With the aim to make India a $1 trillion digital economy over the next few years, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has chalked out a 1,000-day agenda.
This comes amid a change of guard, with Ashwini Vaishnaw being appointed as Union minister for electronics and IT, along with Rajeev Chandrasekhar as minister of state.
The goal of the initiative will be to make India the largest connected nation in the world, bringing coherence into digital governance, simplifying rules and legislations for technology and social media companies, and focusing on building India’s high-tech prowess.
“Our priority is connectivity – we want to make India the largest connected country in the world; the second issue is of digital government, everyone (all government departments and ministries) has apps and websites, but making them coherent to empower Indians is important,” a top government official said.
The source further added that the plan focuses on the expansion of the digital economy piece.
As per the new agenda, the other areas of importance are to make laws governing tech, social media and cyberspace “simple and world-class.”
The government wants to make sure that the internet in India is open, trusted, safe and accountable, and with minimal government interface, the official added.
Other areas identified include AI, Cyber Security, Super Computing, Semiconductors, Blockchain and Quantum Computing.
“Our focus is very clear. We are not going to do everything for everybody. We will focus on areas that we are good at as a nation and be globally competitive so we will pick those areas and focus on them,” the official said.
