Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar expects the digital economy to contribute more than 20 percent of the country's GDP in 2026.
Inaugurating the 'G20 Digital Innovation Alliance Summit' being held in Bengaluru on 17 August 2023 ,Rajeev Chandrasekhar said "the digital economy has gone from 4-4.5 per cent in 2014 of the total GDP to 11 per cent of the total GDP today. And we expect the digital economy to contribute over 20 percent of our GDP by 2026,"
The Minister recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi who called the coming decade as a 'Techade', a decade of technology opportunities.
The two-day (17-18 August) Digital Innovation Alliance summit is being held on the sidelines of the fourth meeting of the ‘Digital Economy Working Group’ under G20.
It is being attended by global experts and digital leaders including representatives from other G20 countries.
The Summit is focused on discussions on ‘Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)’, ‘Security in the Digital Economy’, and ‘Digital Skilling’.
As part of India’s G20 Presidency, G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (G20-DIA) initiative was launched under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Startup Hub.
It recognizes and accelerates the growth of startups from all G20 countries and nine invited guest countries in six sectors – Ed-tech, Health-tech, Agri-tech, Fin-tech, Secured Digital Infrastructure, and Circular Economy that are using digital technologies to solve humanity’s most pressing needs.
As many as 174 startups from 29 countries are part of the program. The Summit will culminate on 18 August with an awards ceremony in which 30 startups will be honoured in various categories.
India officially assumed the Presidency of G20 on 1 December 2022 from Indonesia. The 18th G20 Heads of State and Government Summit is scheduled to be held in September 2023 in New Delhi.
To prepare for the summit meeting a series of meetings are being held in India .
The G-20 was founded back in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis.
The Group of Twenty (G-20) comprises 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and the European Union.
The G-20 members represent around 85 percent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.