New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has urged the auditors to make far greater use of Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for optimizing efficient use of their own scarce resources and also effectively meeting the requirements and needs of their stakeholders. In his opening remarks at the e-seminar on "IT Audit in the Era of Industrial Revolution 4.0: Opportunities and Challenges" of INTOSAI WGITA here on Thursday, G C Murmu emphasized that, in the fourth industrial revolution, audit professionals, especially Information Technology auditors, must prepare themselves to face multi-faceted changes and challenges.
This Revolution has created an excellent opportunity for the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) and Working Group on IT Audit (WGITA) to equip its members with practical knowledge and work procedures for addressing the emerging IT risks. For this, he thanked the colleagues in WGITA who are engaged in researching and developing standards and other audit guidance material in a variety of IT-related topics.
G C Murmu, in his virtual address, highlighted that India is witnessing a massive digital transformation in the spheres of infrastructure, public policymaking and governance. As of March 2021, India has currently more than 750 million broadband subscribers, mainly mobile users. In India, today, the trinity of mobile telephony, unique biometric identity and electronic banking, is being used for the world's largest direct benefit transfer to millions of people. These developments have helped protect the people from poverty during the risks and uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic. Such initiatives are now fundamental in making the public service delivery efficient and transparent, as well as ensuring trust in public entities and their governance.
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The term "Fourth Industrial Revolution" was first introduced by a team of scientists developing a high-tech strategy for the German government, and popularised by Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF). The transformation journey to the fourth industrial revolution provides a plethora of opportunities for nations and organizations, to achieve operational excellence; but like all paradigm shifts, there are also challenges. We all need to be more agile and adaptive, to cope with the disruptions due to this transformation.
