Technology would help India achieve the target of becoming a developed nation by 2047 and the Union Budget 2023 has given priority to “technology and a human touch”, creating equal opportunities for everyone, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a post-budget webinar on Tuesday.
The webinar on ‘Unleashing the Potential: Ease of Living Using Technology’ was the fifth in a series of 12 post-budget webinars organised by the government to seek ideas and suggestions for the effective implementation of the initiatives announced in the Union Budget 2023.
During his address, the PM said that technology was creating equal opportunities for everyone and the government was investing heavily in the same direction.
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“Along with creating modern digital infrastructure, the government is ensuring that the benefits of digital infrastructure reach everyone equally. Along with this, they (government) are also ensuring that the benefits of digital revolution reach every section of the society,” he said.
“Today, the GeM (Government e Marketplace) portal has given this opportunity to even small shopkeepers or street vendors from far-flung places to sell their products directly to the government. e-NAM (National Agriculture Market) has given farmers an opportunity to connect with buyers from different places. Now farmers can get the best price for their produce while staying in one place,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Today, the GeM (Government e Marketplace) portal has given this opportunity to even small shopkeepers or street vendors from far-flung places to sell their products directly to the government. e-NAM (National Agriculture Market) has given farmers an opportunity to connect with buyers from different places. Now farmers can get the best price for their produce while staying in one place,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“Technology became the basis of One Nation-One Ration Card and due to this it was ensured that crores of poor people get ration transparently. And others who are migrant laborers. For migrant labourers, it has become a great blessing,” the PM said.
“Technology, Jan Dhan account, Aadhaar and mobile all these three made it possible to send money directly to the bank accounts of crores of poor. In the same way, technology, Aarogya Setu and Covin app became an important tool for it and this helped a lot in tracing and vaccination during Corona,” the PM added.
“We can see today that technology has made railway reservation more modern and the headache of the common man has been removed in this. The network of the Common Service Center is also connecting the poorest of the poor with government services with the help of technology. By taking many such decisions, our government has increased the ease of living of the countrymen,” the PM added while highlighting how technology had benefited the government to achieve goals.
Citing examples of the use of technology in the government, the PM mentioned the Digilocker services for entities where companies and organisations can store their documents and also share them with government agencies. He suggested exploring ways to expand these services so that more people can benefit from them. He also remarked that government interventions had now been reduced and citizens did not consider the government to be an obstacle while urging various departments to collectively think about using technology for solving their problems and reaching global standards.
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He emphasised on the need to keep updating the training process under ‘Mission Karmayogi’ and highlighted that with modifications based on the feedback from the citizens, significant improvement can be witnessed.
Further while referring to 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) and their impact on industry, medicine, education and agriculture, the Prime Minister emphasised the need to set a few specific goals and sought for identification of 10 such problems of the society by AI. The PM also said that several significant steps had been taken by the government to support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and stressed the need to brainstorm and identify the obstacles faced by MSMEs.