The Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said that Narendra Modi Government at the Centre believes in the power of technology and did not look at “Digital” as an outlier, but something that is deeply embedded in opportunities.

“Today, we are living in most opportunity rich times in independent India’s history. We are at an inflection point where there are tremendous opportunities for growth of our economy. The Government is playing the enabler for the young Indians to dream and ensuring that those dreams turn into reality,” Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar said while addressing the “Techspectations Digital Summit” in Kochi, Kerala today.

The Summit was organised by the Manorama Online here to commemorate the completion of 25 years of their online platform. The Malayalam Manorama newspaper was started back in the year 1888. And its online platform was launched in 1997, a year before Google arrived.

The Minister said that India can go up the ladder on Ease of Doing Business index, if all State Governments worked together with the Centre. “All State Governments are not performing at the same level of transparency and support to entrepreneurship and investments and have clung on to the vestiges of the past. If each of them worked in tandem with the Centre, India can move up to the No.1 position from the present 63rd,” he pointed out.

He said the Shri Narendra Modi government has redefined the goals for India with respect to technology, and has emphasised on moving from being a bland consumer of Western technology to becoming a producer of technology and a trusted tech player for the world.

The Minister said Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi Ji has envisioned that technology as that which should transform ordinary citizens lives and make an impact on governance and democracy. In furtherance of it, he stated that “Today when a subsidy leaves the government exchequer it reaches the beneficiary’s account without any leakage or corruption. This is what technology has done to transfer the lives of citizens”.

Giving the example of a recent visit of his to Zunheboto, a town in Nagaland, the minister stated that even in the remotest part of India technology is enabling the transfer of benefits with any hitch and building trust in Government.

Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar then went to St. Teresa’s College, Ernakulam, where he interacted with students and released a book a biography on Prof. E. Balaguruswamy titled ‘Professor Balagurusamy- Sathyathinte Paathayil Thudarunn Yathra’. The book profiles the life and times of Prof. Balagurusamy, who was the Vice Chancellor of Anna University and also a Member of the Union Public Service Commission.

Speaking at the event the Minister stated that it was an honour for him to meet Prof Balagurusamy and that his work has tremendously helped in shaping technical prowess of many generations working in the tech sector.

Later, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar met Chief Justice of Kerala High Court S. Mani Kumar and Justices Shaji P. Chaly, A. K. Jayasankaran Nambiar, A. Muhamed Mustaque, P.B. Suresh Kumar & Raja Vijayaraghavan V. ahead of a session that was Kerala High Court Advocates’ Association in court premises. The Minister spoke on ‘Modern Technology and Judicial Dispensation System’ at the session, focussing on the potential of E-Courts as a powerful platform for dispensing justice.

The Minister engaged in an interactive session with students at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi campus on ‘New India for Young Indians: A Techade of Opportunities’.

They asked him a wide range of questions about his life, student days, career and many more subjects. He urged the young students never to be afraid of hard work, take shortcuts, and always put nation first in their approach to career or life. He also asked them to learn Digital Skills to be future ready for employment and entrepreneurship.