of these areas and there is clearly a recognition amongst the countries of the world, corporate companies of the world," Chandrasekhar said.
He highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision since 2015 to harness India's demographic dividend by nurturing a highly skilled talent pool capable of capitalizing on opportunities both domestically and internationally.
"There is talent shortage and there are the opportunities are running far ahead on the talent front. It is being our Prime Minister's View from very early on since 2015 that we want to really take this demographic advantage that we have over young work force and to convert that into really potent highly talented and highly skilled force for opportunities in India and in abroad," Chandrasekhar said.
"And that is certainly we have been focused on, there is a clear change or a certain acceleration post-Covid in terms of what types of skills that are now being prioritize. There is more and more focus on future ready skills. Earlier the focus was on industry ready skills and so I think that our ambition and our goals of really in a sense becoming the skills hub or the skill talent hub for this new decade of technology opportunities. That is certainly the work that we are doing," the Union Minister added.
He also emphasized on shifting focus towards future-ready skills, noting a post-pandemic acceleration in prioritizing such competencies.
Responding to inquiries regarding the impact of AI on the job market, Chandrasekhar acknowledged its potential to both create and transform job roles.
"AI will create more and more opportunities in the work force in the terms of startups, enterprises, companies etc, it will certainly replace some jobs, it will transform some job roles and AI in its current form will certainly allow companies to do more with less," the Union Minister noted, adding that he foresees a dynamic evolution in employment landscapes.
Addressing concerns about internet safety and trust, Chandrasekhar underlined the government's proactive approach to regulation.
"We have since 2021 evolved a jurisprudence, evolved a framework of regulation that squarely ensures that the platforms and the intermediaries that we call it in our law are accountable for the safety and trust of the consumers of the internet," the Union Minister said, emphasising the government's commitment to safeguarding internet users.