MeitY, or the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has been one of the most important executive agencies of the Indian Government, catalyzing its transition into a developed nation and an empowered society.

Since its inception, it has been the flag bearer for the e-Development of India, deploying merging technologies through its various initiatives and subordinate agencies. In 2021, it introduced and implemented numerous programs to deploy rising technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, IoT, Robotics, and Big Data for the collective good of millions of Indians.

Azadi Ka Digital Mahotsav

On 29th November 2021, MeitY hosted a week-long event, ‘Azadi Ka Digital Mahotsav’, to mark the 75th year of independence and showcase the growth of digital technology in different segments across the country. The Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Sh Rajeev Chandrasekhar emphasized the digital ambitions of India at the event and said that MeitY will be a catalyst and force multiplier to achieve such goals.

Another dignitary, Mr. Sawhney proposed a single sign-on for citizens to avail all kinds of virtual services. Also, he emphasized that the national public digital platforms offer an opportunity for the industries to join hands with the central and state governments.

AI pe Charcha

AI pe Charcha was yet another initiative of MeitY launched in 2021. It is a series of panel discussions that involve leaders from the government as well as the industry from across the globe. During the events, the academicians and researchers share their views and experiences on AI, breakthrough innovations, related case studies and practices as well as the challenges faced by AI. It was launched with the aim to cover best practices related to AI around the globe.

It is a step towards understanding and harnessing the power of evolving technologies and their policy implications.

India’s First Quantum Computer Simulator (QSim) Toolkit

In August 2021, MeitY launched India’s first Quantum Computer Simulator (QSim) toolkit in collaboration with IIT Roorkee, IISC Bangalore, and C-DAC. QSim is an indigenous toolkit that will serve as a vital research and educational tool for researchers and students in quantum computing. It is one of the first initiatives in India to address the common challenge of advancing its Quantum Computing research frontiers.

“QSim can serve as an important educational/research tool providing an excellent way to attract students/researchers to the field of Quantum Technology and provide a platform to acquire the skills of ‘programming’ as well as ‘designing’ real Quantum Hardware.”

Semiconductor Start-up Incubation and Acceleration Program

In the first quarter of 2021, MeitY and Fabless Chip Design Incubator (FabCI), IIT-Hyderabad collaborated with NXP India, one of the biggest R&D centers for NXP Semiconductors, and announced the launch of the first ‘Semiconductor Startup Incubation and Acceleration Program’. This is an initiative to find, facilitate, and mentor semiconductor and IP design start-ups in technological as well as business aspects across India.

“The program will support India’s vision of becoming a self-reliant nation as it creates a ready platform to support start-ups who wish to design semiconductor chips in India. The local hardware design and manufacturing of products will strengthen the core technology-driven system pillar vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat”, said an official.

Quantum Computing Applications Lab

In January 2021, MeitY announced to establish Quantum Computing Applications Lab in India, in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). A first-of-its-kind initiative in the world, this move is expected to accelerate quantum computing-led research and development and enable new scientific discoveries in the country.

“The MeitY Quantum Computing Applications Lab will provide quantum computing as a service to government ministries and departments, researchers, scientists, academia, and developers to enable advances in areas such as manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture, and aerospace engineering”, said the Vice President at AWS.