Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh has said that over the last three years, the Government led by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has taken a number of decisions to "ease doing of business". As a result of this, India has began to attract investors from all over, who are willing to set up ventures even in the hitherto lesser preferred regions like the North Eastern part of country. In other words, Dr Jitendra Singh said, India, including the Northeast, is fast emerging as a preferred destination for business and entrepreneurship.Speaking at a "Luncheon Round-table" meet on the topic "Sustainable Production through Fourth Industrial Revolution Innovations" in Davos, Switzerland yesterday, Dr Jitendra Singh allayed the fears expressed by some of the participants about excessive regulatory controls exercised by certain governments across the world and said, that in the last over three years, the Government of India has made a conscious effort to bring in ease of business through relaxation of avoidable regulations. He said, within a short span of 3 to 4 years, the Government has done away with nearly 1,500 such rules and regulations which had become obsolete and irrelevant in this age.
Expressing his views on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robots to promote production and business in the times to come, Dr Jitendra Singh said, while these technological advances can prove an asset by contributing to sustainable development, the challenge, however, would be to ensure that human intelligence does not end up becoming a slave of Artificial Intelligence. He said, since this is the first generation faced with this new phenomenon, it might take another one or two generations to actually evolve a mechanism of healthy synergy between the Human Intelligence and the Artificial Intelligence. The most ideal situation would be when the human and the artificial components supplement each other's resources to accomplish Fourth Industrial Revolution Innovations, he said.Dr Jitendra Singh said, while the international markers indicate that the year 2020 will be a milestone for evaluating progress towards the 2030 agenda, in India, an important milestone would be 2022, the year which marks the completion of 75 years of Independence. Several of the Government's recent initiatives have been targeted to meet their end point by 2022, following which the further journey would be to boost competitiveness and aim at targets beyond.
Dr Jitendra Singh also referred to the steps taken recently by India to resort to alternative sources of energy with the twin-objective of meeting the growing energy needs of India and at the same time, taking cognizance of the environmental factors. In this regard, he said, when, for example, over 50% of global Greenhouse Gas emissions result from the cradle-to-factory journey of goods, India has already geared itself to astounding levels of innovation in all spheres.In addition, Dr Jitendra Singh also referred to new opportunities for public-private collaboration being facilitated by the Government with least intimidation or interference from the Government. This would also serve as an incentive for small and medium enterprises to stay relevant in future scenario changes, he added.