PM Modi raised the esteem of Indian diaspora abroad: Jitendra Singh

“The world is looking up to the Indian diaspora with great hope and expectation and it is high time that they also rise to the occasion and contribute to the well-being of the entire humankind in the true spirit of the theme of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ as given by PM Modi during India’s G20 presidency,” he said.

Jitendra Singh was speaking to the Indian diaspora here as part of his 6-day visit to the United Kingdom, where he is leading a high-level official Indian delegation of the Ministry of Science & Technology to enhance S&T collaboration between India and the United Kingdom.

Interacting with the diaspora, the minister said that the Indian diaspora should try to channelise their resources to support the important initiatives taken up by the government back home in India.

He emphasised that India is on a path of transformation and emphasised the significance of science and technology in driving economic growth and rising living standards.

Sharing some of the key achievements of India in science and technology like India’s massive jump in its ranking on the Global Innovation Index (GII) from 81st in the year 2015 to 40th in 2022 among 132 economies of the world, 3rd rank in terms of number of startups, unicorns, scientific publications and PhDs awarded, Singh said that India has in recent years made some unprecedented progress in S&T areas.

He mentioned that in the recent past, the government has launched several flagship initiatives such National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (ICPS); Quantum Computing and Communication; National Mission on Supercomputing, Electric Mobility, Green hydrogen etc.

Talking about startups, Jitendra Singh said that India has emerged as the third-largest global start-up ecosystem, growing at an annual rate of 12-15% and has around 90,000 startups.