AI can help add $957 billion to Indian economy by 2035: Kant

In a session titled ‘Transformation of India with a focus on the entrepreneur ecosystem’ Kant said that India has grown as a technology country.

Hyderabad: New and emerging technologies will play a major role in shaping the Indian economy going further. In this sense, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data will be the key drivers with AI helping to add up to $957 billion to the economy by 2035. The opportunity for AI in India is massive, said Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant at the TiE Global Summit held virtually.

In a session titled ‘Transformation of India with a focus on the entrepreneur ecosystem’ Kant said that India has grown as a technology country and has the world’s second largest startup ecosystem. “While the world reeled under the Covid pandemic, India witnessed a $38 billion inflow of FDI. India is becoming an innovation-driven economy by removing regulatory barriers. The government is working to leverage technology for the benefit of India’s 1.3 billion populations and the solutions will benefit the next 4-5 billion people who will move over from poverty to the middle class,” he said.

According to Kant, technology will play a major role in the post-Covid world and India can be a tech garage for the world. “Using data history is very critical to us. A framework to share data easily and reliably with control is needed. We can use data for machine learning, artificial learning, data empowerment and responsible artificial intelligence. The Personal Data Protection Bill is under scrutiny by the Parliament,” he informed.

Vaccine opportunity

Bharat Biotech chairman and MD Dr Krishna Ella spoke about how their intranasal Covid-19 vaccine is set to enter phase 1 trials next month and the company is looking at setting up two more facilities for vaccine manufacturing including Covaxin in the near future.

Speaking with Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar Shaw on the topic Delivering the Vaccine: The Big Opportunity Dr Ella said India is one of the best vaccine industries in the world and one in every three children is vaccinated by Indian vaccine industry.

“India has the potential to develop good vaccines as it has experience with polio immunisation. However, the number in the former case was small, while the number in Coronavirus is about seven billion adults which is a huge challenge,” he said. He added that they have tied up with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis for a novel “chimp-adenovirus” (Chimpanzee adenovirus), single-dose intranasal vaccine for Covid-19.

On the deployment Dr Ella shared that we need to vaccinate 1.3 billion people and they need to be vaccinated twice, so we need 2.6 billion syringes and needles. “And we are worried about the pollution these devices generate,” he said.

Another huge challenge will be the availability of medical devices such as auto disposable syringes, needles required for the delivery of the vaccine. While demand is more, the supply is not in commensuration with the demand as companies have been working with far fewer resources, he added.

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