New Delhi: India's embrace of technology has paid off in many ways. Citizens are empowered, governments are less burdened, and businesses are free of excessive bureaucratic red tape. The adoption of technology-enabled close to the entire Indian population to possess a digital ID and a large portion of the country's population is connected to the financial and banking systems.

India's technological skill, as evidenced by the Aarogya Setu and CoWin apps also allowed her to manage the Covid crisis much more efficiently than would have been otherwise.

Today, India is dubbed as a hub for global engineering talent and as a feeder school of tech leaders throughout the world.

It is because of Indians' passion for technology that the country has been at the helm of affairs of major global tech companies around the world in recent years.

From Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, to Microsoft's executive chairman and CEO, Satya Nadella, to Mastercard's Ajay Banga, Indians have been leading tech industries around the world. Bengaluru is the fastest-growing tech hub in the world, even ahead of London. Companies the world over are relying on India to take forward their tech-based research and development.

Even the most advanced economies have reached out for Indian assistance when it has come to tech-based support and employment.

"The UK is India's second largest research partner across 200 projects, 175 institutions and 100 companies and now we are increasing research and development funding to 20 billion pounds by 2025. We expect 1.5 billion pounds of digital services to India and India's tech giants like Tata and Infosys, to support over 30,000 UK jobs", says James Cleverly, Foreign Secretary, United Kingdom

Many say that data is the new oil. Therefore, it appears that technology is going to play a key role in all forms of future advancements and negotiations.

People and countries with advanced technology and systems will find themselves better positioned in the years to come.

The Indian Foreign Minister recently said that the rise of India was deeply linked to the rise of Indian technology and the country had woken up to key questions regarding the processing and harvesting of its data.

He said the technology would be a decisive factor in the future and that global geopolitics will be driven by technology. Countries with superior technology will have an edge over those with inferior or no technology at all.

"We have to stop pretending that there is something neutral about technology. Technology is no more neutral than economics or any other activity. There is a very strong political connotation that is inbuilt into technology", said External Affairs Minister, India

A state-backed atmosphere has allowed India to emerge as the vanguard of innovation and technology. India's start-up ecosystem is also witnessing rapid growth thanks to the country's continued growth in the tech industry.

As per NASSCOM, an advocacy group, India is the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world. The government has endeavoured to encourage and support the tech industry in all forms possible. It has invested more than 1 billion USD in the past decade, in addition to attracting foreign players to join the Indian tech industry.

India, already a global leader in a number of fields is fast emerging as a prominent force in the tech industry, which will continue to boost Brand India worldwide.