India Global Forum: India Stack To Evolve As Partners Increase, Says Rajeev Chandrasekhar
As more countries approach India Stack, "we will modulate our strategy and evolve the partnerships for that," Chandrasekhar said.
The India Tech Stack, developed to streamline governance with the help of technology, can help countries of varying scale to climb the digitalisation ladder, according to the Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
"India Stack today represents an opportunity for the Global South—countries that, in a sense, have been left behind or have not been able to afford the digitisation that other advanced nations have been able to invest in," said Chandrasekhar during a session at the second edition of the India Global Forum in the U.A.E., on Tuesday.
"For the first time, the ability for small and large countries who have been kept away from technology, digitalisation opportunity to rapidly climb up that ladder and deliver to their citizens and government the benefits of technology (is there)," he said.
Answering a question on how India Stack will be offered at the nation's G20 Presidency, Chandrasekhar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced sharing tech capabilities with partners to benefit from it. "We will, of course, involve private sector, entrepreneurs and startups to make that happen."
As more and more countries show interest in India Stack, "we will modulate our strategy and evolve the partnerships for that," he said.
Praising the speed at which India Stack was developed and executed, Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama, U.A.E. minister for artificial intelligence, digital economy and remote work applications, suggested scaling it to continent-level operations. "I don't think there is a reason why the African continent can't use this Stack within itself as well as in certain countries amongst themselves."
"Maybe there is going to be some requirement for lobbying, for explaining what happens on this front. One thing we're doing is looking at lessons learnt from India Tech Stack and seeing how we can move aggressively in the U.A.E. to have a similar solution," Al Olama said.
Speaking on the recent FTX meltdown and India's reaction to it, Chandrasekhar said that he is not in favour of strongly regulating technological advances.
"We, in India, are building that framework, which is not to say we'll strongly regulate. We will lay out these boundary conditions of openness, safety, trust and accountability, which will allow true innovators to flourish," he said.
Discussing the scope of the 12-year-old Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between India and U.A.E., Chandrasekhar said he would avoid restricting such corridors with parameters regarding what can be exchanged through them.
"We will continue to expand the opportunity and make it more diverse in terms of technology and innovation in India. Move from consumer tech to semiconductors, electronics, AI and blockchain, but also have these really intensive partnerships between U.A.E and India, India and other countries built around these corridors where data can flow, innovation can flow, and ideas and products and devices can flow out of these partnerships," Chandrasekhar said.