Artificial Intelligence (AI) can introduce efficiencies in governance, the Secretary for Electronics and Information Technology S. Krishnan said on Monday (July 21, 2025). Mr. Krishnan was delivering the Abhay Tripathi Memorial Lecture at the United Service Institution of India. “Grievances are now being addressed 25% faster on an average due to the use of AI in CP-GRAMS,” Mr. Krishnan said, referring to the Union Government’s main grievance redressal portal.
Mr. Krishnan said AI would also help in credit scoring and loan disbursement. “Formal lending remains extremely low in India,” he said. “A big business can get financing at 8-9%, but smaller or remote businesses get higher costs because of high administrative costs, and risks involved. Data flows from GST and other sources that can ascertain creditworthiness can help with access to debt,” Mr. Krishnan said.
‘Insulated from job loss’
Mr. Krishnan said India was relatively more insulated from job loss concerns resulting from the use of Generative AI. “The percentage of white collar employment in India compared to the rest of the world is much, much smaller,” he said. “So, the risks of those jobs going away because of Generative AI are not as grave in India as elsewhere, and this is one reason we don’t fear AI as much as other countries.”
“After three major AI summits — the first on safety in Bletchley Park in the U.K., the second in Seoul, and the third on AI innovation in Paris — the next summit will take place in New Delhi with a focus on the impact of AI,” Mr. Krishnan said.
“This is a space where I think the embrace of innovation is more important, particularly in India’s context, both in terms of improving governance in India and in using it as an opportunity for the economy to lead into the next generation. We will take a few years, and the idea of it eventually is, we want a prosperous nation where the fruits of growth will reach everybody, and we grow rich before we grow old.”
