 So, without further ado, let me first invite Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad to respond to the central theme, Connecting South Asia and Connecting Its People. Well, if I can begin with the case of India, there is a fundamental philosophy underlying our approach to digital connect. We missed the industrial revolution because of various historical reasons. We missed the entrepreneurial revolution which swept the world different parts in 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s because of the license permit Kota Raj, which we had in our country. We don't want to miss the digital revolution. We want to become leaders in that. There is the first philosophy behind it. And the second is digital connect designed to empower India to have a better life. The second, digital governance is good governance, is transparent governance. Very briefly, what is the digital ecosystem of India? Number one, we have 1.03 billion mobile phones in India. We have 1.05 billion Aadhar card digital identity and 400 million internet, 60% mobile based, very soon likely to become 500 million. I need to compliment India and mobile sector who have done very well. A silent revolution has happened in India. What we are doing is very clear. Let me tell you very briefly. Sameer, we are creating infrastructure connecting 250,000 gram panchayats by optical fiber network. Number two, unleashing a big revolution of common service centers at the hinterland. Nearly 250,000 giving digital services, making Aadhar card, passport, banking, insurance. This great initiative of postal payment bank in 650 districts of India, whereby our rural postman will go with a handle device to deliver services in the ground. And lastly, pro-people initiative through digital services. E-hospital, about 40 hospitals are connected for registration of patients through digital connect. E-scholarship, about 10 million students are on portal of E-scholarship. Then the great program of digital inclusion, Jandhan Yojana, we opened to 40 million accounts in a short span of one year. Connected that with Aadhar, verifiable digital identity. Seated to the bank and we have saved close to 6 billion dollars in various pro-people initiative. Today, nearly 31 states of India are having their land record digitized. The digital ecosystem of the country has come on autopilot. And as I always say, digital India is more for the poor for the underprivileged. A more inclusive society. And obviously once India rises, and one thing I must mention, Sameer, apart from digital India, make in India, skill India, start up India, stand up India, they're also pushing manufacturing in a big way. And with this August audience, I'm happy to share, in the last one year, 40 mobile manufacturing units have come in India. Which is hardly one or two when our government had come to power. And it is creating ripples all around. India is becoming a big center of mobile manufacturing. India is home today to 270 million smartphones. From manufacturing to services to infrastructure to governance. All are working together. Cloud, your digital locker. We started digital locker only six months ago. I'm happy to tell you that today nearly 2 million people have come on board. And nearly almost 4 billion plus government records are on digital locker. All the new technology from manufacturing and then internet of things and other things. I always say, as far as Asia's journey is concerned, in which I include India, I include other parts of Asia and China. The journey from the desktop to the laptop to the smartphone is a mini computer. It's a phenomenal journey. And I think Asia, in terms of creating a digitally inclusive world, is going to play a very crucial role. So let me ask you one question because I think that's something that everyone has been raising this government for. But there have also been some degree of skepticism. The government itself seems to have become a startup. It's engaged in so many businesses and activities that are normally the preserve and domain of the private sector. Are we creating also the ecosystem where we can promote entrepreneurship and small SMEs in the digital and in the technology sectors to thrive? Some degree of government leverage is important to promote initiative. I always feel. And therefore the startup movement, the kind of electronic fund, development fund, or the startup development fund, all the government can create. The initial ecosystem, Sunil, you will talk to Sunil when he will join you after me. And surely he will have to a lot of explain how he became an entrepreneur. There was some government initiative needed. And today he has become a giant of the world. I compliment him as many have become too. But some initial leveraging is important for the government. This whole mobile manufacturing, how it picked up, electronic manufacturing, medical electronics, defense electronics, auto electronics, because of the incentives we get. Therefore to say, I'm not saying government should remain in the business. But the government must remain the facilitator. And how I see the role of the government, Sunil? The government initially as an administrator. The government thereafter became the administrator come regulator. Now the government's role in India should be administrator come facilitator. That's how I see it. So since the theme this afternoon is connected, South Asia, are there real possibilities of creating a common e-market? There has been a proposal in the TPP arrangements about joining up countries and their digital economies. Is there possibility? And is it now the time to explore connecting this region at least on the cloud? I have only one problem. I'm all for it. And I'm very proud of Indian IT companies present in 200 cities of 80 countries. The export of our IT this year has been 100 billion dollars, the highest ever. They're the bigger recipient of FDI, almost sharing 9% of the GDP. But my only problem is that if India starts doing well, then we see barriers. I don't want to elaborate it. I hope you understand what I'm trying to hint at. Now if the same thing start happening is in E also, then that is a problem. There if the world is open, it must be genuinely open. And talking Indian economic summit, I always say, Indian companies go abroad, they pay good tax, they create good employment. I think they are contributing substantially to the GDP of foreign countries also. The same in Indian mobile companies are going abroad in any part of the world. They are doing a good job. Therefore, digital