India’s ICT strategy hinges on inclusive growth for all sections of society: Union Minister Devusinh Chauhan
Author: BI Bureau
New Delhi: Union Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan has said that with its unprecedented scale and growing impact on daily lives, information and communication technology (ICT) is nowadays, a powerful tool for a more inclusive, resilient and prosperous society. “We need greater solidarity to move forward. The WSIS community has, collectively, the expertise and the resources to help us accelerate progress on the SDGs,” he said.
The Minister participated in the Ministerial Round Table Meeting on ICT for Well-Being, Inclusion and Resilience: WSIS Cooperation for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs. This session was organised on the sidelines of World Summit of Information Society (WSIS) 2022. The WSIS is being organized by the International Telecommunications Unions (ITU) at its headquarter in Geneva, Switzerland from 30th May to 3rd June, 2022.
He further said that India believes in the principle of Antyodaya, which means development of people at the bottom of the pyramid, the marginalized people, living in far flung areas and cut off from the mainstream. For development of reliable ICT infrastructure, six hundred thousand villages are being connected through optical fiber cable. Through use of satellite communication services and submarine cable networks, small and remote islands and other inaccessible areas are being connected.
While speaking at a High Level Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence, Devusinh said: “India, being one of the fastest-growing economies, has a significant stake in the AI revolution, given its disruptive nature and potential to transform economies.” The ‘High level Dialogue from the lab to the real world: Artificial Intelligence and the decade action’, was also organised as part of WSIS 2022 to discuss issues pertaining to AI and allied sectors.
During the high level dialogue in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Chauhan apprised the participants about the policy initiatives taken by the Government of India to mobilize this emerging sector. He mentioned India's national strategy for artificial intelligence which has formulated the way forward to harness the power of AI in various fields especially in healthcare, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure, and smart mobility and transportation.
Chauhan said that India is one of the largest telecom networks in the world with one of the most affordable telecom services. Last year, the Government of India announced path breaking reforms in the telecom sector to further boost the growth of telecom industry; promote healthy competition and enhance the penetration of broadband and telecom connectivity. These reforms will usher a new era for the sector and will encourage investment by the industry. /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.
