Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that by the year 2023, over 30 lakh govt officials in the country will be trained and exposed to emerging technologies like "Artificial Intelligence" (AI), Machine Learning, Blockchain etc for effective governance and service delivery at the grassroot.

Delivering the valedictory address at the two-day workshop on “Emerging Technology for Good Governance” for heads of Central Training Institutions (CTIs) and State level Administrative Training Institutions (ATIs) at IIPA, Dr Jitendra Singh said through CTIs, ATIs and iGOT-MK (Integrated Government Online Training-Mission Karmayogi) the modern technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), will be disseminated to 30 lakhs Central and State govt officials.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, there are 25 Central Training Institutions, 33 State level Administrative Training Institutions and other civil service training institutions along with Capacity Building Commission along with the Wadhwani Institute of Technology and Policy (WITP) will jointly achieve this noble mission.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, Artificial Intelligence(A-I) and Machine Learning can detect frauds in GST and Income Tax returns, Blockchain for securing Records and Certificates and Data driven Decision Making through use of Analytics and said civil servants will soon use these techniques in day-today work and administration.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Indian growth story under Prime Minister Modi has been driven largely by technology adoption in governance, be the use of Aadhaar for Vaccine rollout and vaccine delivery through Drones in difficult areas or the JAM (short for Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity to link Jan Dhan accounts, mobile numbers and Aadhaar cards of Indians to plug the leakages of government subsidies through DBT and Unified Payments Interface (UPI). The Minister said, one must remain open to new developments in the S&T sector and be always on a look out for new science that can improve our work and outcomes.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, Prime Minister Modi has introduced innovation in governance and made it technology-driven and quoted his remarks at the Second United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress-2022 in Hyderabad on 11^TH November, 2022, wherein he said, “Technology and talent are two pillars of the country's journey for development” and the PM emphasised on the importance of technology as an agent of inclusion in the country.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, it is rather evident that in times of uncertainty and changing governance issues, technology is and will be our go-to resource and emphasised that for a nation as big and diverse as India, the adoption of technology is rather mandatory to ensure far reach of governance. The Minister elaborated that the government though plays a delicate balancing role between using and promoting technologies, it becomes crucial that decision makers at the forefront – Civil Servants - truly realise the potentials and fallacies of emerging technologies such as AI, ML and Data analytics. He however, clarified that the civil servants are not expected to become scientists or developers in any of the domains but rather to understand how, why, and where to use these technologies.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, the course on emerging technology that you all have been undertaking is designed with similar perspective and the eight domains you have undertaken are what is considered emerging technologies of present The course covers following key technologies- Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Deep Learning, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing, Internet of Things, Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality, Data Analytics, Drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Blockchain.

Dr Jitendra Singh pointed out that the country and its citizens are evolving fast when it comes to technology education. Kids in schools are taught coding and robotics and with every wave of workforce the level of technology is only going higher. The ‘Samaaz’ and ‘Bazaar’ thus are already upgrading and if the ‘Sarkar’, which plays the enabler role for both, has to be on the same level to enable effective governance delivery, the Minister concluded.

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