Coming up on Friday: PM Modi-Bill Gates in freewheeling chat, AI to Climate change discussed

A blockbuster interaction featuring two global leaders Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates will be unveiled on Friday. The interaction sees PM Modi and Gates in a free-wheeling chat discussing a range of issues from Artificial Intelligence to Digital Public Infrastructure and efforts to combat climate change.
A promotional teaser of the interaction was released on Thursday. In the teaser Bill Gates speaks about how Indians are not only adopting technology but in fact leading the way.
PM Modi, referring to AI, says that a child born in India cries ‘Ai’ and ‘AI’ (Ai in Marathi is mother). The PM also encourages Gates to take a selfie using the Photo Booth on PM’s Namo App. The Namo App, recently introduced a new AI powered Photo Booth feature that allows users to find their pictures with the Prime Minister using facial recognition technology.
AI has been one of the focus areas of the government. In furtherance to the vision of Making AI in India, the Cabinet had recently approved the comprehensive national-level IndiaAI mission with a budget outlay of Rs. 10,371.92 crore.
The IndiaAI mission will establish a comprehensive ecosystem catalyzing AI innovation through strategic programs and partnerships across the public and private sectors. By democratizing computing access, improving data quality, developing indigenous AI capabilities, attracting top AI talent, enabling industry collaboration, providing startup risk capital, ensuring socially impactful AI projects and bolstering ethical AI, it will drive responsible, inclusive growth of India’s AI ecosystem.
Earlier, Bill Gates in an interview with ANI had praised the work done on AI in India.
“Well, there’s a lot of fantastic AI work going on in this country. You have innovators like Nandan Nilekani who’s taking all that digital work and saying, OK, how does AI make that even better? You have groups like Wadhwani. You have the IIT groups that are very state of the art. In India, there will be a lot of fantastic leadership work in AI here in India. And when it’s helping the poorest in areas like health and agriculture, our foundation will be proud to help shape that and support it.” Gates had said.
Meanwhile, in the interaction with Bill Gates, PM Modi also spoke about how his government is bringing technologies to improve the lives of women. He said women who didn’t know how to ride a bicycle are today becoming drone pilots. The Namo Drone Didi initiative is integral to the Prime Minister’s vision of fostering economic empowerment and financial autonomy among women, especially in rural areas
The discussion also found mention about India’s climate mitigation initiatives. PM Modi showed the jacket he was wearing to Gates, which was made of recycled materials.
At the COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had committed to an ambitious five-part “Panchamrit” pledge, including reaching 500 GW of non-fossil electricity capacity, to generate half of all energy requirements from renewables, to reduce emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030.
India also aims to reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 45 per cent. Finally, India commits to net-zero emissions by 2070. Notably, India banned several single-use plastics starting July 2022.
The free-wheeling interaction between PM Modi and Bill Gates which will be released on Friday will spell out the vision of the two thought leaders