Democratic countries should not allow cryptocurrency fall into wrong hands

New Delhi – The digital era is transforming all sectors. The digital revolution has raised new questions about sovereignty, governance, morality, rights and security in the political, economic and social spheres. Insisting that the power of technology must be used only for constructive purposes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the democratic countries in this regard. All democratic countries need to ensure that cryptocurrency or Bitcoin does not fall into the wrong hands, said Prime Minister Modi while addressing the Sydney Dialogue.

Prime Minister Modi said that all democracies must work together to prevent cryptocurrency or Bitcoin from falling into the wrong hands, to prevent our youth from going the wrong way. The Prime Minister said that there is a need to be more vigilant in this regard. India is making progress on various technological fronts within the framework of justice, constructiveness and ethics. Technology and data can now be used as a weapon in competition between two countries. The Prime Minister of India asserted that transparency is the greatest power of democracy. However, he emphasized that this transparency could be misused to benefit a handful of people and this can never be tolerated.

At the same time, the Prime Minister praised the digital revolution that has started in India. In India, with a population of 130 crores, everyone has got a digital identity. Six lakh villages in India are being connected by broadband. The number of Internet users in India is over 80 crore and 75 crore smartphones are used in the country. India is at the forefront in terms of both per capita data usage and the cheapest data. The Prime Minister expressed satisfaction over the widespread use of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

India is investing heavily to become self-sufficient in 5G and 6G, the leading technologies in the telecom sectors. India is also making progress in the domains of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning within the framework of ethics. In such a historic time, we all have to decide between cooperation or struggle, freedom of choice or coercion, development or hegemony, opportunity or oppression, said Prime Minister Modi. Referring to India’s cooperation with Australia on the occasion of the Sydney Dialogue, the Prime Minister expressed confidence that Australia is an important partner of India in the Indo-Pacific region and that both countries will undoubtedly fulfil their responsibilities.