INDIA@

100
LEAD STORY

CGOUNTRY
What it will take for India
to get there by 2047
By RAJCHENGAPPA

he Metaverse. The idea belonged in science fiction and cyber cul-

ture imaginations till Mark Zuckerberg made it the new handle
of his colossal digital empire. The nomenclature stood for an ex-
pansive network of interconnected digital universes that could,
conceivably, virtually enhance physical reality while physically
transforming virtual reality. Sounds like gobbledygook? Here's
the simple explanation. Right now, despite the fabulous advances
in technology, we largely rely on 2D interface communication—
the kind you see on Zoom or MS Teams. You have virtual meetings, but not the sense
of shared physical space. What happens when you are finally able to make real eye
contact and read body language? Why, you could even do a beam-me-up-Scotty
kind of thing, and teleport your digital avatar to a factory to inspect it or try out
new clothes at a shop. What you will need is 3D communication technology. It is in
the making and you will have to wait for it, not till 2047, when India celebrates 100
years of its Independence, but till 2027—just four years from now.
What you could have in 2047 is
4D communication technology. It
promises to make life more comfort-
able and exciting. Imagine having
4D maps to help autonomous (driv-
erless) vehicles navigating roads or
flight paths, ensuring zero collision
and the fastest commute. Or your
own robotic exoskeleton—a whole
body suit a la Iron Man—which
responds to your thoughts and uses
the power of machines to augment
physical capabi . Shaky hand,
did you say? Your exoskeleton will
hold your glass for you so that you
do not spill anything. And tha
only a simple task, it can follow
much more complex commands.
A quantum leap in computing,
communications and extraordi-
nary human creativity have led to
a convergence of technologies that
is making possible what was once
considered impossible.
Welcome to the Brave All-New
World. Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, in his Independence Day
address this year, called the next 24
years Amrit Kaal (auspicious period)
and urged citizens to collectively
work towards transforming India
intoa developed nation by 2047.
However, the definition of a devel-
oped India@100 is vastly different
from the conventional yardstick
currently employed to categorise a
developed country. Today, it not only
means a country that has sustain-
able cconomic growth with a robust
and efficient transport and commu-
nications infrastructure. It neces-
sarily entails a well-rounded human
development index, reflecting a uni-
formly high standard of living with a
healthy and well-educated citizenry.
We must also aim for high per capita
incomes averaging $20,000 (nearly
Rs16.7 lakh) annually or more. India
currently has a per capita income of
$2,400 (Rs 2 lakh), which, accord-
ing to the World Bank standard,
12 | INDIATODAY | AUGUST
28, 2023
puts us in the class of lower-middle-
income economies, where the per
capita income ranges from $1,136 to
$4,465 (approximately Rs 94,400~
Rs 3.7 lakh). We are, therefore, in
the same boat as Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka and Pakistan. The per capita
income in China, whose GDP at 818
trillion is nearly six times India’s
$3.4 trillion and whose population
has now become second to ours, is
$12,800 (approx. Rs 10.6 lakh). That
places it in the upper-middle-income
category but not in the league of
developed nations.
hat works in India’s fa-
vour is what PM Modi
identified as a trinity
of Ds—demography,
democracy and diversity. From
being the fifth-largest economy
in the world, he is confident that
India will become the third-largest
before 2030, going past Japan and
Germany. Around this time, China
may overtake the US'GDP of an
estimated $28 trillion and emerge
as the world's largest economy. But
as both India and China demon-
strate, the sheer size of an economy
does not determine its status as a
developed country.
So, what will it take for India to
become a truly developed country
when it completes 100 years of
Independence on August 15, 20477
There is no way we can achieve tion as its permanent fate.
this exalted status with business as Let’s start with Communications.
usual. Instead, the country will need India can take pride in the fact that
arevolution in 10 key sectors—En- its average cost of Rs 14 for 1GB of
ergy, Transport, Communications, mobile internet data is among the
Agriculture, Defence, Health, Edu- lowest in the world. Users in the U:
cation, E-governance, Ii-commerce in comparison, pay 39 times more
and Computing. Driven by rapid and those in the UK 4.5x what we do.
technological innovations, each of Also to its credit, India has moved
these major fields is undergoing quickly to be in lockstep with ad-
dramatic changes. If India does not vanced nations in the introduction of
keep abreast of, and adapt to, these 5G telecom networks. However, the
developments, it will be left far be- real test will come with next genera-
hind, with exploitation and depriva- tion telephony—6G. It is designed

