NEW DELHI, 25 February 2020: NITI Aayog CEO Mr Amitabh Kant today said that the government is in the process of creating a portal to share data on public platform for public use.

Speaking at the session on 'Shaping the New Economy: Transitions & Trends in Technology' during 'US-India Forum: Partners for Growth' organized by FICCI, jointly with USISPF and ORF, Mr Kant said, "India has a vast amount of data. NITI Aayog is working on a portal to put this data in an anonymous manner in public domain so that the people across the sectors can utilize it."

Mr Kant said that India has over 2,000 startups working in AI and machine learning and we can���t starve the startups of data. However, he outlined that critical human personal data should be kept within the country.

He further added that there is a need to create an economic framework for data pooling as a business resource in a responsible manner.

"It is not possible for India to grow rapidly at high rates without a technological leapfrogging in many areas of growth. India has to get into sunrise areas of the industry, and I believe India can radically change the landscape of electric mobility," said Mr Kant.

He said that India offers the size & scale to do innovations across health and education among other sectors. India has a scale of data that no other country can offer. "Indians are going to use data to a greater size and scale as we are the only country in the world which has a varied bank of biometrics," Mr Kant added.

Highlighting the potential of Artificial Intelligence, Mr Kant urged companies and banks to leverage on the power of machine learning and AI. "Companies or banks which do not use Artificial Intelligence or machine learning will just go bust. Companies which use the power of technology will leapfrog," he said.

Ms Aruna Sundararajan, Former Secretary of Telecom, Government of India said, "We must open up and enlarge the regulatory sandboxes in every area and have a full play for innovations."

FICCI Senior Vice President Mr Uday Shankar moderated the session.

Earlier during the day at the session on 'US-India Strategic Collaboration in the Indo-Pacific', Mr Ram Madhav, National General Secretary, BJP said that the 21st century India is different from the past century. We are not just an aspirational nation, we are also an ambitious nation today.

"Indo-Pacific region is the most happening region in the 21st century. The global power has shifted to this region. We happen to be the most important country in the region and US is the most important stakeholder in the region."