connect in commerce is a natural corollary. But if the connect is good, the initiative needs to be respected. That's how I see it. Sir, you come from a state that requires a huge degree of transformation. You represent Bihar. And I would like to ask you, since in New Delhi the new buzzword is cashless transactions, cashlight societies. How is the uptake in the peri-urban and rural India to these new opportunities of digital payments, of using technology for small trade and small commerce? Let me ask you a question. I think Sharma will be the best person to answer you when he will come. He will ask him. But he's doing a good job. Why not? This digital payment in India is picking up very fast. It's not only on TV screens. I'm seeing it. One study needs to be done. How many of Indians are using digital devices in the farming sector? That will be a classic study. The E-Mundi, which we have started because my NIC remains involved in creation of all this. It's doing quite well. This E, a passport, E visa. Therefore, this whole acceptance of digital technology to ensure a hassle-free existence is the real enabler. I would feel as India is changing because if Jandhan is the classic account, if without any middleman or fictitious account, my money is coming in my account, that is the recognition of respect for digital connect and digital payment flows from there. And always remember, Jandhan is the bank account of those who had no bank accounts. That means poor people on the margins. And it only reinforces my premise, digital India more for the poor, more for the underprivileged. Before I invite a couple of questions from the audience because we will have to let you go in five minutes. My final question to you would be, how do you see the digital economy contributing to job creation? Or are we going to see technology create disruptions in the workforce? Well, this is a very debatable question. I see Indian digital economy crossing $1 trillion in the coming four to five years. Once the digital India becomes completely proactive as it is, you talked of my state. I had a lurking apprehension, Aadhar may not be employed there, but they are realizing the worth of Aadhar, and they are becoming proactive. The North is in the states. I traveled in the entire country. There is a keenness to adopt Aadhar. And mind you, we have passed a law of the parliament creating Aadhar platform, which is completely secure, confidential as per data is concerned. But having said that, what is more important is that there will be competition. Yes, but the power of the people's interest will drive it. As Savit, I always say, and let me repeat again, Indians first love technology. No, first observe technology. Then they adopt it. Then they start loving it. And then they become empowered in the process. I thought it was the Indian phenomena, but I'm happy to say it is emerging as the Asian phenomena. Excellent. So we'll invite a couple of questions from, please introduce yourself and do ask your question. Keep it brief. And we have a lady at the back and the gentleman here. Okay, maybe one more. So we'll take three. Okay, we'll take three. Thanks. Good afternoon, sir. My name is Uttakarsh. My question to you is that you're the only minister in the world who's the minister of IT and law. So with cyber crime lurching around, how does this put you in a unique vantage point? On a point of clarification to you, I am the third time the law minister of India. Okay. Therefore that should... The prime minister chose to give me that portfolio, but he has cyber security is important. And as our prime minister says, cyber security is akin to bloodless war. And all the civil society, democratic countries need to come together. In terms of creation of human resource, our comment is very keen for that. We are creating human resource for training of judges, of police officer, of civil servants. We are creating a proper technological barriers against these. But what is important, we need to work together. And the problem is Sameer. Those who flout the digital norms to create cyber security challenges are smarter than us. I always say that. The world has to work together. There is one brief issue, must I very briefly highlight here. And that is appropriate for him. A right to access of internet must be available without discrimination. Internet is one of the finest creation of human mind. If it is a truly global platform, it must have linked it with the local. This I always feel. And this position of India I have articulated in the parliament. And this position is very important to be appreciated. Yes. So I think what Utkarsh did not complete in his question was that we look forward to propositional framework around encryption, privacy and some other matters that online management does require. My take is very simple. There is a robust IT provision in place. If something more is needed, I am quite open to. But with one caveat, Narendra Modi government fully respect freedom of expression on the social media. And the giant movement emerging on social media is creating accountability, information and everything. Thank you. The lady at the back, please. Good afternoon. I am Sugandha and I belong to the state of Bihar. And I am a global shaper representing IRRI, International Rice Research Institute. A quick question. When is the digital world is going to the farmers sitting at the last periphery of my state? I have been working in the state for the last four years. And believe me, everyone gentlemen sitting here and respected women, it is creating a miracle. Adharkar, DBT, a lot of corruptions are getting solved because I work at the Southeast Asia level. But I have stationed myself in Bihar. I am really looking for the day when the digitalization goes to the last woman and the men sitting on their farm. Well, let me put it like this. Sunil is sitting here. Therefore, I need to remind you. Yes, our state is backward. But Sunil's air tail is buzzing in the corner of Bihar. Therefore, powered by the smart phone, and I hope he will be liberal in our state, along with all his computers too. Okay. This will create the enabling atmosphere. Number one. Number two, the state government needs to be more proactive. And as I always say, digital India is ideology neutral. Digital India is politics neutral. Digital India is central state neutral. That's how we have to work. Final question from the lady there. Okay. I'll also. So we'll take one more. Good afternoon. My question is, when is digital India going to become inclusive for women? What