The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
NEW DELHI, MAR 16, 2023
“With the launch of the Digital India Programme in 2015, a single dimensional, digital economy that we inherited in 2014 has become a broad-based, high growth digital economy having multiple asynchronous components that are all growing rapidly and creating innovation in their wake,” said Union Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Electronics & IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Thursday while inaugurating the India offices of Salesforce and Truecaller in Hyderabad and Bengaluru respectively.
Chandrasekhar was virtually addressing the inauguration of the offices of these global technology companies from New Delhi.
Speaking about India’s rise as preeminent nation in the use of technology, the Minister said, “For long India was known as a back office to the world, with our digital economy defined by the presence of number of companies in the IT/ITeS space. After the Prime Minister took over in 2014, he envisioned the digital economy to play a larger and a more expansive role in the India growth story and be a larger part of the emerging India GDP.”
The Minister said that the policies of Narendra Modi Government on ease of doing business have helped New India’s manufacturing & startup ecosystem and encouraged global companies to open offices here, which in turn, will bring in opportunities for jobs and entrepreneurships for young Indians.
Welcoming the move by Salesforce and Truecaller to open their India offices in Hyderabad and Bengaluru respectively, the Minister said, “This speaks of India’s growth as a trusted technology partner to the world that has been made possible, thanks to the Government’s proactive policies and our vibrant startup and innovation ecosystem.”
At the Salesforce event, Chandrasekhar said that the active presence of the global major in India is expected to generate significantly large number of jobs and opportunities and be an important of part of the India Techade story.
India today has made a mark in electronics manufacturing, emerging as a production power and boasts of world class startup and innovation ecosystem, the third largest in the world, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar added.
The Minister also spoke about the efforts of the Government to create a skilled workforce in Industry relevant Future ready skills. Sharing about the new Skilling initiative announced in the Union Budget 2023, Chandrasekhar said, “The PMKVY 4.0 is a scheme designed to deal with the post Covid opportunities and challenges and will cover new age courses on Industry 4.0 like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills.”
Referring to the vision of Prime Minister to make India a Talent Hub for the world, the Minister said, “A roadmap is being developed in co-partnership with industry, academia and R&D Institutions for the development of skill and talent in the country.” He cited the example of recently released Future Skills report that aims to train 85,000 semiconductor engineers, designers and other support talent over the next four years as per the latest requirements of the Industry.
At the office inauguration of Truecaller, first outside its headquarters in Sweden, Chandrasekhar spoke about the need to support the good of technology while regulating the bad by laying down guardrails.
The Minister said, “We are designing and architecting new legislation and new rules that will provide the guardrails, enablers and catalysts for India’s innovation ecosystem for the coming decade.”
