Blue economy: SAI India sets up Centre for Excellence

Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) India has established a Centre for Excellence in the Blue Economy, Girish Chandra Murmu, Comptroller and Auditor General of India, said on Monday.

The Centre would not only foster research, but also act as a catalyst for knowledge-sharing and capacity-building amongst SAIs in the Blue Economy, Murmu said in his opening remarks at the SAI20 Summit at Goa.

Through research partnerships, knowledge exchange programmes and specialised training programmes, the Centre for Excellence would facilitate interdisciplinary discussions and innovative solutions to equip SAI professionals with the necessary skills and knowledge to address the complex challenges facing the Blue Economy, Murmu added.

Murmu is the Chair of the Supreme Audit Institutions-20 (SAI20) Engagement Group under India’s G20 Presidency. The SAI20 Summit has special focus on the two areas of the Blue Economy and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The Blue Economy is the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs, while preserving the health of our ecosystem. 

In his opening address, Murmu said the Supreme Audit Institutions have a crucial role to play in the audit of the Blue Economy and Responsible AI to ensure good governance, transparency and accountability, and to optimise their positive impact on humankind. He further said though the audit of the Blue Economy and Responsible AI is challenging, their all-pervasive, cross-cutting nature compounded with evolving technology and usage, necessitate close cooperation among the SAIs for knowledge-sharing and capacity-building.

The CAG said as the Blue Economy gains primacy, so will its audit. 

Murmu urged that in order to keep ahead of the curve, the SAI20 community must prioritise collaborations in arriving at new techniques, skills, capabilities and methods, and that SAIs must proactively formalise channels and platforms that would facilitate these collaborations.

Also read: Audit challenge. CAG urges government to adopt audit data standards

On the occasion of the SAI20 summit, SAI India released two Compendiums on the Blue Economy and Responsible Artificial Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence

On Artificial Intelligence (AI), Murmu said “With AI making greater in-roads into governance, SAIs must inevitably prepare themselves for auditing AI-based governance systems. Simultaneously, SAIs must look for opportunities to adopt AI into their audit techniques to increase their effectiveness”.

Considering the power, possibility and perils of AI, it is essential that policy makers put in place processes to responsibly harness the potential of this technology, he added.

As the availability of updated data is the bedrock on which any responsible Al system can unlock its full potential, the primary concern for the auditor is to ensure data accuracy, reliability and integrity, backed by an independent and robust system that periodically collects and collates data, he said. 

“I am of the view that the auditor must seek to provide the assurance that Al-based decisions do not result in exclusions, biases or violations of privacy,” Murmu added.

While discussing the possibility and perils of AI, CAG emphasised that it was essential that policy makers put in place processes to responsibly harness the potential of this technology.

The SAI20 Summit saw the participation of 85 national and international delegates from G20 member SAIs, namely, . Australia, Brazil, Korea, Indonesia, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye; Guest SAIs, namely, Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Nigeria, Oman, Spain and the UAE; Invited SAIs, namely, Morocco and Poland; international organisations, viz. USAID and World Bank; and Engagement Group viz. Think20 and Youth20. 

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