New Delhi:
Shutting down the internet is always the last resort and it is also not unique to India, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said today at the NDTV G20 conclave.
Mr. Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology, said the spread of misinformation is the biggest risk for any country.
India had cut the internet in Jammu and Kashmir after special status was scrapped. There is also a partial internet blackout in communal violence-hit Manipur.
“The advent of artificial intelligence can take disinformation to the next level with deep fakes and other methods,” Chandrasekhar said at the G20 conclave.
He said the shutdown of the internet is to stop the spread of disinformation.
Referring to the example of the hugely successful United Payments Interface (UPI), the Union Minister also explained how the government has been able to bust the myth that technology is expensive.
Millions of Indians are now using UPI for transactions as low as Re 1 to buying goods worth thousands.
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“We have turned the narrative that technology is expensive on its head. UPI has closed leaks in the government process. Earlier, Rs 100 left Delhi and only Rs 15 would reach the people because the process had leaks,” Mr Chandrasekhar told NDTV.
“We plan to connect all public services to the digital public infrastructure (DPI). The Indian DPI is moving towards AI for governance,” he said, referring to artificial intelligence.