are your views on gender parity? We see men dominate computer sciences, engineering, mathematics. Are there any initiatives that the government is taking on gender parity? As far as gender parity is concerned, I will see it as a supplemental component of gender justice. Gender justice flows from our fundamental right of the Constitution, dignity, discrimination on the ground of sex. What is important is we need to work more. And I quite see your point. If India has women as a prime minister, India has women as a president, India has so many chief ministers of women. We have got the largest number of women in our council of ministers. We need to promote more women technologists. I hope Sunil is listening to what you are saying. And we have to work together as well to make it a success. That suggestion is quite welcome. But let me tell you, in the IT sector, when I see all of the country, let us salute Indian IT sector. They have created one million direct job and about three millions in direct job. And the largest employment of women is being given in the IT sector. So those are silver lining, we need to take it now. The final question. You wanted a gentleman to... Was someone... Yeah, there. Please, sir. My name is Dr. Reeds. I am an academic expert. I congratulate your pronouncements on the political neutrality of the internet. But just the other day I saw a news item that somebody was persecuted for posting a critical message on WhatsApp regarding Prime Minister Modi. And I am not sure if I saw similar messages repeatedly. Is this a contradiction between local implementation and federal policies? I don't know which news people you saw. But my prime minister has been criticized not only in India but globally. Not only for the last two years, but for the last 14 years. There was an international campaign against him. Yet the people stood by him. Mr. Modi has been one of the biggest supporters of social media, not from today but from mid-90s. And he has ensured all his ministers take complaints on social media and all. You know, maybe at some cases there may be an overzealous police action. And therefore our view is very clear to those who are in public life. Those who are in public life must learn to accept criticism. Fun, pun, joke is a part of democratic life. But my problem is I see in the American campaign this becoming a quiet casualty. That is also important. Excellent sir. But I think as law minister perhaps there is also maybe an issue around capacity building at the three. Let me lift it to a larger level because you invoked my job as a law minister. Today terrorism is becoming a very important issue. Lots of ISIS platforms are abusing ICT in the most vigorous manner and in the most technically savvy manner. What we do? Because when you talk of rights, those who are creating mayhem, killing people with impunity in the name of terrorism are also abusing ICT. That is a very sensitive issue where some fine balance is needed. Right to life, national security is equally important. Please join me in applauding the minister for his remarks and his engagement with us. And thank you, Mr. Minister. Let me invite the three panelists for a 40 minute conversation that we have left. Mr. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Mr. Harwin Fernando, the minister from Chilanka. And I hope Sunil and Vijay will respond to some of the concerns they have articulated. I will ask them different questions and reach different conclusions but I will get there. So we will start where the previous conversation left and let me turn to Mr. Sunil Mittal. As most of you would know, he is what I would call the telecom czar, the communications czar of this country. Also someone whose work has led to India being able to launch something called digital India. He and his peers in the Indian telecom and IT sector in the digital sector have created a framework where we can now be ambitious in what we want to do. So sir let me ask you what the lady in a sense asked the minister. What can the private sector do to ensure affordable access to many who still lack it? So we have big numbers but we also have that 25-30% in terms of telecommunication who are struggling with access and of course more than half of the Indian population still miles away from internet. Well I think the large part of the job that remains to be done is not really on affordability anymore. To my mind the South Asian story is one of affordability. Not just India but I would say that Sri Lanka, Bangladesh in particular and many other parts of this region can be very proud that they have been able to bring the best technologies, the latest cutting edge technologies at the most affordable tariffs. I mean it's almost unthinkable in any other part of the world that you can get to these tariff levels. The problem is we need to roll out and get to that what is mentioned to the last women and last man in the most furthest corner and the furthest forest and the furthest hills and ranges of Himalayas as fast as possible. Regretfully some will still be left out because whatever we may do we will never be able to reach the last 5, 7, 8% and that is the case even with the most effluent parts of the world. I work closely as an investor on the board of a company which has just been launched called OneWeb. That company is going to put up 900 satellites of the lower orbit in the next three or four years and the purpose of that is to get to everybody in the world because the only way to get to that last, last mile is by way of satellite. No fiber, no radio communications, no terrestrial network can ever reach those points and surprisingly the effluent countries are jumping on to one of the faster than Africa or India or Bangladesh because UK for example is wanting to give 25 million as grant to ensure that parts of Northern England, Scotland and Wales can be covered. And similarly US and many other places in particular Canada and Australia have very large swaths of territory which are not covered through any telecommunication facilities. So we are getting there. I think the spectrum was one of the biggest issues that has been resolved to a very large degree. Lots of spectrum as you are all aware has been put up on the table. Most have been picked up, more will be picked up going forward. I think the rollout is now accelerating. My own view is currently we are covering about 93% of India's population on mobile network. That needs to be now converted into a broadband network which is currently only covering about 22%, 23%, 24% of the people. But