India can become a world leader in technology, ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) to semiconductor chips once it reaches the status of third-largest economy in the world, Union minister of electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
“Imagine what India can do when we become the third-largest economy in the world, how much economic muscle we would have to do so many new things,” he said. “Our own supercomputing chip, semiconductor fab, AI models, infrastructure – on every point, we can be really good world leaders.”
The minister was addressing the Fintech Festival India 2024 in New Delhi.
India is expected to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2027, and is currently the world’s fifth-largest economy.
Vaishnaw added that the discourse around the world is now of India as a top five ‘bright spot’ and a growth engine, with positive outlooks from international organisations such as the IMF, World Bank, Jeffries, etc.
The country has also progressed from importing 98% of mobile phones 10 years ago to having around 99% of mobile phones made locally, Vaishnaw noted. Further, India saw $11 billion in electronics exports last year, which could become $50-60 billion in the future. Electronics manufacturing has generated 10 lakh jobs, which could increase to 25 lakhs in the coming years, he said.
India has also seen a revolution in startups in the past 10 years, with 1.2 lakh startups now compared with less than 700 a decade ago. Digitisation and simplification of laws and compliances have made doing business easier, Vaishnaw said.
“This is India’s decade,” the minister said, adding the coming years will be a defining period as India aims to become ‘Viksit Bharat’ (developed India) by 2047.
He highlighted the government’s welfare programmes and reforms, expansion of Digital India, infrastructure development under Gati Shakti, and direct benefit transfers to citizens which has removed around 10 crore fraud beneficiaries saving Rs 2.75 lakh crore.
