Technology and Innovation Report 2025: UNCTAD

Context

The Technology and Innovation Report 2025 launched by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Key Highlights  

• The U.S. Leads in private AI investments, contributing 70% of global AI investment in 2023.
• India, China, and Brazil make a contribution substantially to AI advances and the manufacturing of AI-associated scientific understanding.
• Brazil has a significant skill pool of 4 million builders.
• China and the U.S. Dominate in cloud infrastructure services, with India and Brazil also making awesome contributions.

India’s Position

• India ranks 10th globally for private AI investments in 2023, with $1.4 billion.
• India is one of the only developing countries with significant AI investments, at the side of China (second place with $7.8 billion).
• India ranks 36th within the Readiness for Frontier Technologies index (progressed from 48th in 2022).
• India has around 13 million builders, making it a chief contributor to AI and GenAI projects.

About Technology and Innovation Report

• It surveys the complicated artificial intelligence landscape, aiming to assist choice makers layout science, technology and innovation guidelines that foster inclusive technological development
• It analyses the necessities and regulations needed in any respect ranges, from development to adoption, to foster inclusive technological development for sustainable development.

Concerns 

• It highlights developing inequality within the AI landscape, with just 100 companies controlling 40% of global personal R&D investment, usually from America and China.
• 118 nations, typically from the Global South, are excluded from international AI governance discussions.
• AI should affect as much as 40% of global jobs, supplying productivity income but also raising concerns about automation and project displacement.
• AI should widen inequality, however it could also create new industries and empower people if governments spend money on reskilling and staff edition.

India’s Initiatives

• India has invested in AI education through the status quo of facilities like IIT Hyderabad and IIT Kharagpur.
• The India AI Mission (authorised in 2024) pursuits to reduce entry boundaries to AI packages and boom AI publications in smaller cities.

Conclusion and Way Forward 

• Countries with huge populations like India and China have a bonus in AI development because of their huge developer pools, positioning them favorably within the global AI landscape.
• For developing countries to avoid being left behind, UNCTAD advises focusing on three key areas: infrastructure, statistics, and capacities.
• This entails enhancing net and computing energy, ensuring access to various datasets, and strengthening training systems for digital skills.
• The report requires global collaboration, including developing a shared AI aid facility and organising a public disclosure framework for AI.
• The aim is to ensure equitable access to AI and promote inclusive human development.

Source: The Hindu

UPSC Mains Practice Question

Q. “Access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy is the sine qua non to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. Comment on the progress made in India in this regard. (2018)

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