New Delhi: India is betting on 20 frontier technologies that could offer the country a chance to lead rather than follow, according to Debjani Ghosh, a distinguished fellow with the government think tank NITI Aayog and chief architect of theNITI Frontier Tech Hub.
These technologies cover the convergence of artificial intelligence, biology, energy, quantum computing, and their implications for citizens, industry, government, and geopolitics, said Ghosh, who previously headed IT sector industry body Nasscom.
Ghosh said that when discussions to set up the NITI Frontier Tech Hub was held in 2024, it was agreed that for India to become prosperous, it has to be a frontier tech nation.
“We have to lead frontier tech, not be a follower. If you look at countries that are leading frontier technologies today, they are countries that can spot trends 10 or 15 years in advance. Based on that understanding they started investing in research and development and capabilities,” she said. “So the goal was very clear: If we aspire to become Vikasit Bharat, we have to be in the leaders’ league. To do that, we have to figure out how to spot early and be ready early.”
Ghosh explained that NITI Frontier Tech Hub is actively researching and forecasting technological shifts by focusing on how advanced scientific and technological fields are coming together and influencing each other.
The hub is specifically looking at how the convergence of AI, biology and life sciences, energy, including clean energy, and quantum computing will play out. It will also explore the impact of such convergence on jobs, skills, and healthcare, apart from how manufacturing, services and agriculture get transformed.
The influence of these technologies on national security and geopolitical developments are also being studied.
NITI Aayog is preparing more than 20 reports on these subjects, Ghosh said, citing how technology is transforming healthcare and how India can lead in healthcare as an example.
The race is just beginning
India spent 0.65% of its GDP on research and development in 2020, way below the 2.56% that China spent and the 3.59% that the US spent in 2022, per World Bank group data. The latest data available for India is for 2020.
In its first blueprint on AI, released on Monday, NITI Aayog said an additional $1.7 trillion in economic value can be unlocked over the next decade by harnessing artificial intelligence, Mint reported.
Noshir Kaka, senior partner, McKinsey and Co., who collaborated with other experts in framing the blueprint, told Mint in an interview that India needs to adopt AI faster than the rest of the world to gain global market share in various sectors.
“India has the potential to become the data capital of the world,” said Kaka.
Using AI and the country’s diverse genomic data sets, India can improve the effectiveness of its healthcare services as existing treatment pathways are mostly based on genomic sets from Caucasian populations, Kaka said.
Ghosh said a strategic council, chaired by the NITI CEO and comprising key ministries, ensures the NITI Frontier Hub’s insights translate into real policy change and action on the ground.
The technology race is just beginning, according to Ghosh.
“In fact, we all are talking about AI today. But the next mega shifts that we are studying at the Frontier Tech Hub promises to be way bigger than AI,” she said. “These are shifts which are not going to be shaped by one technology, but multiple technologies coming together. So we have the next 10 years to get ready and figure out how we want to lead in these areas.”