Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST), said that the future is all about being interconnected, being intelligent even beyond the human brain and that convergence and integration of technologies – physical, digital and cyber is the key.

“Supercomputing, quantum technologies, and cyber-physical security offer a way of working together in convergence for democratisation of knowledge and information,” he said during the curtain-raiser webinar on Frontiers in Interconnected Intelligent Systems and Devices (FIISD).

The webinar organised on Wednesday by DST deliberated about the mission that DST has launched for setting up 25 hubs focused on various themes across the country and how it would take the country forward in technology and innovation.

As part of its major initiatives in all streams of science and technology and especially frontier technology domains like cyber-physical systems, IoT, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cyber security among others, DST has planned the FIISD conference to enrich these initiatives through knowledge exchange with national and international experts, and this was a curtain-raiser program to discuss various aspects of such technologies.

VK Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog, said that across industries, technological and social revolution is underway due to mobile internet, the democratisation of smartphones, a decrease in technological cost, convergence, machine to machine communication, and fusion of technologies. The pandemic has shown us how technology can help us and has also forced us to think for the future.

The speakers at the webinar underlined how convergence and integration of technologies — physical, digital, and cyber, is bringing about access and democratization of knowledge resulting in a social and technological revolution.

Other speakers who participated in the webinar include Dr. Rohini Srivathsa, National Technology Officer, Microsoft India, Prof Subhash Kar, Oklahoma State University, USA, Ravi Tilak, CEO, Alex USA, Randeep Raina, CTO, Nokia India, Reg Ayyaswamy, SVP and Global Head of IoT and Egg and Industrial Services, TCS, Shaurya Doval, Director, India Foundation, Kanwal Rekhi, Founder President, TIE-USA, Mallik Tatapamula, CTO, Ericsson, Kaushal Solanki, CEO, Eyenuk Inc., and Alok Srivastava, Head of Global Sales & Marketing, L&T-NxT.

The international conference is expected to be held in 2021 and will brainstorm on the policy framework, technology landscape, use cases, and implementation of various cyber-physical systems (CPS) and related issues. It will also deliberate on identifying and promoting innovative indigenous solutions and building a vibrant startup ecosystem for cyber security of CPS.