Emerging tech startups key to India’s future economy: Jitendra Singh

Speaking at the meeting, Singh said the hackathon will boost innovation and entrepreneurship in India’s geospatial ecosystem. He invited the youth of the country to participate and contribute to the construction of the national geospatial economy.

Half of our population is under the age of 40 and very ambitious, the minister said, showing that India’s start-up economy has crossed a major milestone as it added its 100th Indian start-up to unicorn status in 2022 club.

He said that in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision, India is on the cusp of a geospatial revolution and a healthy synergy between government, industry and science will greatly boost economic output and will help India become a $10 trillion country. Dollar economy to 2030.

The Minister thanked the Ministry of Science and Technology, Indian Bureau of Investigation, IIIT Hyderabad and Microsoft India for planning, participating and designing the Geospatial Hackathon, which he said would serve as a formal launch platform for India’s Geospatial Strategy and Policy which envisages making India a global Future leaders in the geospatial field.

He also thanked all collaborating institutions, academia, research institutes, industry and think tanks who have joined this noble mission.

According to Jitendra Singh, the purpose of this hackathon is not only to foster collaboration between the public and private geospatial sectors, but also to strengthen the geospatial start-up ecosystem in the country.

He added that in order to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the country urgently needs to have reliable geospatial information for effective policy formulation, planning and project operations.

Jitendra Singh said the Modi government has taken various initiatives to liberalize and democratize the geospatial sector after opening up the space sector for private participation in 2020.

The minister emphasized that with the launch of the National Geospatial Policy, India is on a path to facilitate doing business across the geospatial domain, which will facilitate the mission of building a vibrant and globally competitive geospatial ecosystem in India.