> - 4
PM Narendra Modi, 10 be 100 times faster than 5G and
1o handle enormous mmount of data
in his Independence transmission without any latency.
Day speech this Tts coming will trunsform the way
year, highlighted we communicate at woek, home and
play. Among its uses will be guiding
India's advantages autanomons cars, enabling ‘teleport-
in terms of a trinity ing’ to remote locations in addition to
of Ds—demography, hologram meetings that will combine
the physical with the virtual, India
democracy and could use it for digitising its land
diversity records—a major source of disputes
as well as corruption—by providing
4D images. It will also vastly improve
E-governance, especially the delivery
of public services in rural areas while
fucilitating speedier and secure E-
commerce—anather major engine of
economic growth.
To do all this and more, among the
technologics India will have to master
is quantum computing, which can
process infoemation a thousand tinws
faster than the conventional hinary
trunsistors. Such superfast processors
will revolutionise the banking, health
and defence sectors. India will also
need mission-scale effort from both
government and industry to noquire
leadership in Artificinl Intelligenee
(AL The prowess of Chat G has al-
ready captured the popular imagina-
tion, but this is just the beginning, It
is encouraging that Indian companies
are among the workd leaders in Al
Mumbai-based Fractal Analytics, for
instance, is working with more than
150 Fortune 500 companies,
In addition, India will have to
plug into other emerging technolo-
gies such as Light Fidelity or LiFi.
Unlike W hat uses radio fre-
queney, LiFi harnesses the photons
emitted by LED to transmit data at
14 times the speed and eliminates the
need for electronic deviees like rout-
ers und modems, Meanwhile, satellite
internet facilities provided by Bharti
Global, which has a constellation of
634 low earth orbit satellites, could
provide high-speed connectivity to
remate areas, promising to transform
rural India. The country, however,
Incks mastery in semiconductor chips
and urgently needs to develop indig-
enous competence. In shoet, what we
need to build in the next two decades
is a powerful Indiaverse,
Encrgy comes next, Currently,
India imparts
as much as 85 per cent
of its crude oil requirement and spest
Rs 15 lakh crore,or close to 4 per cent
ofits GDP, in 2022-23 on this. That's
unsustainable both in terms of finan-
cinl costs and given the worldwide
AUGUST 25, 2023 | INDIA TODAY | 13
 e
environmental constraints on the
use of fossil fuels. Under the Paris
Climate Change agreement, India
has committed to reduce the carbon
intensity of'its economy by at least
45 per cent by 2030 compared to
2005 levels n to ensuring
that 50 per cent of its cumulative
electric power installed capacity will
be from non-fossil fuel-based energy
far, wind, solar power
and biofuels are the main renewable
energy sources that India is bank-
ing on. But the game-changer could
come in the form of Green Hydro-
gen, with India launching a mission
to make the country a global hub for
its production, use and export. Green
Hydrogen is produced using the high
school principle of electroly s, which
employs an electrical current to
break down water molecules to hy-
drogen and oxygen using electrodes.
Its costs are currently prohibitive,
but big firms worldwide, including
Indian giants like Reliance, Adani
and L&T, are working towards low-
ering them.
nd with the transport
sector intrinsi Iy linked
to energy, India will have
to master other critical
technologies for it to make the leap
to an advanced economy. Lithium
batteries, for instance, are the best
alternative to conventional lead
acid batteries not only because they
charge much faster but also because
they can store higher amounts of
energy in similar volume, thereby
lasting longer before needing
charges. That is the reason why
of choice in Elect
soon replacing petrol and d
engines, which have seriou
emission concerns. NITI Aayog
estimates that there will be a 50-fold
increase in the domestic demand
for advanced chemical cell batteries
14 | INDIATODAY | AUGUS
by the end of this decade—both for
EVs and also for storage on elec-
tricity grids using solar and wind
power. Globally, China is the big
boy of batteries, accounting for 70
per cent of the world’s manufactur-
g capacity. India needs to move
i discovered mineable
lithium in Kashmir, but has yet to
master the technology to manuf:
ture such batteries at a commere
level. Especially if the goal is to make
30 per cent of all private cars and 80
per cent of two- and three-wheelers
totally electric by 2030.
“The other imperative for India is
sport to transform
for instance,
Vande Bha
0f160 kmph. In comparison, Jag
Shinkansen or bullet train can travel
at 320 kmph, or almost twice the
speed. With India tying up with
Japan for the 500-km Mumbai-
Ahmedabad rail corridor, the first
Indian Shinkansen to roll out in 2027
will cut travel time between these two
commercial hubs from seven hours
to a mere two. India will need many
more such high-speed trains, but
made in igenously to meet the mas-
sive demand for faster rail traffic.
When it comes to roads, Nitin
Gadkari, the Union minister for
transport, has done a commendable
job of adding over 50,000 km length
of highways in the nine years of the
Modi government. However, the For equal, quality and
daily average of 350 km that Indian
truckers traverse is still half
of what
affordable access toall,
their counterparts in the US are able India will have to build
to do. In addition to reducing tolls, awholeIndiaversein
India needs intelligently controlled
highways that provide real ime data
24 years, with cutting-
on snarl-ups and accidents and help edge communication
unclog ro s for speedy travel. and computing
Aatmanirbharta, or self-
is what India needs in its food and
technology powering
defence sectors too. There cannot its growth engines
be a greater irony than the fact that
while the country is the largest pro-

