NEW DELHI, Feb 21: Former science and technology minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday took a swipe at the government over the Galgotias robodog controversy, saying the incident reflected its negligence and had led to the coinage of a new term – “Galgotian blunder”.
The Rajya Sabha member also weighed into how artificial intelligence (AI) will impact the country and questioned the government’s actions in preparing the country for it.
“There is an international conference taking place on artificial intelligence. This is a good thing and I welcome it. We have got a new word in dictionary, there is a word in English -” herculean blunder, and the new word is Galgotian blunder. Galgotian thunder leading to Galgotian blunder,” Sibal told a press conference here.
“It is amazing that a robodog was displayed and our IT minister (Ashwini Vaishanaw) also tweeted about it. When it emerged that it was developed by China, he deleted it. Galgotian presentation, Galgotian exaggeration and Galgotian blunder, these terms have been coined. These terms will also be used in Parliament as well,” he said, taking a swipe at the government.
It was not nice that this happened under government’s watch, the Independent MP said.
“They did not even do due diligence to examine the products being displayed in the stalls,” he said, slamming the government.
This was the government’s negligence, he alleged, adding that it is a very serious matter.
Talking about AI, Sibal said it can benefit the country in sectors such as agriculture, education and healthcare.
“This is a big opportunity for the country. The government has to pay attention to this and I think it will,” he said.
Underlining the lack of proper fund allocation for AI, Sibal said that in the 2025 budget, there was an allocation of Rs 2000 crore out of which only 40 per cent was spent, while this year it is Rs 1000 crore.
“So China and the US are far ahead of us in investments. We can only work in application technology sector of it. We can only provide service, so to say India will take global leadership, is this correct,” he asked.
The amount we spent on research and development is 0.64 pc of our GDP, Sibal said.
India contributes less than 2 per cent of global computing infrastructure then “how are we leaders”, Sibal asked.
Talking about the consequences of AI, he said it will finish off jobs in the IT-BPO sector.
There would be a need to upskill the youth but the government has not paid any attention to this, Sibal alleged.
“These issues should be debated and the government should talk of these challenges and how to combat them,” he said, adding that the government only talks of taking leadership.
“So that is why I have said, they (BJP) know how to win elections but they don’t not know how to rule,” Sibal said.
Galgotias University representatives showcased a robotic dog named Orion on Tuesday, claiming it was developed by the Centre of Excellence at Galgotias, prompting social media users to highlight that it was a Unitree Go2, manufactured by China’s Unitree Robotics and commonly used in research and education worldwide.
The private university made a dogged attempt to brazen it out with bizarre justifications through Wednesday, such as one person’s six could be another’s nine, but issued an apology later in the evening after the organisers cut power supply to its stall at the event and asked the occupants to leave.
IT Secretary S Krishnan said the government did not want any exhibitor to showcase items that were not its own. “We do not want such exhibits to continue,” he said, after the organisers asked Galgotias to vacate the stall. In its apology, Galgotias University said the person “manning the pavilion was ill-informed”. (PTI)
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