the good news is the loading down of prices of smartphones. I think things are really accelerating and I'm sure Vijay is seeing the graphs really rise very rapidly in terms of smartphone usage and people getting on to the broadband. So I want to turn your attention to two regions that you are familiar with. The first of course is Africa where you are a major player and of course you can probably also pick on some of the experiences from there which have allowed integration to take place across borders. But also you run affordable programs around data. And I think it's no one's case that telecommunication is expensive in India but I think broadband is something that's still unheard of that requires some solutions. So how would you one look at integration across borders and second how would you bring the cost of data down? I think integration across borders is almost given in a telecom network. You have no choice but to integrate. And thankfully within South Asia I think India has been taking the lead. Very recently we have set up a connectivity exchange in Agartala which connects us in Bangladesh that has allowed us to get to some submarine cables outside the Bangladesh and there are two landlocked nations as you know Nepal and Bhutan who have no way of accessing the oceans and India is providing a lot of connectivity to them. So I think this region is fairly well connected in to say between them and there are now lots of submarine cables going out of India. I think Sri Lanka has also probably got one now going to Singapore and so this region is now from a 10, 50 years back point of view where it was having serious connectivity issues and relying in many parts by way of satellites is now having robust subsea cables. So I think connectivity is pretty good now. Onto your second part as what can be done to further lower the data pricing I think last two weeks itself you've seen a massive reduction of data pricing. What is important is and what sort of has to flow together is the rapid rise of usage as you lower the data because in the end you need to pick up a particular amount of money from each customer to justify your serious investments in spectrum, networks and all that needs to go in. I mean you must know that Airtel being the most financially sustainable company in India makes an ROC of 9% as a single digit which is very close to putting the money in the bank and we run a very complicated business. So it's not that the effort is much less than putting money in the bank but it needs to get to a much sharper level where the balance comes through. So everybody's hoping that as you lower the tariffs on data now the uptake will go up. The good news is we are seeing in certain packages and pockets that the data usage which are struggling around one GB a month may actually jump and settle to three or four GB a month. That's a promising trend. Mr. Minister, Mr. Haran Fernando of course is driving the digital Sri Lanka initiative and I'm going to ask you to speak about that briefly but also how important is it to integrate this region as one digital market? Well I would first and foremost think that all what the minister Prasad said we at Sri Lanka have been looking to India as a big brother always and we always want to implement what India did but when it comes to the other Sri Lanka is just at the brink of doing the same thing but in a very bigger version of it. Technically I think we have trying to implement what Estonia and Sweden did but what amazed me was India is quite technically more savvy than Sri Lanka I would say but the other software was done by Sri Lanka company. So it gave me a bit of a thrill just to see Virtuosa being a Sri Lankan company doing the other software. So also when you look at it, it is always good to work with India because it's a huge market and there's a lot to learn from India. I mean the idea of being in Sri Lanka also gives us a major advantage and a benefit just to elaborate on one fact about connectivity. Digitization is nothing without connectivity so you need to first make sure that the connectivity is right. Even when the minister was saying it's about 270 million people that is connected that's about 40% or 35% in India who is still connected which is similarly in Sri Lanka we are sitting with 20 million population we are about 30% who is still connected on digital devices. So we are still not connected if you really look at it how digital we are going to get and we still have the risk of explaining to our population what digital is how many of our population knows what digital is. This is the first barrier that I had to face when last year our government was formed and I was given the minister of digital infrastructure together with telecommunication. So I tried to find because I come from a very rural constituency in Sri Lanka which is one of the poorest and I became the digital minister my people were very unhappy because they didn't know what digital was so I tried to explain to them what digital could do to them so I went to the dictionary because digital is numbers but numbers wouldn't matter to them so I said digital is what life brings to your fingertips and if it's digital banking or if it's anything in digital e-governance everything brings to your fingertips in 10 years or 5 years our village agriculture will be on their fingertips checking your weather going on to accurate the check and thinking what time is going to rain they'll know at what time to go into your paddy so it's simple as that so you need to simplify to get it out in their heads to get them to be included so I think the integration of how India works how all of this works is something that we need to plan and get the expertise and the knowledge in here Sri Lanka right now I think it's sitting at a very pretty place I think 2017 we're going to revolutionize and there are a lot of agreements at PM Modi and our Prime Minister is just getting ahead and I'm very happy our Prime Minister is very savvy with IT so it looks very good how do you see the KPO sector picking up in Sri Lanka it has such a strong order of accountants so in Sri Lanka we have lots of accountants I think after UK we have the most amount of SEMA-qualified accountants in Sri Lanka and legal people so what we're really concentrating is not on BPO's but on KPO's so we have already appointed two ambassadors for India specifically just to ask Indian companies to come because as I said again connectivity is key Sri Lanka is only 65,000 square kilometres and out of that 32,000 already five optic