LET’S go invent tomorrow, instead of worrying about what happened yesterday”. This was said by Steve Job, a trailblazer in technology and the founder of Apple. Though not a technocrat himself, what Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing with his big push to technology, innovation and modernisation, is similarly going to yield spectacular dividends in the future.
The small steps being taken today are bound to lead to a giant leap for India’s growth and development. These include events like the one recently organised at Gandhinagar, in Gujarat,– SemiconIndia 2023. The conclave was attended by several big companies from India and abroad, including start-ups, who brainstormed with experts and policymakers on how to make India a hub for semiconductor manufacturing.
The cynics may dismiss this as a far-fetched dream but, as George Bernard Shaw had said, “You see things and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were, and I say, ‘Why not?’” It is this ‘why not’ which PM Modi inspires us to aspire for with his audacious dreams. Inaugurating the SemiconIndia 2023, he said today’s world, recovering from the impact of the Covid pandemic and reeling under the RussiaUkraine war, needs a supplier-partner who can be relied upon for help even in bad conditions. For this, who can be a better, and a more reliable partner, than India, the largest democracy?
In India, all-round infrastructure development is taking place rapidly in every field. The country has a wealth of talent and a pool of skilled engineers and designers who are not only transforming India but also leading top companies across the world. India today talks not only of ‘Make-in-India’, but Make-in-India-forthe-World. That’s because India believes in the mantra of ‘world welfare’ and ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’.
There was a time when people used to think several times before investing in India, but today, when India is the biggest market, the whole world is looking towards it to solve several of its problems. From space to weapon manufacturing, India is fast on its way to becoming self-reliant and a hub of growth. Its investments in research and development are beginning to show good results. Last week a new, light-weight and fully indigenous MRI scanner, ready to be deployed for clinical diagnosis, was launched by Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh. The scanner has been developed by a Bengaluru-based company with funding from the Government’s Department of Biotechnology.
India’s success with digital payments, its backbone of Unified Payments Interface (UPI); its deployment of technology for education, whether it is through Government’s own Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) through the Swayam platform or connecting all education institutions through the National Knowledge Network; the work being done by the office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government on several technology frontiers such as AI-enabled services or smart manufacturing and quantum computing, the glittering work of technology is evident in every field.
As the Prime Minister assured everyone at Semicon on behalf of the country, that by choosing India as the place where they want to build their future, they had linked their future with India’s aspirations. Indeed, India’s democracy and demography will yield rich dividends for every business in the future.
