Latest news with #S.Krishnan
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
IAS Central Association elects new leadership: S Krishnan named president; focus on unity & public trust
NEW DELHI: The IAS Central Association convened its General Body Meeting on July 26, 2025, in New Delhi, during which a new Executive Committee was elected to steer the association forward. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Senior bureaucrat S. Krishnan, a 1989-batch officer from the Tamil Nadu cadre, was elected as the new President. The committee also saw the induction of Sriram Taranikanti from the Tripura cadre (1992 batch) and A Anbarasu from the Union Territories cadre (1996 batch) as Vice Presidents. Kunal, a 2005-batch officer from the UT cadre, has taken over as Secretary, while Aditi Singh from the Uttar Pradesh cadre (2009 batch) will serve as Treasurer. Officers from a broad range of state cadres have been included as members, including Chinmay Gotmare, Shelesh Nawal, Rahul Singh, D Thara, Shah Faesal, and others. Two retired officers, Sanjay Bandhopadhyaya and Sanjay Bhoosreddy, were also named as part of the committee. In his first address as President, S. Krishnan underlined the need for the IAS community to reinforce its value in the public system through collaborative engagement, ethical leadership, and institutional contribution. He spoke of the importance of mentoring younger officers, amplifying the service's positive work in the public domain, and strengthening cooperation with state associations. Krishnan also called for unity among members and urged them to make purposeful use of digital platforms to spotlight governance successes and build greater public trust in the civil services. The newly elected team is expected to focus on enhancing the visibility, cohesion, and impact of the IAS Association in the evolving landscape of Indian governance.
The Hindu
21-07-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Abhay Tripathi Memorial Lecture: AI improving efficiency in governance, says IT Secretary Krishnan
Artificial Intelligence (AI) can introduce efficiencies in governance, Secretary for Electronics and Information Technology S. Krishnan said on Monday (July 21, 2025). Mr. Krishnan was delivering the Abhay Tripathi Memorial Lecture at the United Service Institution of India. 'Grievances are now being addressed 25% faster on an average due to the use of AI in CP-GRAMS,' Mr. Krishnan said, referring to the Union Government's main grievance redressal portal. Mr. Krishnan said Artificial Intelligence would also help in credit scoring and loan disbursement. 'Formal lending remains extremely low' in India,' he said. 'A big business can get financing at 8-9%, but smaller or remote businesses get higher costs because of high administrative costs and risks involved. Data flows from GST and other sources that can ascertain creditworthiness can help with access to debt.' 'India relatively more insulated from job loss concerns' Mr. Krishnan said India was relatively more insulated from job loss concerns from generative AI. 'The percentage of white collar employment in India compared to the rest of the world is much, much smaller,' he said. 'So the risk of those jobs going away because of generative AI are not as grave in India as elsewhere, and this is one reason we don't fear AI as much as other countries.' 'After three major AI summits — the first on safety in Bletchley Park in the U.K., the second in Seoul and the third on AI innovation in Paris — the next summit will take place in New Delhi with a focus on impact of AI,' Mr. Krishnan said. 'This is a space where I think the embrace of innovation is more important, particularly in India's context, both in terms of improving governance in India and in using it as an opportunity for the economy to lead into the next generation. We will take a few years, and the idea of it eventually is we want a prosperous nation where the fruits of growth will reach everybody, and we grow rich before we grow old.'
