Meenakshi Lekhi, Minister of State for External Affairs and Culture, attended ongoing Global Technology Summit and talked about topics like digital India and ongoing unrest in China over the stringent Zero-Covid policy.

Lekhi said that the implementation of Digital India is "not an exclusionary process", rather it is an application of technology to benefit the common man, and that usage also lends teeth to the governance to handle those who are indulging in pilferage.

The Union Minister cited data wherein technology has helped the government in "exposing" a large number of "fake accounts" through which various government schemes were being enjoyed by people who did not deserve it.

And it is this usage which can give governance, both its caring and nurturing attitude, and “along with that teeth, where you need to come heavy on certain people who are holding fake cards or holding fake activities and can also be taken to task,” the Minister of State for External Affairs said.

Talking about ongoing unrest in China over the nation's stringent Zero-Covid policy, Union Minister Lekhi said, it is an internal matter and is "for the country to control within".

She said that China protests "are for the world to see and are for the country to control within...I would only say that no country in the world can be an island by itself."

China’s strategy of controlling Covid-19 with lockdowns, mass testing and quarantines has provoked the greatest show of public dissent against the ruling Communist party in decades.

Initially, China succeeded in suppressing the virus, but then more transmissible variants emerged, and in recent weeks the outbreak has grown with record numbers of cases reported.

Recently, hundreds of demonstrators and police have clashed in Shanghai as protests over China’s stringent Covid restrictions flared for the third day and spread to several cities.

Image source: Wion