Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 'Responsible AI for Social Empowerment (RAISE) 2020' Summit – a virtual global summit towards powering India with the advantage of Artificial Intelligence. The event, which is organized by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, in collaboration with NITI Aayog, will end on Friday, October 9, 2020 at 21:00.

The summit also hosted Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Electronics & IT, Communications & Law & Justice, Professor Raj Reddy, Turing Awardee, Padma Bhushan awardee, former Co-Chair, US President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries Ltd, Dr. Arvind Krishna, CEO, IBM India, Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog and Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics

& IT. The summit will have 45 sessions over the next four days, with participation of around 300 speakers from academia, industry and government.

In his speech, PM Modi said, “India has also proved to be the powerhouse of the global IT services industry. We will continue to digitally excel and delight the world. We want India to become a global hub for AI. Many Indians are already working in this area. I hope many more do so in the times to come. Our approach to this is powered by the core principles of teamwork, trust, collaboration, responsibility and inclusivity.”

PM added, “India's National programme on AI will be dedicated towards the rightful use of AI in solving societal problems," the Prime Minister added. Shri Modi also emphasized that we must ensure that human intellect should always be a few steps ahead of AI. "While we discuss AI, let us also have no doubts that human creativity and human emotions continue to be our greatest strength. They are our unique advantage over machines. Even the smartest of AI cannot solve mankind's problems without blending with our intellect.”

Commenting on the occasstion, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology elucidated, “Technology at times overwhelms us, but we welcome AI to generate development and promot e equity. India's resource of demographic dividend will play a key role in promoting pools of skilled professionals to take the country’s AI ecosystem forward. India's application of AI will become a beacon for the world.”

In his address, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries Ltd said, “When 1.3 billion Indians are digitally empowered, they will unleash proliferation of digital enterprises that will create faster growth, better standards of living and superior opportunities across society.”