Time of India
12-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Quantum readiness is a strategic imperative for India: S. Krishnan
New Delhi: Quantum readiness is a strategic imperative as we prepare for the disruptive potential of quantum technologies especially in cybersecurity , S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY , said on Friday. He was addressing at the launch of a whitepaper titled "Transitioning to Quantum Cyber Readiness" by IT Ministry's Indian Computer Emergency Response Team ( CERT-In ) and cybersecurity firm SISA here. Krishnan emphasised that as we go through the digital, AI and quantum transformations across sectors, "the need is to start building resilience in the ICT infrastructures well in time with clarity and agility. This white paper provides the right ingredients for the same". Highlighting the importance of this initiative, Dr. Sanjay Bahl, Director General of CERT-In, stated that "CERT-In recognises that quantum computing will fundamentally change the threat landscape. "We must evolve our security frameworks today to protect India's expanding digital infrastructure tomorrow. This partnership with SISA demonstrates the importance of public private collaboration between private-sector innovation and governments strategic initiatives. We welcome such partnerships to build national preparedness," he noted. As India advances its leadership in digital innovation, the whitepaper serves as a strategic learning guide to help organizations understand, anticipate, and respond to the emerging risks of quantum computing. Designed with the unique needs of regulated sectors such as BFSI, healthcare, and government in mind, it combines practical technical recommendations with a broader call to foster a culture of proactive security and resilience, equipping organisations to navigate the quantum horizon with confidence. Dharshan Shanthamurthy, CEO and Founder of SISA, underscored the significance of the shift. "Quantum computing represents the single greatest shift in cybersecurity in over three decades. What we are dealing with is not just a faster computer but a complete redefinition of computational boundaries. The systems that we built our digital trust on are vulnerable by design in the quantum context," said Shanthamurthy. This is especially critical for countries like India that have leapfrogged into digital-first economies. "Our skills combined with CERT-In's strategic approach to proactive cybersecurity and incident response capabilities offers a holistic strategy for safeguarding the future of India's digital ecosystem. At SISA, we are bringing forensic depth, real-world visibility, and future-proof cryptographic strategies to help enterprises build resilience where it matters most - at the data layer," he highlighted.
Hans India
20-05-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Cybersecurity audits top agenda at CERT-In conference
New Delhi: Discussions on Cybersecurity audits and emerging technologies dominated the agenda at an ongoing brainstorming conference organised by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), said an official on Tuesday. The three-day national conference, 'CERT-In SAMVAAD 2025,' began on Monday, aiming to unite information security auditing organisations, regulators, and stakeholders to enhance cybersecurity practices across the nation, the official said. In his inaugural address, S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), highlighted the importance of collaboration to address evolving cyber threats and strengthen India's audit ecosystem. He also mentioned that CERT-In's initiative offers a valuable opportunity for auditing organisations to upgrade practices and share knowledge, contributing to a more cyber-resilient India, said a statement. Dr. Kamakoti Veezhinathan, Director, IIT-Madras, delivered a brief presentation emphasising the importance of cyber resilience — ensuring the continuity of essential services and safeguards even during adverse situations, particularly in light of the evolving cyber threat landscape targeting Indian organisations across various sectors. He underscored the need for comprehensive architectures, frameworks and models to support cyber resilience programs among diverse stakeholders. Dr Veezhinathan appreciated CERT-In's efforts in organising the conference and expressed hope that the event would significantly contribute to strengthening the capabilities of participating information security auditing organisations and improving overall auditing practices. The conference organised by CERT-In, in collaboration with SkillsDA, was also attended by Brajendra Navnit, Principal Secretary, Information Technology and Digital Services Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, Dr. N. Subramanian, Executive Director, Society for Electronic Transactions and Security (SETS) and Dr. Sanjay Bahl, Director General, CERT-In. The event included a panel discussion on 'Cybersecurity Audits & Regulatory Expectations: Bridging the Gap' moderated by S.S. Sarma, Director Operations, CERT-In, with panellists from various regulators. The discussion provided auditing organisations with valuable and actionable insights into regulatory expectations. The three-day event also promises parallel management and technical tracks, with over 70 presentations that would set the standard for cutting-edge cybersecurity audit practices. The management track would explore key topics such as human factors in auditing, C-suite risk management, governance frameworks and strategies for stakeholder communication. The technical track would focus on emerging tools for automated audits, securing next-generation technologies (IoT, AI/ML, blockchain, quantum computing), SBOM implementation and innovative approaches to complex and continuous audit environments, including cloud systems, APIs and operational technology.
