'Digital India possible only if Digital UP happens'

New Delhi: Digital India cannot be achieved without a Digital UP, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday while urging investors to invest confidently in India.

"India has huge potential in the field of IT," Prasad said while speaking at the UP Investors summit. Highlighting the importance of UP, the minister said that Digital India cannot be achieved without Digital UP.

"There is a digital revolution going on all over the globe, I don't want India to lag behind where there are immense business opportunities," he said, adding, "If you talk about social networks, India has largest users of FB, Twitter and WhatsApp."

Prasad further stated that by 2020, out of the total number of mobile phones world would be using, a major percentage of those would be produced in India.

"There were only 2 mobile manufacturing centres when we came to power, now there are 118. Nokia had also closed. Now there are 118 and 54 are in Noida," he said, adding that Noida and Greater Noida have great potential and they can become next Singapore.

Suggesting that BPOs can be set up in cities like Gorakhpur and Deoria, everything from order to payment is just a click away, the Union minister said that there are immense opportunities in setting up BPOs and the government is ready to help.