cables have been laid and we have two submarine cables in Sri Lanka so it gives us six times the broadband speeds plus we are doing the Google balloon so that's an innovation that we have tried lots of people have criticism but I love that innovation because if it works we'll be the first country to have the entire country covered on 4G LTE technology so that will put us on the map and in November we're doing the piloting already people called me the balloon hurrying because if one balloon fell down so already I've become a joke in Sri Lanka but innovation is something that you really need to give an opportunity if it works it's a gamble but if it works you are going to cut so much of CAPEX cost or most of the companies like ETA we have five companies which is too much in Sri Lanka they'll come providers we have two Malaysian companies Indian Emirati company so I think it's too big we're trying to scale it down to about two or three player market we want to merge and want to bring it smaller so better service could be offered so we'll get all these models but if the Google balloon works we can cut most of the companies CAPEX cost and get value addition instead and give more content to be provided with all the questions that was asked about ladies and inclusion and what we also believe is we're trying to get everybody included by a thing called the National Digital Facilitation Centers around Sri Lanka so they will know how to use a device what to be done we also have a thing called a smart social circle that we've already established we have 14,000 Gramma Nildari divisions which is like the lowest level of community based centers we're having the community leaders being taught about digital devices already how to use it, what to do, how do you access so that way we will get everybody included of how they will be using this in the next three to four years and plus we're starting in schools so we're giving tablets for next year starting with grade nine students we're procured because we only have 3 million students in Sri Lanka overall out of there we're giving 500,000 students tablets with a keypad with a 10 inch screen with a keypad and we want to start coding with every student at grade nine level so we want to build that up before I turn to Vijay Sir, can I come back to you and ask you do you find a reluctance in India to experiment with some of these new technologies and new schemes you have a zero rating working in Africa but in India you saw this regulatory pushback we are hesitant about low earth orbit satellites how do you see this policy space expanding I think the march of technology never stops and you will eventually have to adopt all technologies whether it's the Google balloon or it's one web satellites or what Elon Musk is trying to do on his satellite project or the Facebook drone that they are planning the airplane, the solar plane that they're planning so all this will eventually get sorted out if you look at the underlying theme of all this is to cover those unconnected so it's really all of them are that last billion, we call it now industry the last one billion we need to connect those people wherever they are and there's got to be a way out I am less enthusiastic about the balloon than about satellites because you have to control your emitting positions and it's very hard to do it in a balloon and they float all the places it may work for some benefit of some of the farmers some areas and all that will not be that focus and directed but I think all these need to be welcome because at least trials are going on for something that has not been conquered and overcome for the last six or seven decades clearly you believe in the low earth orbit satellites you've invested there Vijay, you are probably running what we call the most exciting part of the digital economy the unicorns the new ways of transacting engaging communicating and building value does India have that culture to adopt this and race with this I think because there is a technology issue there is also an adoption issue yeah I think any technology has two side of stakeholders one is consumer one is more or less business or a merchant or a government or something else which you are interacting with let me say consumers are very enthusiastic about it because the classic problem of India or asset of India being the lot of young people they are ready for the change more comfortably than the regional ones and youngs can be able to do something newer in a newer way than normally a older person would take time to get accepted so consumer side is sorted now much inside in our business there was a lot of challenge and myth in our early days that if you take digital payments somebody's income will get disclosed if you will or more known so the text brackets will come and the opportunity of text men were knocking at your door would come and you would never be tracked and whatnot and we found it was myth actually we found, we finding that people are reaching out to us that I do not have PDM accepted my place versus we thought that they would be persuasion of a time today we are signing up 5000 merchants a day who get onboarded with a sticker and a physical pause so effectively this year end we would cross 1.5 million merchants and then in next years our target is 10 million physical places where you can pay using PDM which is exactly when you said acceptance I'm finding it other way around that there is a zeal towards it and maybe it is a novelty zeal maybe it is a can I grow a business deal or maybe it is a I sound more young youth centric company available to in the way they speak language zeal but it is there it is very much there and do you see a difference between say rural India and very urban and urban centres so you only say young people is it a universal description across India or do you see it surprisingly is significantly deep down in Thai 2, Thai 3 cities young person of a city that I come from I come from my class 12 was in a town where the population would not be more than 2500 people so yes that city is equal or that town is equally enthusiastic as much the city is city guys have more choices so they sort of have more choice of selection of one over other and decision making while the people there if they get to know they just want to quickly get on to it the reason that we find ourselves an exciting sweet spot is because those are the people who are driving it and becoming a brand ambassador there so you see an uptake even in smaller towns and actually it is higher by the way top 15 city