Time of India
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Time of India
Electronic components mfg: Hybrid incentive structure to support various sectors in scaling up, says S Krishnan
With an eye on strategic autonomy and technological leadership, the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology ( MeitY ) is spearheading India's transformation into a global hub for electronics manufacturing and artificial intelligence. At the heart of this effort lies a series of bold policy interventions—from deepening the domestic electronics value chain through targeted incentive schemes, to nurturing homegrown AI capabilities that reflect India's linguistic and socio-economic diversity. These initiatives are not only designed to boost industrial capacity but also to secure the country's digital infrastructure in an increasingly volatile global landscape. In this exclusive interview, S. Krishnan , Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, speaks to Anoop Verma , Editor-News, ETGovernment, about the launch of the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme , the strategic rationale behind building an indigenous AI foundational model , the heightened vigilance against cyber threats, and the government's broader roadmap for strengthening India's digital economy and technological resilience. From launching a targeted Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme to supporting India's first homegrown AI foundational model, and reinforcing national cybersecurity amid evolving threats, the government is crafting a comprehensive blueprint for resilient and future-ready technological growth. Edited Excerpts: With the launch of the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme, how does MeitY envision India's growing role in the global electronics supply chain? This scheme is a strategic intervention aimed at addressing two major objectives. First, we want to firmly embed India into the global value chain for electronics manufacturing. Second, we are determined to enhance the level of value addition happening within India itself. Today, India's average value addition in electronics is about 18–20%. Our goal is to at least double this figure to 35–40%. To understand why this matters, we must consider how global value chains operate—especially for complex goods like smartphones, automobiles, and electronic devices. A mobile phone, for instance, may cross up to 70 national borders in the course of its production. Components are sourced globally, assembled in multiple stages, and only then does the product reach the consumer. Even in China, which dominates global electronics manufacturing, the value addition per product is about 40–45%. So, while 100% value addition is neither practical nor necessary, India must significantly deepen its manufacturing footprint. That's precisely what this scheme seeks to accomplish. Why is it important for India to move up the electronics value chain now? Moving up the value chain is essential for four reasons. First, we can't rely solely on assembly work. While it's labor-intensive and has rightly been our entry point, real economic and technological gains come from producing modules and components. As we grow economically, wages will rise, and the cost advantage for basic assembly will diminish. Without deeper manufacturing capabilities, industries may shift to cheaper destinations—just as they once moved from China to Vietnam or Bangladesh. We want to avoid a premature exit of this industry from India. Second, deepening the value chain enables higher quality job creation. Manufacturing components and capital goods requires skilled labour, fosters technical know-how, and nurtures ancillary industries. This creates a more sustainable and robust industrial base. Third, electronics is the world's largest manufacturing sector and a significant part of India's import bill. We are one of the largest consumers of electronics. Depending entirely on imports makes us vulnerable to supply chain shocks—especially in strategic areas such as defence, medical devices, or telecom. Building domestic capacity will make India more resilient. Finally, as we become a hub for electronics exports, we must also ensure that our domestic ecosystem—design, components, tooling, capital goods—is mature enough to support scale, quality, and innovation. How has the scheme been designed to focus on these strategic goals? We've deliberately focused on components that have high cost share in the final product—say, camera modules or printed circuit boards (PCBs)—as they offer the greatest scope for value capture. If a component accounts for 4–5% of the bill of materials in a smartphone, manufacturing it domestically significantly enhances value addition. We're also targeting components where Indian firms already have a foothold and can scale quickly. That's a more efficient use of capital and helps existing players grow faster. A third pillar of our strategy is the development of capital goods—machinery and tooling used in electronics manufacturing. This is a long-neglected sector in India. Historically, we have imported most of this machinery from Japan, China, Europe, or the U.S. Now, with electronics becoming India's largest manufacturing sector, we see a strong case for building domestic capacity in capital goods tailored to this domain. This creates a multiplier effect by strengthening upstream industries as well. The scheme