India, Britain natural partners to make most of AI: UK Tech Secretary Liz Kendall

London, Jan 26 (PTI) Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a defining competitive advantage of our age and India is a natural partner for the UK to make the most of its building blocks in place, Britain’s Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology said in London on Monday.

Liz Kendall was addressing the annual UK-India Parliamentary Lunch at the House of Lords complex, organised by India Global Forum’s UK-India Future Forum (UKIFF), when she highlighted India's strides as it overtook Japan to become the world’s fourth-largest economy.

With reference to the 77th Republic Day celebrations in India, the UK minister noted how economic growth in the country is in large part being driven by science, innovation and technology.

“Today, I believe both India and the UK face another such growth opportunity. This time, driven by artificial intelligence; we are perfectly placed to make the most of AI," said Kendall.

“I believe AI could be the defining competitive advantage of our age. We have the building blocks in place. India is leading the way with a national programme on AI: investing in chips and computing hardware. Going big on training and AI fellowships at universities.

“India and the UK are natural partners here too... With crucial commitments to work together on AI safety. We have to make the next summit count. It’s a chance for the UK and India to show our strengths in tech and AI. To galvanise energy and investment. And to put the case to the world for a progressive approach to AI.” Kendall revealed that British Indian Minister for AI and Online Safety, Kanishka Narayan, will be representing the UK from her department at the AI Summit in Delhi next month.

"I believe the way we lead on the global stage is by making sure the opportunities of emerging tech are available to all. Not just a handful of mega corporations. But start-ups, researchers, nurses, teachers, school pupils, council workers, scientists, and more besides," she said.

Lord Jitesh Gadhia, the parliamentary host of the event, spoke of the compelling case for even closer India-UK ties given the complexities of Britain’s relations with the US under President Donald Trump.

“Whilst we might currently fret about the so-called special relationship across the Atlantic, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that Washington and Delhi are almost equidistant from London; and perhaps we can forge another equally coveted special relationship in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

The British Indian peer also paid tribute to the veteran British journalist, Mark Tully, who passed away in Delhi over the weekend aged 90, as embodying the "vibrancy” of the India-UK partnership.

UKIFF founder Manoj Ladwa reflected upon the “consequential” period for bilateral ties with the signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) last year, stressing that the “real work” lies ahead as the deal is ratified by the UK Parliament and implemented.

“Treaties don’t transform relationships, leadership does. That conviction is precisely why we established the UK-India Future Forum three years ago to give the UK-India relationship true leadership in future frontiers of science, innovation and mutually beneficial growth," said Ladwa.

Former British high commissioner to India Sir Philip Barton, leading healthcare expert Lord Ara Darzi and Science Museum director Sir Ian Blatchford were unveiled as members of UKIFF’s Advisory Board.

Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami welcomed the trio as “great friends” of the bilateral partnership as he reiterated the role that technology and AI will continue to play in the India-UK corridor.

“Technology to be effective must generate value for people, and technology to be meaningful must serve the widest possible common good," said Doraiswami, spotlighting key statistics such as 570 million new bank accounts being created in the last 10 years and 50 per cent of the world's transactions every year taking place in India.

“In deploying digital technologies, we have not sought to build the biggest and the smartest and the most dynamic compute capability to make digital technologies work. What we have done instead is to create the best use case scenario for digital technologies to be meaningful," he said.

The event was followed by breakout policy roundtables for deeper deliberations with sectoral experts covering AI, tech and healthcare initiatives. PTI AK SCY SCY