Higher growth hinges on digital, green tech: Amitabh Kant, NITI Aayog CEO

Terming the upcoming new education policy path-breaking, he said that lots of stress has been given on skill development initiatives as well as online learning in the policy to reach out to the vast population of the country.

In order to achieve higher growth, India needs to focus on the power of digital and green technologies to ensure sustainable development for over three decades, said Amitabh Kant, NITI Aayog CEO.

Delivering lecture at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), Kant said that with a view to lift people from poverty line, India needs to grow at 9-10% rate constantly and must get into sunrise areas, including electric vehicle battery storage, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, renewable energy, green hydrogen, green ammonia, 5G technology, etc, rapidly.

The way India could cut the cost of solar energy production to Rs 1.99 per kWh from as high as Rs 19 per kWh, the nation needs to work on bringing the green hydrogen cost down to $1 per kg from existing $4 per kg, he said, adding, “India is in the process of going green. The nation is expanding its RE capacity to110 GW. The nation is envisaging to become non-fossil fuel by the year 2047.

He claimed that India is fast becoming a digital nation and its benefits are reaching directly at grass-root level. Already India showed great strength as a digital nation in implementing Covid vaccination programme, he said, adding that every three second, one new internet user is being added in the country.

Emphasising on human capital for the nation’s growth, he said that in the late 1940s, per capita income of South Korea, China and India was almost equivalent, but currently Seoul’s per capita income is $30,000, China’s $10,000 and India’ $2000. “The reason for South Korea’s higher per capita income is productive human capital on all parameters. We need to focus on learning outcomes and health outcomes for better human capital. For this purpose, all states would be required to perform well,” he added.

Terming the upcoming new education policy path-breaking, he said that lots of stress has been given on skill development initiatives as well as online learning in the policy to reach out to the vast population of the country.

Technology to avail real-time data would help policy makers to plan and implement various schemes effectively to achieve sustainable goals. “If we can access data in real-time and put it in the public domain, it would help to improve the performance of people engaged in the implementation process. “There was a time when I used to serve as a collector in Kerala, there was no real-time data available and had to depend on 5-6-year-old data. Now, things have completely changed, the officers can work based on the latest real-time data. I strongly believe that the governance in India can improve on the basis of data resources,” he said.

https://www.financialexpress.com/economy/higher-growth-hinges-on-digital-green-tech-amitabh-kant-niti-aayog-ceo/2367507/