has a sizable outlay—around ₹22,944 crore. How will this fund be strategically deployed to maximize outcomes? Typically, we prefer production-linked incentives (PLIs) because they reward actual output. You only get the incentive if you produce and sell. This ensures that taxpayer money translates into real economic activity. However, PLIs work best when the investment-to-turnover ratio is high—as in mobile phone assembly, where investment is modest, but turnover is large. In such cases, even a small PLI payout is impactful. But components and capital goods have a different profile. They often require large upfront capital investments, and annual turnover can be relatively low—perhaps even less than the capital invested. So a pure PLI model is inadequate. To solve this, we've introduced a hybrid incentive structure—a mix of capital subsidies and production-based incentives. This allows us to support sectors where either model alone would fall short. For example, a capital-intensive project may get upfront support for machinery, and additional benefits as it scales production. This is the first time we're taking such a hybrid approach, and we believe it aligns incentives effectively across sectors. Is employment creation a condition for availing benefits under the scheme? Employment is a central objective. Participating companies must create and report high-quality jobs in order to unlock the full value of their incentives. This ensures that the scheme contributes not only to industrial growth but also to inclusive development and workforce upskilling. India has selected Sarvam AI to develop its first indigenous AI foundational model. What prompted this decision? Within our IndiaAI Mission , we've made consistent progress across seven verticals—including compute infrastructure, datasets, applications, skilling, and trusted AI. However, the decision to build a foundational model sparked considerable debate. Some experts argued that we should leverage existing global open-source models and focus instead on applications. While this is a valid point, most global models are trained on English-dominant internet data. That makes them inherently limited—and sometimes biased—when applied to Indian languages and contexts. Given our country's linguistic and cultural diversity, we felt that a truly effective AI system must be trained on Indian datasets, covering not only text but also audio, image, and video formats. This is crucial to eliminate bias and ensure inclusivity. Also, the cost of developing models is dropping rapidly, making it economically viable to build domestic alternatives. Moreover, our real need is not just for large general-purpose models, but for smaller, domain-specific models—say, in agriculture, healthcare, or education. These models are more manageable, targeted, and impactful. That's why we decided to move ahead with domestic development. Sarvam AI was selected in the first round, but more selections are expected soon from the over 450 proposals received so far. India is also investing in public datasets and AI skilling. How do you see these efforts shaping the future of AI in India? We've launched over 350 public datasets under the AI Cores initiative and partnered with IITs to offer AI courses. These steps are foundational. You can't build high-quality AI models without relevant training data. And in India's case, that means datasets that reflect our languages, dialects, user behavior, and social contexts. We're encouraging the private sector, state governments, and academia to contribute anonymized data, with proper privacy safeguards. We're also expanding the definition of training data beyond just text. Audio clips, medical images, videos from fieldwork—all of this data is immensely valuable for real-world AI applications. These resources will democratize AI development and enable startups and researchers to build models tailored to India's needs. In light of the recent terror attack in Pahalgam, have cyber threats also escalated? How is MeitY responding? The cyber threat environment has intensified significantly since April 22. We've seen a surge in attempted attacks across multiple sectors. But we've been extremely vigilant. Agencies like CERT-In, NCIIPC, NIC, CDAC, and sectoral regulators like RBI and IRDAI have been working in close coordination. Thanks to this concerted effort, we've been able to neutralize several attempts aimed at disrupting India's cyber infrastructure. We remain on high alert, and cyber defence is now an integral pillar of our national security. Electronics exports have surged recently, and India is now the second-largest mobile manufacturing hub. What is MeitY's next big policy focus? We've certainly made significant progress in electronics exports, especially in mobile phones. But this is only the beginning. Going forward, our two big policy interventions are: the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme—which, as I explained, will deepen domestic capabilities—and the revised PLI scheme for IT hardware, which will gain momentum this year. These efforts, combined with deregulation and ease-of-doing-business reforms, will ensure that more electronics units are set up not only in metro cities but also in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns. The global rebalancing of supply chains—especially amid U.S.-China tensions—gives India a rare opportunity. We're working to ensure that we seize it.