will constitute 45 to 50% number and then beyond that it is four we were doing this number 590 pin codes Delhi being identified as one in this by the way while the pin codes are Delhi or many other number of pin codes where merchants were accepting like a 3 month active cohort which was totally funny I would not have thought that we would go more than 500 cities in this country you know I want to pose a question to all three of you which I asked the minister is this sector going to create jobs is this going to transform jobs or is it going to destroy jobs I am going to put it I like the question by the way India has a consumption which is being served by fewer people larger businesses those who have where with all and are nearby in that vicinity if not large businesses technology is creating an opportunity to a person who is not having that customer in front of them so in my theory it first will create job in a sector where there are not enough supplies because there is a consumption and it is not efficiently being offered so it is creating opportunity for this villager who is not having something to be sold to the person who is far away or this villager to have formal financial inclusion and services which otherwise want available so the person can increase the consumption or selling and the small producers are coming into business or small producers or people who did not have financial services are getting opportunity to get loan or and so and so forth so basically it is increasing and then which flows down so you have a bigger shop and more people to manage and more people to produce so it will take a lot of time for the underserved and served environment while in a massively over served environment let me take a situation of an airline industry if you will check encounters when we need it that effectively means lesser points are required at that point but that is where exactly you need efficiency the technology has to drive so it will take jobs at a very small sector and very small places where the efficiency is a valuable reason so it will take manner at a places where they need it to be created. So bottom of the pyramid we will see job creation and the top of the pyramid will get more efficiency. I see it in a very different side of it as well on a political angle when I heard the panel discussion yesterday a government's aim should be to have at least an 8% growth if you are to sustain this technology and the fourth industrial revolution in the political sense should be a technological technical stuff has to improve we need to build them up there and the school structure how you have the education system moving up this will create more jobs. We see in our country children falling out of school and just doing mere jobs in India for example in Sri Lanka you fall out of school you get into a three-wheeler or you become a three-wheeler driver or just go into a company just be your life until you become a three-wheeler driver you are just a labour but that's not what you want to see to our countries they need to grow. So if that's the sense that you want to see your country moving up to that's where the job creation will be there will be a knowledge based economy built in that country so for that all these technical things would give them that job give them the market that could be that that's a dream that you can find education in Sri Lanka we are doing it now we had this system where we have an ordinary level exam if you fail you fail out of school and you drop out and we clearly saw that for all of us at 16 years you do this exam and 600,000 students normally for a year sit and advanced level only 200,000 students sit so 400,000 per year was falling out of school and they didn't have jobs so now we take a policy decision all the 600,000 students will be moved on for 13 years of compulsory education if they don't do well they will go into vocational training they'll get some sort of education in their systems so I think you know when you get a knowledge based economy it's very easy and I think IT is a key sector some students may not be bright in maths or science or whatever but you give them a device they do wonders and that's something that we have really figured out with younger children and the younger students see for our own kids you give them a device they very good so that's an interesting take so bottom of the pyramid job creation knowledge job creation so Mr Rajan Mithin had spoken many years ago and I think four or five years ago at a conference and I remember him telling us that roughly 100 million Indians could not read or write but were keypad literate they could play with those 12 keys on an old phone and do certain activities and you had in a sense very soon in a couple of years you will have more people connected broadband than those who would have cleared secondary school so what is the kind of the job technology nexus that you see emerging in the place like India well you know there are I would say competing forces at the moment and they are very very strong competing forces and from my standpoint I see technology all around me I talk to a lot of people as the chairman of ICC now I sit on a global business body I see a lot of stress on the job area in fact the current growth whatever little is happening as you know both WTO and IMF have set the growth rates lower for this year and the U.S. will eventually drop down from below 2% and the worldwide average will be at 3% just because emerging markets are still growing this growth is missing one part it is a low growth but it's a jobless growth that's a serious concern for all the organizations whether it's in Sri Lanka or India and the other competing force that is anti-globalization and anti-immigration these are two very very strong forces at play at the moment and that's a worry for countries like India because what's our capital our capital above all everything else is our people and if you don't have the access of these people to take jobs anywhere in the world which was the case and the whole premise of globalization and to which India drastically followed opening up of FDI opening up each sector and suddenly you're saying when India needs to get into the world economy or their spaces there seems to be restrictions coming in so first of all I was glad that the Indian government has taken upon itself to introduce the trade facilitation for services in WTO I think in the next week or two weeks they'll present that there'll be tremendous amount of resistance against that but India needs to push it