AADHAR, UPI, Aarogya Setu and CoWin App have been India’s incredible success towards digitization in financial and healthcare sector: Himanshu Kapania
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New Delhi: AADHAR, UPI, Aarogya Setu and CoWin App have been India’s incredible success towards digitization in financial and healthcare sector, said Himanshu Kapania, Vice Chairman, Grasim and Director Telecom, Aditya Birla Management Corporation, and Chair, BBC Working Group on Digital Economy (India) at the BRICS Business Forum here.
“India aims to develop digitization of healthcare with an exchange program among BRICS nations to support and implement health monitoring and use of AI in drug development,” he said, while addressing the session on ‘Leveraging Digital Technologies for Better Governance and Higher Growth’ here recently.
“The world’s largest biometric system AADHAR, the instant payment system UPI, the Aarogya Setu and the CoWin Apps have been India’s incredible success towards digitization in financial and healthcare sector,” he said.
The BRICS Business Forum, one of the key events organised by the BRICS Business Council, offers a platform for members of the BRICS Business Community to discuss and deliberate on key economic cooperation areas and make recommendations on intra-BRICS trade and industry issues.
Daniel Stivelberg, Data Protection Officer and Government Relations Manager, BRASSCOM, Association of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Digital Technologies Companies (Brazil), said, “We are contributing to the modernization of the country and adding to the enhancement of business while protecting personal data. Digital growth in the year 2020 has been spectacular due to the increase in usage of digital technology, giving rise to the use of AI and internet connectivity. This has led to massive use of E-commerce platforms used by public which enhances business and data thereby creating a mechanism for better governance and enhanced cooperation.”
Anna Nesterova, Chairperson, Global Rus Trade, Russia, said: “Even though the last year has been difficult due to the pandemic, we are looking for the possibility of collaboration with India as we have increased our trade within the country ports. We want to establish collaboration in the highly advanced mining field, particularly high-value metals. The retail sector has increased globally due to the high use of the internet as many people are shifting for buying online. Digital traffic has increased manifold due to the use of the internet, and we believe our digital economy will be on par with the developed world soon.”
Tushar Parikh, TCS Country Head Brazil and BFSI Head Latin America, Tata Consultancy Services (India), said, “Digitization has been most impactful than any other revolution the world has seen in the past. It is empowering people, societies, and nations. India is a diverse society, with 2/3rd of the people living in rural areas with a large young population. The government is trying their best to transform the digital lifecycle through connected ecosystem solutions in areas like education, healthcare, agriculture and more. Ayushman Bharat and other such national initiatives have given a unique identity and regional platform enabling transparency and active participation of the citizens.”
MENG Shusen, Chairman and President, China Unicom Global Ltd, said, “All BRICS nations must expand cooperation and reach a consensus on building a robust digital economy. Digitization of essential services will hugely benefit citizens in each country.” Phuti Mahanyele-Dabengwa, Chief Executive Officer, Naspers (South Africa) Ltd, said: “We need to now focus on digitally enabled business platforms which will be the next growth driver as the acceleration of AI is transforming people’s lives and investors.” /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
