India aims to digitise 20 per cent of GDP by 2025-26: Rajeev Chandrasekhar 

India's Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, has announced the country's ambitious plans for digital transformation.

Speaking at the recently-concluded global AI summit in London, Chandrasekhar highlighted India's significant progress in digitising its economy over the past eight years, from 4.5 per cent to about 20 per cent of total GDP by 2025-26.

As of now, 11 per cent of India's GDP is digitised. "The digital economy and the innovation economy are growing 2.5 or three times faster than the non-digital part of the GDP," ANI quoted Chandrasekhar as saying.

International digital ministers, technology leaders, esteemed academics, and representatives from civil society gathered for the two-day summit. They discussed the shared risks arising from emergent AI technology and potential mitigation strategies.

Chandrasekhar emphasised the importance of international collaboration and dialogues between countries, asserting their crucial role in shaping the future of technology.

"The future of tech, whether it be innovation, partnerships, or institutional framework for regulating technology, should be driven by a coalition of nations rather than just one or two countries," media reports quoted him as saying.

Chandrasekhar also stressed the significance of digital advancements as real objectives and described artificial intelligence as a catalyst that can accelerate growth, governance, and the digital economy.

(With inputs from agencies)