“The Prime Minister’s bold move to demonetize high-denomination notes and replace these with new ones with high-security features is an important step to deflate India’s shadow economy,” Gates said while delivering the Niti (National Institution for Tranforming India) Aayog lecture on ‘Transforming India’ here on Wednesday.
Gates said digital transactions would rise dramatically, and, in the next several years, India would become one of the most digitised economies not just by size, but percentage as well.
Lauding the Aadhar Card scheme and Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna for helping the disadvantaged sections in India to connect to the banking system, Gates said: “India has all the pieces in place for a compelling vision for digital financial inclusion. Aadhar will convert a cumbersome, paper-based account opening process into a 30-second all-digital system.
He said India had a government that was committed to solving its big problems. Pointing out the Digital India and MyGov initiatives, he said much more could be done to streamline the delivery of public services by investing in the digital infrastructure that enables better planning, performance monitoring and grievance redressal.
Speaking of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Gates, Who co-chairs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said automation, cloud services and AI are poised to eliminate manufacturing jobs. Describing this as an opportunity for the Indian Information Technology sector, the Microsoft leader called for India to embrace these new technologies, despite the fears provoked by such rapid transformation.
Aiming to work with government on various issues including e-payments, digital health, digital literacy and e-agriculture in India, Gates held a meeting with IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday.