Headroom for AI-led productivity boost high in India: MeitY Secretary

The headroom for raising productivity through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) is much higher in India than in other nations, S Krishnan, secretary at the electronics and information technology ministry, said on Thursday.

Speaking at an event organised by global tech industry group Business Software Alliance (BSA), he said AI's disruption to jobs in India would also be lower since white collar jobs make up a limited proportion of the total employment.

"In terms of use for productive purposes, India is one of the leading adopters of AI. 70% of the world apparently uses many AI tools more for entertainment. In India, that proportion is significantly lower, and it's used more for business purposes, more for enterprise purposes," Krishnan said.


BSA, which counts Adobe, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce and Zoom as members, on Thursday unveiled an India agenda for adoption of enterprise AI.

The agenda calls for removing current restrictions on cross-border data transfers, and allowing access to non-sensitive high-value government datasets.