India could be a $3 trillion digi economy in the next 4-5 years:Ravi Shankar Prasad

MUMBAI: Delivering the keynote address at the fifth edition of the Times Network’s Digital India Summit, Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister for Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology, highlighted the key contributing factors in achieving the $1 trillion digital dream.
“India could be a $3 trillion (digital) economy in the next four to five years. That is the goal we have set. Digital India is designed to empower ordinary Indians. Our idea is to make India the biggest manufacturing hub in electronics with 1crore employment in the electronics sector and 35-40 lakhs in the software sector,” said Prasad.

Prasad added that there was a time when India had only two companies making mobile phones — and today, the country is home to 127 mobile manufacturers. India is now second only to China in mobile phone manufacturing. “India has become the second largest startup movement in the world with the valuation of Unicorn is higher than in the UK.”

Prasad added that the digital initiatives have empowered nearly 1.5 crore students with e-scholarships worth .`5,000. He also said that while in November 2016, there were only 4,000 transactions per day on BHIM UPI app, the number went up to over 2 crore transactions per day in December 2018, which is being propelled by people living in smaller cities.

Other prominent speakers at the summit, which took place in New Delhi on Tuesday, include Deep Kalra, group CEO, MakeMyTrip; Upasana Taku, CEO, Mobikwik; Tarun Katial, CEO, ZEE5, Amanpreet Bajaj, country manager, Airbnb; Dinesh Kumar Garg, executive director, Union Bank of India; Amit Malviya, IT chief, BJP; Vineet Arora, MD, Aegon Life Insurance Company; Rajan Mathew, director general, COAI and Nath Parameswaran, India director, Paypal.

Their speeches and dicussions brought into focus issues facing key sectors and industries in the digital economy, including e-campaigning, ehealth, ecommerce, digital payments, e-food entertainment and travel.

“With a view to bring public attention to efforts underway in driving the world’s fastest growing major digital economy, Digital India Summit unveils India’s $1 Trillion Digital Economy dream, addressing possibilities and challenges across key domains that are critical components in digital transformation,” said MK Anand, MD & CEO, Times Network. Times Network is part of BCCL, which also publishes The Economic Times.