Budget 2019: AI to drive country forward - ETtech

In a move designed to further the government's digital initiative, the union finance minister announced plans to digitize over one lakh villages, focus on Artificial Intelligence technologies and transform the country as a hub for smartphone and electric vehicle manufacturing. Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said that the country's digital infrastructure and economy by 2030 will be built on the work done in digitisation of government processes and private transactions. As part of this move, the government plans to make One lakh villages into Digital Villages over next five years with the help of Common Service Centres (CSCs), public private initiative that offer digital services to villagers.. Goyal said it is the government's vision to create a Digital India that reaches all sectors of the economy, all parts of the country and impacts lives of all Indians. "Our youth will lead us in this endeavour with innumerable start-ups creating digital India, and millions of jobs in this eco-system," said Goyal in his Interim Budget speech. The monthly consumption of mobile data increased by over 50 times in the last five years, and the cost of data and voice calls in India is now possibly the lowest in the world.