New Delhi

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday

said technology is in India's DNA and called for further strengthening it for the country to achieve self-reliance and stay ahead of other nations.

"We will have to strengthen our own technology. Today, I will give you two examples. If India's DRDO and ISRO were not strong, Chandrayaan would not have been successful. There is no foreign help in it. Our scientists have established themselves in the world.... This is the achievement of our swadeshi scientists.

"In the digital economy of the world, Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) spoke about digital India in 2014. Many people commented on his statement. Now, in the world, if an amount of Rs 100 is transacted digitally, Rs 48 out of it is transacted in India," Pradhan said.

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He made the comments at the tri-services academic technology symposium here. "India has technology in its DNA. That is why there is more internet penetration in India compared to other countries. That is why there are more smartphone internet users in India," Pradhan said.