'Sophisticated technology can make India a powerful country'

India Inc pledges $75 bn on Digital India launch

"Jugaad technology must be filtered into sophisticated technology to make India a powerful country," Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at the launch of the Indo-Africa ICT Expo in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Talking of Prime Minister Nareandra Modi's Digital India mission, Prasad said Indian industry has commited $75 billion or Rs 472,500 crore during the initial week.

"On Digital India day (July 1), you will be happy to know that we made a very decisive initiative that investors -- global and Indian -- must declare their intention to invest in India...on a single day in a programme of two hours we were pledged $75 billion investment in the field of ICT and other allied services," Prasad said while launching .

The ministry on July 1 is estimated to have received an investment commitment of about Rs 4.7 lakh crore from leading Indian conglomerates and global companies including Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Aditya Birla group and Vedanta.

Telecom secretary Rakesh Garg said that rapid growth of the sector has fuelled demand for telecom equipment (in India) including mobile phones which is $20 billion for 2015-16 and is expected to exceed $30 billion by 2020. This large demand has created strong base on which Indian companies have created innovative high quality products and solution," Garg said.