Nandan Nilekani, Co-founder and Chairman of Infosys Technologies, has said that India’s digital infrastructure will play a major role in reviving the economy. He was addressing FICCI members at the National Executive Committee Meeting on ‘Digital India and its Impact on Economy and Industry’ here on Monday.
He said that the country has witnessed dramatic transformation through Aadhaar-based e-KYC and online payments, adding that India’s digital data architecture will set the tone for business revival. “Once data becomes the basis for decision-making in many sectors, you will see a big change,” said Mr Nilekani.
“World over, data is becoming central to people and government. Data empowerment architecture in India will benefit all segments of the economy,” he said.
Mr Nilekani emphasised that Aadhaar e-KYC has been revolutionary in making life simpler for people and India now has the infrastructure to deal with direct benefits transfers (DBT) in any segment, adding that DBT can revive the power sector.
He also said that Goods and Services Tax (GST) has increased the number of taxpayers. “GSTN is a great example of technology-led cooperative federalism,” he said, and added that RFID tags linked to bank accounts is another big reform.
Earlier, addressing a session on ‘India’s Growing Bio Economy’, Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson, Biocon Ltd, said that the country’s bio-economy sector is set to reach $ 200 billion by 2030.
“Bio-economy is a crucial segment of our economy and the new government must focus on this in a big way,” she said.
Pointing out that in India, investment in research and development is less than 1 per cent of GDP, Ms Shaw said, “we must invest at least 2 per cent of our GDP in science, technology and research”, as per a release.
