New Delhi (PTI): Technology will help India achieve the target of becoming a developed nation by 2047, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday, as he outlined the massive and modern digital infrastructure being created to ensure that benefits of digital revolution reach all citizens.
Addressing a post-Budget webinar on 'Unleashing the Potential: Ease of Living Using Technology', Modi said the government wants to reduce the cost of compliance of small businesses, and asked the industry to formulate a list of unnecessary compliances that can be pruned.
"We want to reduce the compliance cost of small businesses. Can you (industry) formulate a list of unnecessary compliances that can be pruned. We have finished 40,000 compliances," Modi said.
India is creating a modern digital infrastructure, and ensuring that benefits of digital revolution reach every section of the society, he noted.
Citing certain examples, he said technology is being used to make the tax system faceless to address problems of taxpayers.
Technologies like 5G and AI (Artificial Intelligence) are leading conversations now and poised to transform areas like medicine, education, agriculture, and many other sectors, Modi said adding technology formed the base of One Nation One Ration, and the JAM (Jan Dhan Yojana, Aadhaar and Mobile number) trinity helped in giving benefits to the poor.
"Now between your grievances and the redressal there is no person, just technology," he said.
The prime minister exhorted stakeholders to identify 10 problem areas facing the common man which can be solved using AI. He said the 21st century is technology-driven, and one cannot restrict it to just digital, and internet technology.
"Every budget in the past few years has stressed the ease of living for people with the help of technology. In this year's budget also, the priority is given to technology and a human touch," he said.
He also said the government interventions have now been reduced and citizens do not consider the government to be an obstacle. The prime minister asked various departments to collectively think about using technology for solving their problems and reaching global standards.
"Going a step further, we can identify the areas where dialogue with the government can be further eased," he added.
Further, he emphasised on the need to keep updating the training process under 'Mission Karmayogi' and highlighted that with modifications based on the feedback from the citizens, significant improvement can be witnessed.
Modi suggested creating a system where feedback can be easily submitted to improve the training. Citing examples of the use of technology in the government, he mentioned the Digilocker services for entities where companies and organizations can store their documents and also share them with government agencies. He suggested exploring ways to expand these services so that more people can benefit from them.
Further, Modi stressed on the need to brainstorm and identify the obstacles faced by MSMEs.
"The lack of trust between the government and the people is the result of a mindset of slavery," he remarked and pointed out that the government has won back the trust of the citizens by decriminalizing petty offences and becoming a loan guarantor for MSMEs.
Highlighting the role of technology, Modi pointed out that technology can help create a finished product that can help in capturing the global market. The success of the budget or any government policy, he said, depends on how well it is prepared but also highlighted the importance of people's cooperation.
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New Delh (PTI) The Congress on Saturday said it is perhaps not very surprising that India is not part of a US-led strategic initiative to build a secure silicon supply chain, given the "sharp downturn" in the Trump-Modi ties, and asserted that it would have been to "our advantage if we had been part of this group".
Congress general secretary in charge of communications Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the news of India not being part of the group comes after the PM had enthusiastically posted on social media about a telephone call with his "once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC".
In a lengthy post on X, Ramesh said, "According to some news reports, the US has excluded India from a nine-nation initiative it has launched to reduce Chinese control on high-tech supply chains. The agreement is called Pax Silica, clearly as a counter to Pax Sinica. The nations included (for the moment at least) are the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia."
"Given the sharp downturn in the Trump-Modi ties since May 10th, 2025, it is perhaps not very surprising that India has not been included. Undoubtedly, it would have been to our advantage if we had been part of this group."
"This news comes a day after the PM had enthusiastically posted on his telephone call with his once-upon-a-time good friend and a recipient of many hugs in Ahmedabad, Houston, and Washington DC," the Congress leader asserted.
The new US-led strategic initiative, rooted in deep cooperation with trusted allies, has been launched to build a secure and innovation-driven silicon supply chain.
According to the US State Department, the initiative called 'Pax Silica' aims to reduce coercive dependencies, protect the materials and capabilities foundational to artificial intelligence (AI), and ensure aligned nations can develop and deploy transformative technologies at scale.
The initiative includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia. With the exception of India, all other QUAD countries -- Japan, Australia and the US -- are part of the new initiative.
New Delhi will host the India-AI Impact Summit 2026 on February 19-20, focusing on the principles of 'People, Planet, and Progress'. The summit, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the France AI Action Summit, will be the first-ever global AI summit hosted in the Global South.
Prime Minister Modi and US President Trump on Thursday discussed ways to sustain momentum in the bilateral economic partnership in a phone conversation amid signs of the two sides inching closer to firming up a much-awaited trade deal.
The phone call between the two leaders came on a day Indian and American negotiators concluded two-day talks on the proposed bilateral trade agreement that is expected to provide relief to India from the Trump administration's whopping 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods.
In a social media post, Modi had described the conversation as "warm and engaging".
"We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for global peace, stability and prosperity," Modi had said without making any reference to trade ties.
