Union Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Electronics & IT, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, today interacted with Shri Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev in a fireside chat during the 12th edition of ISHA INSIGHT, centered around the theme “The DNA of Success 2023” in Coimbatore.
The discussions revolved around India’s transformative journey since 2014, where it has forged a path to transform lives, democracy, and governance through the use of technology. As a former chip designer and a successful entrepreneur who founded India’s earliest and largest cellular network, including the one in Tamil Nadu — BPL Mobile, Minister Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar emphasized that India has come a long way since independence.
The Minister said, “I evangelize technology for the good. I have spent about 30-35 years. As a veteran of tech, I can tell you that the starting point of this journey is what the Hon’ble Prime Minister outlined as his goal for technology in 2015-16. Unlike any other leader in the world who views it As an area of innovation, creating wealth, and opportunity, he laid out his objectives —- that technology must transform the lives of the people, and it must transform our democracy, that technology must transform governance. People ask me to talk about tech in the context of India. I say that there is no nation on the planet where tech is transforming the lives of 1.2 billion people daily, in and out, on a very fundamental basis. I think that is the story of Indian tech and how, over the last 9 years, we have created a digital economy that is now innovating, creating innovation, unicorns, and startups”
Reflecting on his past experiences as a parliamentarian, Minister Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar underlined India’s emergence as a trusted global partner over the past 9 years despite all the skepticism.
“Just looking at the capabilities of our country today, where we are now, I have no doubt that in the future, India will shape itself alongside countries like Japan, the US, the UK, and Europe. But we will certainly not be the mute spectators we were 14-15 years ago. Technology will also pose a threat, and this has been demonstrated in a manner where even the smallest countries around the world are looking to India and saying, “Can we take that technology from you in an open-source manner, so that we can also implement it and create the same kind of ecosystem?” the Minister added.
In line with the statements made by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi regarding the dangers posed by deepfakes, Minister Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar reaffirmed the commitment of the Government of India to create guardrails in order to keep the internet safe and trusted for all digital nagriks.
“I think we are at an inflection point. We are at the cusp of something that can be extremely beautiful, big, and inclusive if we allow this to continue. But we have to be careful; with everything tech, there is harm, there is criminality, there are bad actors. Using deepfakes is just tremendously easy today. AI can make a video look authentic. Therefore, this is a very important Issue for us. We will soon roll out a standard operating procedure. We also foresee a future where we will make the complaint and the FIR process completely digital. While we make the complaint process digital, we will also ensure that the government is a party to the complaint. This will help in the prosecution of the complaint and will not leave any citizen to fend for themselves. The Hon’ble Prime Minister, Narendra Modi ji, saw this coming in October of last year. He saw the power of misinformation,” the Minister further added.