there is a section which will welcome it there's a very large forceful section which is going to oppose it so that's one part so India has to worry about our knowledge workers yours and mine to be blocked from getting global jobs on shore in those countries now there'll be a lot of opportunities offshoring in which you can do things from here but even there when you hear Clinton or Trump both are saying we want to bring back jobs into the US so that's a massive competing thing going on and we need to worry about that secondly you pick up artificial intelligence which is now becoming real this is no more in the future it's here and now add AR VR augmented reality and virtual reality you put robotics with that and everything sits in the cloud you are looking at massive disruption in many many areas of jobs we just spoke about airline counters I can go and reel out 20 others whether it's the the broken floors of the banks all the employees most of the people analysts brokers you will not need anybody just one or two bots sitting there will do everything that is required to be done you go into law firms the maximum amount of employment is in the research assistants or people who are coming out of law school to assess the senior councils we saw the Watson four months back doing a case for the senior council it was all produced by Watson the computer no human intervention it was significantly more sophisticated so it can pick up everything in the world refer to those case laws and produce the best document there were three surgeons put on test against a robotic arm to do a big gallbladder surgery it was clearly established that the robotic arm did a much superior job than the three best surgeons so you are looking at displacement of many many jobs you talk about autonomous cars tens of millions of drivers are going to come out of it as politicians people need to start worrying about finding the next level of jobs higher or lower because you don't want disruption in the society we should not while celebrating massive march of technology forget that they are forcing that work which will create difficulties and to underscore your point so I read a news report recently which suggests that textile which was the first industry to be sent to the global south is now going back home because of robotics and artificial intelligence and you have machines producing governments and I think that's the worry part so now open it up for questions but I do want to leave one thought with each of you and maybe in the closing remarks you can address it gender and technology gender and digital economy how do we make it gender aware but I'm opening it up for questions you can raise your arms yeah please and please sir identify yourself and pose a question either to one or to generally to the entire sir I am so my question is my question is to Mr. Mithun so you have said that so the artificial intelligence and robotics it's going to rule the world and in India we have so much of elite population and possibly government might not be able to make so much of India literate and specifically in these fields artificial intelligence and robotics which is just the emerging field so how is how do you think that private sector can play a role in making India more literate and knowledgeable particularly in the context of these two fields which you alluded to I personally would like to point you towards the digital mission that the Prime Minister has outlined it's a very very powerful pillar of his economic agenda and around that if you look at the Bharat Net rolling out of fiber which was earlier called NOFN rolling out fiber across the entire country connecting every village level of governance onto that fiber more mobile broadband, more broadband networks coming out, smart phones rates getting down you're going to see a lot of people who I would say even few years back could not have been able to get on to the digital way we'll get on to it so I am very confident that the Indians by and large are very friendly people can pick up through sound and touch things that they could not earlier do will make a lot of young Indians very very digitally literate that's a given now will they be able to now also get on to robotics and artificial intelligence and use more of the leading edge technologies my confidence is high Indians have generally been very very good with adoption of technology I mean I'm stunned when I see I can use the phones as compared to what was there five or seven years back so I remain confident the government is aware the government is wanting to push the digital agenda forward the digital trade part that Vijay is leading in one big part is also pushing the agenda because people will like to buy online people like to transact online people like to deal with the government online so I remain optimistic I think we have to keep pushing hard one good news is India as a continent of consumers and ourselves a very very large market and I remain confident they will be able to fulfill the aspirations of many many millions of people can we have the mic here please gentlemen here the two of them in fact what we'll do is we'll take these three questions together and then we'll go to the final round of comments from the panelists so please my name is Amrit and I work for Mint newspaper we've talked about the future of technology IT etc the primary point and which is perhaps most important Mr. Mittal is the quality of service that we get with the current round of spectrum auctions getting over yesterday how do you see that running out in the future I mean I want an answer not on behalf of the not on behalf of Airtel but on behalf of the industry can we take on three of them because then we'll go to the close here please hi I'm Kithwena I'm a global shaper from Colombo in a previous session we spoke about India being the lead in the second world when it came to technological entrepreneurship in the same vein my question is what can other countries do for example Sri Lanka do to encourage or incentivize Indian entrepreneurship or investment in the technological field come into their countries what have you found to be barriers in entering these markets I'm also a global shaper and I work for Microsoft so my question is to both the business men sitting here Microsoft and Google, Facebook and I believe IBM partner on AI research so do you see some sort of collaboration in your industries respectively I just want to also congratulate the minister of saying that India and Sri Lanka have a lot to learn from each other