Chennai: India’s challenge lies in developing jobs that are not affected by artificial intelligence, and the emphasis needs to be placed on trade skills, India’s chief economic adviser V Anantha Nageswaran said in the city on Thursday.“There is a lot of emphasis on what AI can do to India’s IT sector, which employs five million to six million people. But, it’s a small part of the story. India needs to generate eight million new jobs a year. Institutions will have to work, making sure AI is a complement to India’s labour challenge rather than seeing it as a threat,” he said at the 67th Institute Day celebrations of Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Nageswaran urged the education and academic system to concentrate on skills AI can’t replace. “IITs must work closely with ITIs and polytechnic colleges so that they become the feeder for advanced manufacturing and engineering skills,” he said.On India’s vulnerability, Nageswaran said, “Strategic autonomy is something India lacks because it is yet to develop indigenous capability. Dependence on a single supplier, however friendlier, is a strategic vulnerability. “Be it a gulf region for energy, or a neighbouring country for energy inputs, dependence on countries which are partly friendly and partly hostile to India’s rights places us in a position of strategic vulnerability.”Highlighting export control on semiconductors, he said, “Geo-political environment is going to be somewhat hostile to India’s emergence.” He also said India’s spending on research, which is less than 1% of GDP, “is rather too small for a country of our aspirations”.IIT-M director V Kamakoti said, “For the past 67 years, IIT Madras has grown from a young engineering institution into a globally respected centre of excellence.”Several awards and recognitions were presented to students, faculty, non-academic employees and alumni. These included the distinguished alumnus award, young alumni achiever award and distinguished alumni service award.
