Technology to contribute 20-25% of Indian GDP by 2025-26: IT Minister Chandrasekhar

Mr. Chandrasekhar said that the digital economy has expanded, diversified and currently there isn’t a slice or space in the tech sector that Indian entrepreneurs and Indian startups are not present in

The Indian Government has set a goal of making technology 20-25% of the country’s GDP by 2025, India’s IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has told Indian American entrepreneurs and asked them to be part of this story of India.

“Over the last nine years, the digital economy has expanded, diversified and currently there isn’t a slice or space in the tech sector that Indian entrepreneurs, Indian startups are not present in; whether it is semiconductors, micro-electronics, AI, the blockchain and Web3 high-performance computing languages and consumer internet,” Mr. Chandrasekhar said in his virtual address to the annual Conference of the Global Indian Technology Professionals Association.

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“Any part of technology that you look at today, there is significant presence and momentum by Indian startups, Indian enterprises and Indian innovators. Over the last five years, in particular, during and after COVID-19, the Indian innovation economy has grown from the 4-5% in 2014 to 10% today,” he said.

“Our target is that technology and the digital economy would be 20% of the total GDP, which also is growing at about 8%, 7.5% per annum, by 2025-2026. So, 20% of our GDP, which will be about $5 trillion amounts to a trillion dollars and that is the goal that we are working on. That is the mission that Prime Minister Modi’s government is focussed on,” Mr. Chandrasekhar explained.

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Describing AI as a kinetic enabler of the digital economy, the Minister said it is a very important and valuable layer on the progress that has been made by the startups and innovation ecosystem over the last several years around the consumer internet and the data economy. The government has branded the artificial intelligence programmes and schemes in the country as India AI.