Illustration by NILANJAN DAS/AI
ducer of pulses in the world, it is also in the highest in the world.
their biggest importer. While India We need to make giant strides in
has creditably reduced thi import boosting our vegetable oil produc-
dependence from 19 per cent of total tion even as we keep environmental
demand to 9 per cent in the past concerns in mind.
decade, we are still nowhere near The same sorry tale attends In-
meeting the per pita protein dia’s defence prog nme too, with
quirement of our people. India v 1 the country importing more than 60
need a technological breakthrough per cent of its military equipment. If
in the next decade to achieve a we re to retain our strategic inde-
Pulses Revolution to gain sel pendence, is crucial that we push
ciency in pulses production. the pedal on indigenously making
Likewise, we import 60 per cent of cutting-edge equipment such as jet
our edible oil requirement, which engines and lethally-armed drones.
This leaves two other eritical
sectors—education and health—in
which India needs transformative
changes ifit is to join the high table of
developed nations. India may boast of
a demographic advantage, with over
54 per cent of its population below
the age of 25 years. But that advan-
tage is undone by the huge skills gap.
Arecent UNICEF study showed that
by 2030 over 50 per cent of Ind
youth will lack the necessary skills
for employment. The Union and state
governments, therefore, have to take
urgent steps to reverse the situation
and spend as much as it takes to do
50. What is also needed is boosting
and more evenly spreading—STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics curriculum educa-
tion in India. [ mand fe “M jobs
rose by 44 per cent in the country
between 2016 and 2019
Equally important i \proving
the health delivery system to ensure
quality, ssible and affordable
serv for the masses and deploy-
ing advanced solutions like gene
therapy towards that endeavour.
Ind! also has a huge opportunity to
regain self-reliance in manufactur-
ing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredi-
ents (APIs)—the key components in
any medicine—which it had ceded
to Chi . Also, for making biosimi-
lars, which promise to significantly
reduce the cost of pensive drugs.
These 10 sector are by no means
an exhaustive list of the innova-
tions and reforms India needs in its
quest for first-world status. Rather,
they are a roadmap for the country
to focus its energieson what can
best delive izen welfa Asthe
PM said in his I-Day speech, “The
actions we take, the sacrifices we
make, the penance we undertake in
this era will lead to Sarvajan Hitay,
Sarvajan Sukhay (the welfare and
happiness of all)." There cannot be a
nobler aspiration for India@100.
AUGUST 28,2023 | INDIATODAY | 15
- Cutting-edge technoltlgles Are harnessing adva#camerh uantuffi , ;L j
mechanics, neural networks, hanomaterials and Such. Together, . *
they point to a fature of superfast; highly-intelligent computing ,,_ .._
systems that will transform multiple fields, from transportation and? 'l . "
communications to medicine and home appliances. In India, the growth' :
is being driven by high-tech industries and start-ups applying theses
emerging technologies, and government initiatives to build capabilities
in quantam computing, Al and semlconduc'&or manufacturng

/ po” A0 )

INDIA@
THE
UPERFAST
PROCESSORS
QUANTUM COMPUTERS HOLD OUT THE PROMISE
OF EXPONENTIAL GROWTH IN PROCESSING
POWER, ALLOWING COMPLEX COMPUTATIONS IN
AFLASH. AND INDIA IS READY WITH A ROADMAP
TO REALISE THE POTENTIAL OF THIS EMERGING
TECHNOLOGY ACROSS SECTORS
eveloping
a drug fora
rare disease is a painstak
ing endeavour. You need
to unalyse millionsof mer
lecular combinations to find ooe that
will work. Use o regular comgpater,
and this conld take years, But leverage
quantum computing and pharma-
eeutical firms can exponentially speed
up complex mokecular simulations to
zeror in on the most promising drug
eandicdates in no time, This s the see-
ond quantum revolution, The first was
in the carly 1900s when new theories
af guantum mechanics ked to the later
invention of ploneering techologices
that we take for granted today—be it
the baser, the MRI scanner, or even a
photovoltaic cell, Now, quantum com-
puting beckons as the next fronticr
Prof. Urbasi Sinha, who heads the
Quantum Information and Comput-
ing (QulC) laborutory at the Raman
20 INDIA TODAY | AUGUST 28, 2023
COMPUTING
QUANTUM COMPUTING
NATIONAL
QUANTUM MISSION
Launched this year to scale up
sclentific and Industrial RZDin
quantum technology in India
6,004 cron
Total budget (FY24-FY31)
KEY TARGETS
¥ 50-100 qubit com-
@Ej} puters within 5 years; up
101,000 qubit in 8 years
5 % Secure quantum
communications:
satellite-based, over
2,000 km, within India;
long-distance with
other countries
¥ Support design/
,'% 3) synthesis of quantum
TPdY materials suchas
J superconductors
with one of
Google's quantum computers
| Californis.
Der. 2018
Research Institutein Bengalorn, “A
quantum computer will not replace
laptops, but achieve certain tasks expo-
nentially fastes,” she adds. Henee, the
global race to build them.
Quantum computing eruploys
suhatomic particles like trapped ions
or photons to hold information. While
a classical bit represents 0 or 1, a quan-
tum bit {qubit) ean be both simultane
ously. This superposition multiplies
possibilities manifold and theoreti-
cally enables
a quantum compaterto
perform complex stomic-level simula-
tioms much faster than digital comput-
ers today —like madelling molecular
combinations for drug discovery
But evenas further advancements
in guantum computing hardware
are
awaited, other applications for quantum
technologies are nearly here, Secure
communications, for instance. Current-
Iy, quantum cryptography —which nses
photons to deliver a quantum key—Is
being commercially tested to safeguard
duta connections. It conld henefit see.
tors such as banking, defence and public
health records, where securing data s
 BosonQ Psi
M Founded in 2020, the
Bengaluru-headquartered
start-up works on quantum
algorithms for simulations
used by aerospace and
automotive companies