e-commerce in other fields great so I will add my last yeah so but I will like all of you to address my question which is are we seeing two things happening one women benefiting from technology and two women leading the digital economy so can we next year see women here in this panel I think that's the challenge for us that's my question to this panel but go ahead or you want to start sir I can take the first question on behalf of the mobile industry you know the ingredient that drives high quality networks is really nothing but spectrum and you know the Indian spectrum position has been woefully eradicated compared to any other part of the world we have come from that problem in a dramatically good way in a very fast manner I think government has been able to harmonize a lot of spectrum a lot of spectrum was put onto the table parts and segments of those spectrum are extremely expensive and I think missing out on the 700 megahertz which is truly a very high quality spectrum which in fact Sri Lanka has not got it from the broadcasters as yet we have been able to get it we have been put to good use three or four good solid networks around 700 would have taken care of a lot of rural broadband networks and this is a missed opportunity I hope the government will look into this and correct that particular part but leave that aside there is still a lot of other spectrum that has been made available I personally believe that you will see tremendous amount of upliftment of broadband speeds my own company has picked up a second carrier in most of the key places spectrum speeds broadband speeds but gives you probably five or six acts of speeds coming through so in the coming months you will start seeing massive improvements across the country not just by my company but all the industry players who have actively participated India is finally getting out of fractured spectrum it was earlier very small and then it was fractured amongst 12 players we are getting down to four players now and I think that would mean that the spectrum would not be an issue because there is investing enough more towers are coming up the other issue was radiation scare I am quite pleased that Ravi Shankar Basaji himself and the current minister have been now clearly giving comfort to the society that India is actually much more tighter norms than anywhere else in the world we are one tenth of Europe and US and people are getting more comfortable you can put out more sides I would say things are better already but they will keep on getting better about the investment in Sri Lanka first so India has a great market and like all of us want to learn first what is happening in this country and this is the testing or the scaling space and then like Airtel landed in Sri Lanka I think the opportunity for Indian companies comes after they have sort of built a sustainable mode in India before that it is very very flimsy to go there and maybe some technology services which are built using apps which are totally ported just because the app store exists can go there but that doesn't technically mean that you have gone there and invested something especially so I would say that technology companies are yet in early days of sustenance for them since and once they get standing on their feet stronger than they will logically go there on AI front like you shared one other thing that I am a little disappointed about India is that we have been traditionally known as producer for the world in technology IT services classically I was figuring out that TCS has a great amount of software built on AI but except that it is a practice they gave it to the customers that look we can build something on AI while as far as the industry is concerned companies are concerned are they internally in sync on building something collaboration I think it is a classic where surviving is called thriving we are still there I mean look at the telecom we are talking about reaching out places and we are talking about consumers getting the access and then growing beyond that and ROC 9% hearing that I think this is a classic that when Bharti gives that return then talk about what others are doing so do we have a opportunity to thrive beyond survive I think that is still far away so these are good opportunities to talk about but before that we want bread and butter taken care for long first and women in the new economy women the new economy is inevitability because I think India is one of those rare countries where IT services have been the biggest I mean I learned it a while back from our minister that IT services have been the place where so if we were talking about this space it is all about I think aspirational that women are now completely forward Indian government has even put mandates in board rooms and then at places so I am far more hopeful that there are more women going to come proactively and suggested from the ecosystem than earlier if it was remaining so. Final word to you minister. I would just also say I think Sri Lanka phase is a huge challenge because we are very under represented even in our political scenario when it comes to women unlike India we have only 13% of women representing the parliament as well so I think we are taking key initiatives on that and I think last week we had UN doing a special program with us on digitization with women so I think we are very keen and we are looking into it and we have got some content and we are getting a lot of women involved I hope to see that by next year we will do something. One finger intervention but the producers are telling me I have 30 seconds. This is brought out just the correct thing which is globally being talked about how technology is going to eat the primary jobs on the top quadrant so what as a business person what is the stage to the society and the politicians and governments that in such scenarios when technology is taking the top job what is left there re-skilling being not necessarily the scalable solution if you will and then still what kind of jobs are going to be there really. We need to fight on the global stage we need to have open access open visas immigration should not be a blocking issue against India and of course India needs to find a lot more jobs within the country and we need to create a lot of jobs for the next several years. Those were the final words for this panel join me in applauding the panelists for their interventions and engagement and thank you all for joining us let me also thank the online viewers for being with us this afternoon thank you very much.