PM Modi.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: India will have an upper hand in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday and asked startups to take advantage of the new technology.
“We are in a new age of AI technology and today the world accepts that India will have an upper hand in AI,” Modi said.
“Now this is our job, not let this opportunity go,” the Prime Minister said while addressing entrepreneurs at the third and final day of the Startup Mahakumbh event.
Modi informed that he has been extensively using artificial intelligence technology in the ongoing Lok Sabha election campaigns. “I am taking a lot of help from AI these days because there are language barriers in election campaigns,” he said.
Modi said India has emerged as the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. The number of startups in India has surged to 1.25 lakh from less than 100 in 2014. The Prime Minister further added that around 12 lakh youth are directly involved in startups.
“Startup has become a social culture and no one can stop a social culture,” he said.
According to the Prime Minister, the startup revolution in the country is being led by small cities and that too in a wide range of sectors including agriculture, textiles, medicine, transport, space, yoga and Ayurveda.
Elaborating on space startups, Modi said that Indian startups are working in more than 50 areas in the space sector, including the launch of the space shuttle.
“Through the Startup India mission, the government has given a platform to innovative ideas, connected them to funding channels and established incubators in educational institutions," he added.
The three-day Startup Mahakumbh event, which kicked off on March 18, was organised by industry bodies Assocham, Nasscom, Bootstrap Incubation and Advisory Foundation, TiE and Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association.