3 Quantumalgorithms can
solve certain optimisation
problems faster than classical
algorithms whichuseupalot
of computing power to perform
the same task
N Itis currently
working on various proofs-
of-concept in design
optimisation, such as weight
reduction fora car chassis or
an electric vehicle battery

‘Running full simulation models of an

airplane with high fidelity requires high
computing power. What we are doing
is plugging quantum algorithms into
QULABZ
these simulations to be able to better
N Founded by Nixon Patel,
utilise the hardware that you have’
whoisalsoits CEOand
Founder, BosonQ Ps| an adjunct professor at
IIT Hyderabad, Qulabz
is currently working on
quantum communication
critical. Next on the horizon are quan- sor, Osprey, has a qubit count of 433, technologies
tum sensors to measure electric, mag- with plans to scale up to 4,000+ by
itational fields, time or 2025. In April, India approved
a Na- 3 These include quantum
. These sensors could make MR1 tional Quantum Mission targeting 50- random number
machines used in medical diagnosis 100 qubit computers in five ye sand generators, touted tobe
much more sensitive and smaller, per- up to 1,000 qubits in eight rs. Other more secure than the OTPs
focus areas are quantun communica- today, and a quantum
haps even portable, says Prof. Apoorva
network simulator, which
D. Patel of the Center for lence tions, quantum sensors and metrology,
candesignasecure
in Quantum Technology at the Indian and quantum materials and devices.
communication link
Instituteof Science, Bengaluru. “Essentially, India will have to
endtoend
build expertise bottom-up, as it did
WHAT INDIA with nuclear and space tech,” says 3 The third productisa

NEEDS TO MASTER Prof. Patel. This means developing portfolio-optimising tool

simulators and tools currently avail- for financialinvestments
When it comes to quantum hardware, able only with a few companies glob- using quantum techniques
India is at least five years behind global ally. The mission is long-term, but the and Artificial Intelligence
leaders. IBM' latest quantum proces- leap will be a quantum one.
 THE AGE ' |
GENERATIVE AIHAS CAPTURED
EVERYONE'S IMAGINATION. WHAT INDIA
\EEDS IS A MISSION-SCALE EFFORT FROM
B GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY

) AVA \ \‘;\ LA
A Iy DA N VN
K \
\
RN IR \W N
I ‘.\‘\\‘ A AL

)W NN ([} \

N\
\

A\ N
| \ \ MACHINE
U/ ! lhv}uvélnmkannl.
[ '\ ) the co-founder of Al
}\ S Fractal Analytics
INDIA@ Iw | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |

he building blocks of souped-up neural networks took deep

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
have been around for de-
cades—since the 1950s, to be
and Al tech is something we
learning to an entirely new level. Enter
generative Al which can create all kinds A GROWING
BIZ
of content—text, images, video—using The global Al software
all that learning material. The most market is fast expanding

S
iven the ordinary email spam familiar example is ChatGPT, which,
Al too! But an inflection point when released last November, took the
came in the last decade when three key world by storm, kicking off an Al race.
ingredients converged —faster comput-
ing power, tonnes of digital data and
advanced algorithms. It pioneered new
architecture for an idea as old as Al:
neural networks, which were conceived
of as a set of parallel computing sys- If computer vision enabled machines 2025
tems, or nodes, designed to mimic the to make sense of images, the latest Source: Gartner
structure of the human nervous system. advances are in Natural Language Pro-
Running on powerful algorithms and cessing (NLP)—this is why ChatGPT
feeding on terabytes of data, these can converse with humans easily. Chat-
bots are an immediate use-case for this
tech, with conversational Al platforms
being deployed to engage with online
“The pace of product development customers in a wide range of industries:
hasreally accelerated because of retail, travel, banking, et al. ATis also
genefaflve Al Inever flm“ght we being built into various devices, such as
could build products this fast” autonomous driving systems for cars. For
—~ SRIKANTH VELAMAKANNI now, however, generative Al is the frontier
that has captured everybody’s imagina-
Co-founder
& Group Chief Executive, Fractal Analytics
tion—the goal being to boost productivity
by taking over mundane jobs.

