Modi sees India making a big contribution to ‘4th Industrial Revolution’

Sandeep Saxena

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“India was not independent when the first and second industrial revolution happened.When the third one happened, India was struggling with challenges of just attained independence” Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday allayed fears of job loss due to technological development, saying the ‘4th Industrial Revolution’ will change the nature of jobs and provide more opportunities. He was speaking at the launch of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The government was open to policy changes to help reap benefits of the ‘4th Industrial Revolution’. “Our diversity, our demographic potential, fast-growing market size and digital infrastructure have the potential to make India a global hub of research and implementation,” he said.

'India's contribution will be astonishing'

While the previous industrial revolutions eluded the country, India’s contribution to the ‘4th Industrial Revolution’ would be astonishing, he observed.

“India was not independent when the first and second industrial revolutions happened. When the third one happened, India was struggling with challenges of just attained independence,” he pointed out.

Artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things, blockchain and big data hold the potential to take India to new heights, he stated.

Reeling out his government's achievements, he said teledensity had increased to 93% and nearly 50 crore Indians now had mobile phones.

India was the largest mobile data consuming country in the world and also the one with the cheapest data rates. Mobile data consumption had increased 30 times in four years and over 120 crore Indians have Aadhaar, he said.

Work to connect all the 2.5 lakh village panchayats with optic fibre would be completed soon.In 2014, only 59 panchayats were connected with optic fibre, while presently 1 lakh were connected, he noted.