3 WHATINDIA
THE CHANGE-MAKERS NEEDS TOMASTER
Generative Al requires deep learning sys-
FRACTAL ANALYTICS
frudak‘ tems known as Large Language Models
N An early entrant into the Al spacein
(LLMs), which are expensive, demanding
2000, it started with predicting credit card payment defaults and
high computing power and huge volumes
understanding consumer behaviour during recessions
of data. “Most of the LLMs available are
N It now works
with 150 of the Fortune 500 companies not necessarily trained on Indian data. So
sometimes the context may be missing,”
says Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice-president
TATA ELXSI INFOSYS & chief of strategy at Indias software
|n industry body NASSCOM. An India Al
TATA ELXSI " S4apiofuct ; 'Ih: Rfisn, stack, when it comes, could be the base for
- yfl isk - genn.:z:'; multiple local applications, in arcas such
applied Alis o
anintegral Altodrive efficiency
and abs agriculture
o and healthcare.
partof its three core areas: productivity for enterprises id 9““ “I‘ ";,r“ } ; rm.:u.ri;l: fl; :ulr ik
transportation, media & wide is an Indian, s Srikanth Vela-
telecom and medical devices :fl:fi m’:‘t‘:‘m ik makanni, co-founder and Group CEO
I —— called Topus, fovinstance, of Fractal Analytics. “So, we have a lot of
advanced driver monitoring completed 2,000 processes good talent and we have lots of problems
systems to keep atabonthe related to customersata to solve.” But building a foundation model
driver'slevelof alertness and British bankin real-time for India, he says, requires a mission-scale
health parameters insteadof aweek effort with large investments from both
government and technology companies. =

24 | INDIATODAY | AUGUST
28, 2023
 nentire car ready on the
assembly line but unable to
ship, merely because the wait-
COMPUTING ing periodfor a thumbnail-sized
INDIA@ SEMICONDUCTORS
chip to run its collision avoidance system
is running into months. The shortage of
electronic chips during the peak of Covid-19
drove home a crucial point. That, today,
semiconductors are embedded in nearly

CONDUCTING to smartphones and cars. But the

of the
fabrication
ips is limited to just a few places

THE CHIPS worldwide, creating the risk of global supply

chain disruptions during any Covid-like eri-
sis. At present, Taiwan produces 90 per cent

OPERA of the world’s most advanced semi iconduc-

SEMICONDUCTORS HAVE BECOME
INTEGRAL TO OUR EXISTENCE, WHICH
MAKES THEIR DOMESTIC MANUFACTURING
VITAL FOR THE ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE
AND NATIONAL SECURITY OF INDIA AND
OTHER COUNTRIES
tors. So, to protect themselves from disrup-
tions, global corporations and governments
are inv ting billions of dollars to boost
domestic chip manufacturing.
4 WHYITIS
AGAME CHANGER
India s setting out to build a semiconduc-
tor manufacturing ecosystem, having
announced an outlay of Rs 76,000 crore for
a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme
in December 2021. The market for semi-

26 INDIA TODAY | AUGUST 28, 2023

INDIA@
COMPUTING | THE
SEMICONDUCTORS |
CHANGE-MAKERS

£ vedanta
transtorming
for good
“Vedanta is committed to making India
self-reliant in electronics. Thisis the VEDANTA
beginning of the creation of a Silicon 3 The Indian multinationalin
Valley inIndia, a cutting-edge and July announced its venture into
world-class electronics ecosystem” semiconductors and display
fab manufacturing via special-
- ANIL AGARWAL purpose vehicles under a group
Chairman, Vedanta, while announcing its semiconduc-
firm, Twin Star Technologies Ltd;
tors and display fab manufacturing venture in July 2023
has signed an MoU with Gujarat
tosetupafacility
in Dholera

conductors in the country is estimat- 3 WHATINDIA

ed to nearly triple from $22.7 billion
(Rs 1.9 lakh crore) in 2019 to 864
billion (Rs 5.3 lakh crore) by 2026.
“Around the world, countries
have realised that semiconductors
are vital for economic and national
security. How chips are made is as
important as where chips are made,”
was how Dr Prabhu Raja, president
of the Semiconductor Products
Group at the US-based firm Applied
Materials, put it at the Semicon India
2023 conference in July.
?5I3
LAKH CRORE
Projected size of
India’s semiconductor
market by 2026
1.3
NEEDSTOMASTER
AL
“The semiconductor ecosystem
comprises three arcas: design, wafer
HCL
M The Shiv Nadar-led IT
manufacturing and semiconductor
services and consulting group
testing and packaging. Chip designing
isalso venuringinto the
is where India currently has an advan- semiconductor manufacturing
tage—over the past 20 years, several of space;is among four companies
the top global semiconductor design tohaveregistered fora
companies have set up centres in India. government incentive scheme
“We have 20-25 per cent of the world’s for semiconductor packaging
chip designers in India.” says Sanjay
Gupta, chairman of the India Electron-
ies and Semiconductor Association
(1ESA). The number of silicon design-
ers with core expertise is expected to be
100,000-150,000, he adds. The idea,
Adicron
therefore, is to promote homegrown MICRON TECHNOLOGY
“fabless’ companies that can design N The US-based chip
chips by tapping into this rich talent manufacturer plans to invest
pool in the domestic ecosystem. But $825 million (Rs 6,845 crore)
ensuring access to capital for such to set up a semiconductor
start-ups will be a key factor. assembly and test facility in
Next is manufacturing, where Gujarat with the first phase
commencing operations by
lies the big challenge, something the
Centre’s PLI scheme hopes to address. late 2024

LAKH CRORE Besides huge capital, setting up a chip

foundry requires sophisticated technol-
Worth of ogy. “Imagine you are packing millions
semiconductor chips of independent structures on a stamp- The third vertical is Assembly,
imported in 2022-23 sized chip. This is done by very sophis- Testing, Marking and Packaging
ticated robo driven machines,” (ATMP), which refers to the process of

*76,000 CRORE
explains Gupta. The good news, he
says, is that global firms with expertise
in making these tools currently have a
footprint in India and plan to expand
adding various components to silicon
wafers before they are ready for use on
motherboards. In all, four schemes un-
der India’s semiconductor programme
their presence here. Besides chips, a re- cater to all these segments, Chip-mak-
Outlay for
lated manufacturing subsidy scheme is ing, however, is an area of long gesta-
semiconductor PLI
scheme announced for the fabrication of thin-film transis- tion and payback, and demands large
inDec.2021 tor or liquid crystal display sercens used and sustained investments. For India,
in phones, laptops and other devices. the key task is to build an ecosystem
These, too, are currently imported. ground up. =

28 | INDIA TODAY | AUGUST 28 2023

TUSTraTion by NILANJAN UAS/AT

atellite internet is alot

different from land-based
internet services. A wireless
COMMUNICATIONS internet beamed down
INDIA@ SATELLITE INTERNET from satellites orbiting the Earth,
ion-agnostic
and can be accesse
from anywhere within the range of
satellites. Since
it is the only internet

CONNECTING
ross the country,
satellite internet is the only way for
many rural homes and businesses to ge

INDIA’S
online. It worksby using radio waves to
communicate with satellites orbiting
the Earth. Data is sent and retrieved

VILLAGES
SATELLITE INTERNET—-WIRELESS INTERNET
BEAMED DOWN FROM SPACE~IS AN EFFECTIVE
ALTERNATIVE FOR COMMUNICATION AND
BROADBAND SERVICES IN REMOTE AREAS
through a communication network
that starts with your device and travels
through your modem and satellite dish,
out to a satellite
in space, then back to
Earth to ground stations known as net-
work operations centres (NOCs) from
whereit connects back to your devices,
The satellites rotate with the planet
ostationary orbit), which helps keep
the signal relay consistent.
 DI I' I'
JWHYITISA
GAMECHANGER
Close to 40 per cent of the 1.4 billion
people in India do not have internet
access, mostly in rural areas
internet is emerging as an ¢f
ternative for communication and broad-
band services in remote areas where
other traditional internet mediums like
DSL and cable are not available. Dem-
and for instant communication and in-
creased smartphone penetration has led
to big internet companies entering this
space to offer faster internet networks
to consumers. Analysts say the satellite
internet market has the potential to
generate §1.9 billion (Rs 15,800 crore)
in revenue in India by 2030.
“The state-owned Bharat Broadband
Network Ltd (BBNL) is implement-
ing the BharatNet project—the rollout
of satellite internet services to remote
regions—and has finished pilot tests
in Arunachal Pradesh. It will connect
7,000 gram panchayats across India.
BBNLis already providing internet
E serviced by Indian Space
Research Organisation (ISRO) satel-
lites—to soldiers deployed at the Siachen
glacier, enabling them to talk to their
families.
% WHATINDIA
NEEDSTOMASTER
The entry of new and serious players is
what has led to the rapid pace of
sation and innovations in the satellite
and space industry. Industry experts say
aglobal transformation is expected in
the coming years. Satellite and space are
fixed and high-cost industries, henee
only market consolidation or partner-
ships can ensure financial benefits and
. High production
costs for launching satellites and install-
ing ground equipment are ultimately
passed on to the end-users. The ¢l
lenge is to reduce these costs. India is at
an advantage as ISRO offers launches
ata fraction of the cost charged by other
space-faring nations. After a regulatory
38 | INDIATODAY | AUGUST
28, 2023
SATELLITE INTERNET |
THE CHANGE-MAKERS
o N A global communications network backed by the
UK government with Bharti Global as a strategic
OneWeb stakeholder. itis poweredby a constellation
of 634
low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that are delivering
high speed, low latency connectivity to even the hardest-to-reach
places.In May, it completed the 19th launch
M Has partnered with Hughes Communications India Pvt Ltd (HCIPL)
to bring connectivity to towns, villages and businesses across India
3 Aviation connectivity is being transformed with broadband-in-
the-sky connectivity. OneWeb has also signed an MoU with Gujarat's
science and technology department in July to set up asatellite
network portal site in Mehsana
4 * BHARAT JIO PLATFORMS
) ROMEAND N TheReliance
s . LTD subsidiaryis
planning a next-
N The BharatNet project genscalable and affordable
of the state-backed
BBNL broadband services company
aims to connect 7,000 gram inajoint venture with
panchayats across India Luxembourg-based satellite
through satellite internet services provider SES
STARLINK
- M The satellite internet constellation operated
by Elon Musk's SpaceX has applied to establish
Q. carthstationsinindia
digt
“Thessaund
adaptability of
elolibiailiom
satellite launches.
low Earth orbit Further, satellite internet has
(LEO) satellite the potential to trigger disrup-
networks creates tions in the telecom market. The
adegree of future-proofing increasing number of satellites
that will keep pace with in orbit will help satellite op-
demands for bandwidth and erators grow and expand service
offerings. Satellite prov iders and
sl’esed' 'l;:e d:ll’lln‘“’ ment O‘Ill Velooran makions Tl ks
ourGen- sai:thi;"ne etwi can, along with current offerings,
help also provide a voice-based tele-
~MASSIMILANO LADOVAZ phone service for users to make
CTO, OneWeb satellite-based calls.

INDIA@
A CODE FOR
PUBLIC GOOD
INDIA IS WELL ON ITS WAY TOWARDS
AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE AND INCLUSIVE
DELIVERY OF PUBLIC SERVICES. NOW IT HAS
TO SCALE UP AND PROVIDE EQUAL ACCESS
allit Gram Swaraj 2.0.
Where no village, however
remote its location, fallsof 7
the grid when it comes to
the delivery of public services. Where
state and citizen are linked on a simple
hotline: the mobile phone. Making this
possible is open source software (OSS),
an affordable, easy-to-use
and custom-
isable platform that makes it the ideal
vehicle
for governments to dispense
public services i leak-proof ways. That's
especially usel Iin a country like ours,
which has overtaken China this year to
become the most populous in the world,
and whose people are strung across
diverse geographies. Indiz as already
built a digital public inf astructurcon
scale unimaginable in other countries.
The National cGovernance Plan has 31
Mission Mode projects, covering the
entire gamut of government-to-
interactions, from health to agriculture
to banking to taxation to education
and mare. The ch: lenge now is to
improve accessil ty and to make it
wholly inclusive.
SWHYITISA
GAME CHANGER
With faster ceurate and user-
friendly digital services, 0SS hased
platforms can not only provide quality
services, they can also be suitably
| E-GOVERNANCE
OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE
scaled up. At the same time, such
services remain dy amic and flexible
enough to respond to any changes in
demand and technological evolution.
India has been one of the leadir
countric in the world in the adoption
of open-source platforms to provide
e-governance. Indian government
agencies are involved in several public-
e collaborations to develop
OSS. In fact, most of the popular
e-governance services, be it UMANG
or Ayushman Bharat, are basedon
0S8 . “Organisations and govern-
ment agencies involved in creating
digital public infrastructure have been
building mi -services architecture,
a the kind used by Meta or joogle, ata
minimal cost. Once built, government THE
and private sectors can come together CHANGE-MAKERS
to delive g werna ce to our huge
itizen population,” says Viraj Tyagi, founder
of e-Gov Foundation, a non-profit
involved
in building the
nance ecosystem.
dig tal gover-
oV.
The preference for OSS is growing FOUNDATION
because of its flexibility and
cost flectiveness. Gov rnment E-GOV FOUNDATION
agencies
can easily tailoro n-source N The Bengaluru-based
products to fit their pecific needs. non-profit has built and
Besides, open-sourc licences do not deployed a tech stack called
limitor restrict usage. Nor is there any DIGIT (Digital Infrastructure
vendor monopoly when using free and for Governance, Impact and
open standards. The Union and state Transformation) to transform
urban governance
governments have, therefore, been opt-
ing for OSS in delivering digital services.

Niustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
B erscale, There is a need to connect
JANA
JANAAGRAHA
N The Bengaluru-based
non-profit worksin the areas of
civic participation, municipal
finance and policy and insights.
Amongitsinitiatives is the
MyCityMyBudget initiative. It
alsoruns the Swachhata mobile
application for the government's
Swachh Bharat Mission
Organisations and
government agencies
involved in creating digital
publicinfrastructure have
been building micro-
services architecture, the
kind used by Meta or Google,
at aminimal cost. Once built,
government and private
sectors can come together
todeliver e-governancetoa
huge population’
Founder, eGov Foundation
And now, evolving technologies such as
cloud computing, big data analytics and
blockchain
are being used as OSS in the
e-governance sp: 0SS-based next-
gen technologies e) abled the govern-
ment to rapidly build change, enhance
and deploy digital services, as was seen
when the Covid pandemic ched the
country’s shores. India was one of the
few countries that could deliver vaccina-
tion certificates at the click of a mouse.
WHATINDIA
NEEDSTO MASTER
While the adoption of OSS enhances
interoperability with other e-governance
solutions, this hasn't happened on a larg-
vari-
wernance applications provided
central agencies and state govern-
ments, particularly in the same sector, to
further streamline and improve quality
of services
and avoid duplication.
No. of Mission The government must also encour-
Mode Projects age civie agencies to go for OSS col
under the laborations with private players, India
government's already has in place a policy for OSS
National adoption. The Centre has made it man-
eGovernment datory for all central agencies to consider
long with proprietary products
Plan 0!
while creating any new digital service
“This policy should be made compulsorily
applicable for states as well.
~ AUGUST 28, 2023 | INDIA TODAY | 107
 INDIA@ 1m
GOODBYE TO
PAPERWORK
FOR GOVERNMENTS AND CITIZENRY
ALIKE, DATA-DRIVEN INITIATIVES WILL
ENSURE INFORMED DECISION-MAKING
AND EASE OF ACCESS
mportant papers stolen?
Or, worse, destroved in a
fire? Soon, such events will
be things of the past.
cial Intelligence, with its ability to
archive and analyse
of data, will ‘demate
mentation, and thus, revolutionise
policymaking and service delivery.
Whether it’s a record of your land
or health, your Aadhaar identity or
your driving licence, everything will
soon have a digital footprint, sans
fear of destruction. Data privacy/
emains an arca that needs
urgent attention: this must harness
DEPARTMENT
OF ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS
& PUBLIC GRIEVANCES
M Directly under PM Modi, it hasbeen
spearheading the use of new emerging
technologies in e-governance applications all
government agencies use
| AISOLUTIONS |
E-GOVERNANCE
the auto-corrective features that the
technology itself contains
so as to
minimise
or eliminate the scope of
corruption or theft.
YWHYITISA
GAME CHANGER
In India, every state must man-
datorily provide 56 digital ser-
vices to the citizens. Though the
implementation rate has been 67
per cent, the success of these and
other offline services depends on
the grievance redressal mecha-
nism. Most governments do have
THE CHANGE-MAKERS
No. of digital services states have to
mandatorily provide to the people. These
include financial services as well as those
related to local government and utility

lllustration by NILANJAN DAS/AI
online platforms allowing aggrieved
citizens to e their complaints. But
in a country with a population of 1.4
billion, scanning the large volume of
complaints and acting on them is an
exercise i futility, given the time it
consumes and the lack of man-
power. However, the use of Al not
only making the grievance redressal
tem faster and more account-
Iso helping government
agencies detect systemic flaws
and map socio-economic issues in
various geographic locations. The
“TheIGMS helps us
identify the required
policy interventions
if similar complaints
keep reappearing. We
can also detect if there
isinefficiency on the
part of any department
or officer”
- V. SRINIVAS
Secretary, DARPG
most shining example has been
the Integrated Grievance Manage-
ment Syystem (IGMS) developed by
the Department of Administrative
Reforms and Public Grievances
(DARPG), which Prime Minister
Narendra Modi handles directly.
The use of Al facilitates instant
categorisation of complaints, sum-
marisation, and routingto the de-
partments concerned. It can easily
do keyword and semantic se
point out oversight whenever
quired and display complaints in a
dashboard in real time. The IGMS
uses the same technology that
powers ChatGPT. “The categorisa-
tion helps us identify and analyse
the policy interventions required if
similar complaints keep reappear-
i 1also deteet if there
nefficiency on the part of any
department or officer. Prime Min-
ister Modi is very serious about
the effect nplementation of
this mechanism and often check:
the dashboard,” saysV. i training
I-powered IGMS has been
for all central government
ministries and departments since
February 2023. Such initiatives
should now spread to all states
as well. Digital infrastructure
and services are not uniformly
spread across all states in India.
For instance, if Kerala offers 886
e-services, Rajasthan extends only
248, Bihar 234 and Gujarat 228,
Smaller states such as Manipur,
Nagaland and Sikkim don't even
offer 50 such services. If states
such as Andhra Pradesh are using
blockehain to map land records,
many states have not rolled out
even the mandatory 56 digital
services. Only 13 states have all
15 mandatory financial services
online, while 13 others have the
13 mandatory services related to
local governance and utility
To ensure uniform and ef-
ficient services across the country,
the government must first
strengthen the digital infrastruc-
ture. On August 6, the Union cab-
inet approved Rs 1.39 lakh crore
for BharatNet Project, its flagship
project to enhance rural internet
connectivity.
The next important
ches, step will be to ensure that all
Common Services Centres (CSC)
remain functional throughout
the year. In most remote areas,
peaple cannot access these facili-
ties because of lack of manpower
and poor infrastructure,
Another key component
in the efficient functioning of
e-government services is trained
manpower to handle these utili-
ties. In several states, government
officials are either not trained
to use these digital innovations
effectively or the frequency of
does not keep up with
the speed of technological evolu-
tions impacting these services.
That’s why the government built a
trained human resource for la
mile delivery of digital servi s.
The Centre has made it mandato-
ry that every officer must undergo
50 hours of Ng on emerging
technologie ates also must
follow suit. =
AUGUST 28,2023 | INDIA TODAY | 109