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According to a report published by Accenture, a technology consulting company, artificial intelligence or AI has the potential to add $957 billion — or 15 per cent of the current gross value — to the Indian economy by 2035. AI can provide large incremental value to sectors such as agriculture, education, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and energy. That will, of course, also mean the creation of jobs in all these sectors, both for AI experts and others.

To leverage these opportunities, Indian IT companies and tech startups should first upgrade technologies and build up AI skills at enterprise level. Right skilling is the most critical factor for success in technology adoption. And given the rapid adoption of AI in industry, about two lakh jobs in the sector are expected to be created by 2020.

What gives India the edge is the country’s large technology and engineering talent pool. Around 2.6 million Indians graduate every year with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This is more than the total number of such graduates produced by all the G7 countries put together.

While our universities and premier technology institutes are carrying out research in AI, tech startups and enterprises are taking the research further — and creating jobs — to come up with innovative solutions and products based on AI. Today, India is home to 7,700 tech startups. During the last five years, more than 400 AI software product startups were incorporated in India. This reflects how Indian tech startups are focused on AI product development.

According to another Accenture report, in 2016 India ranked third among G20 countries on the basis of the number of AI startups. Indian IT behemoths have already started delivering AI solutions to their global clients. In addition, most Fortune 500 companies working on research and development in AI have their bases in India. Anyone studying AI or incidentals is, therefore, assured a job.

Innovation and R&D (research and development) will be the mainstay of the Indian IT industry in coming years. Going by Nasscom figures, ER&D or engineering R&D brought in $26.9 billion revenue in 2018. By 2025, ER&D revenue is expected to reach $70 billion.

AI also has the potential to solve numerous challenges in the education sector. As the Indian government aims to connect 2,50,000 gram panchayats through broadband, schools in rural areas can be augmented with last-mile connectivity to enhance the learning experience of students using augmented reality and virtual reality. With the help of AI solutions, learning elements can be customised, based upon the assessment of students.

While the opportunities are huge, India needs to leverage the capability and domain competency of a mature IT industry to achieve the goals.

According to a report by Frost & Sullivan, a market research company, the AI-driven healthcare market is expected to reach $6.6 billion by 2021 from $600 million in 2014, with an annual growth rate of 40 per cent. From patient care to diagnostics to robotic surgery and drug discovery, AI can help reduce healthcare costs drastically. If AI can be used to understand ailments, early-stage diagnosis can also save millions of lives.

The government has launched various initiatives to encourage AI. Last year, it asked the NITI Aayog to establish the national programme on AI to augment research. To introduce school students to AI and develop a young talent pool, the CBSE has decided to introduce it as an elective subject.

The synergistic collaboration among government, industry, R&D institutions, startups and academia can further bolster innovation in AI, revving up GDP (gross domestic product) and job creation and leading to a manifold increase in per capita income in times to come.

The writer is the director-general of Software Technology Parks of India under the Union ministry of electronics and information technology.

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Ruling over software services exports for two-and-a-half decades globally, India is synonymous with the new normal of technology disruption. Now the time has come to shift focus from software services to software products, to capitalise on the dynamic global trends in technology adoption. Against the backdrop of a high performing IT-BPM industry, the country needs to reinvent itself as a products superpower. The advent of emerging technologies has disrupted business processes and global enterprises are sprinting towards faster adoption strategy to leverage the benefits. While outsourcing the IT services of an organisation to a trusted Indian technology partner was the standard practice for MNCs to optimise the cost arbitrage, rapid evolution in Industry 4.0 technologies has necessitated companies to relook at the strategy. Now, the technology priority is much of a core business strategy and the initial adopters are unequivocal winners.

According to a recent report, the global software products market was $515 billion in 2018, with 7.4% growth. The overall growth of global software products in 2018 was driven by intelligent solutions based on Industry 4.0 technologies, cloud, connected infrastructure and cybersecurity products. At the same time, the market size of Indian software products industry in FY19 is $8.2 billion, of which $5.5 billion is from the domestic market and $2.7 billion from exports. Although Indian software products industry just accounts for 1.6% of the global market, given the global opportunities in this segment, India can strive to capture the largest pie of the global software products market.

India has successfully established a matured IT ecosystem comprising 18,000 IT enterprises, 7,700 technology start-ups, 4 million IT talent, robust R&D institutions, policymakers and academia. The Indian IT industry, which clocked $177 billion revenue in FY19, is expected to reach $350 billion by 2025. The large technology and engineering talent pool is an advantage to India’s technology leadership. The country produces 2.6 million graduates every year with STEM degrees. It’s not far when many of the budding tech start-ups would transform themselves into tomorrow’s global unicorns, and not just in value, making India a superpower in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Given this growth trajectory, the government must visualise a new India with initiatives that will propel the success story further. Keeping a tab on the past successes and a bright future, the government has initiated many niche programmes such as Make in India, Digital India, Atal Innovation Mission and Start-up India, which are focusing on the creation of indigenous products and a digitally-empowered society. Software products are central to India’s mission for digital transformation with social inclusion. Today, sectors like healthcare and education are grappling with the challenges of uneven access to the citizenry. Universal accessibility to education and healthcare will be possible when the last person in the queue would avail the benefits without any discrimination. The role of software products for enabling these two sectors to become digitally inclusive is paramount. Digital platforms like IndiaStack and National Health Stack can lead to a paradigm shift in government-to-citizen (G2C) service offerings. While the government is foreseeing a trillion-dollar digital economy in next 4-5 years, it’s imperative for the IT industry and start-ups to leverage the humongous opportunities available in the digital transformation journey of the country. The drive of innovative software products companies will make all the difference to the government’s vision by delivering superior software products that can be integrated with software stacks. When public digital platforms are coupled with groundbreaking software products, it will result in adding hundreds of billions in economic value.

The National Policy on Software Products 2019 is an impetus to transform India as a software products nation and drive the country as a global leader in conception, design, development and production of intellectual capital-driven software products and accelerate the growth of the entire spectrum of the IT industry. Industry expects collaboration for the purpose of tech products creation in the country. To achieve these objectives, the NPSP 2019 envisions a 10-fold increase in the share of global software products market by 2025. The policy also envisages the creation of a cluster-based innovation-driven ecosystem by developing 20 sectoral and strategically-located software product development clusters with integrated ICT infrastructure, incubation facility, R&D/test beds, and mentoring and marketing support. It targets nurturing 10,000 technology start-ups, including 1,000 such start-ups in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, to generate direct and indirect employment for 3.5 million people by 2025. Policies like these will definitely rev up the growth of the IT industry by promoting software products business ecosystem, stimulating entrepreneurship and innovation for employment, building skills, and improving access to domestic and international markets.

As India has embarked on leveraging the potential of frontier technologies—AI, AR/VR, IoT, robotics, 3D printing—a strong IT industry base and demographic dividend will play a disruptive role and change the IT landscape. In the times to come, we will see more start-ups, entrepreneurs and product companies that not only create world-class products using cutting-edge technologies, but will also develop products that can resolve societal issues, bridge the digital divide and augment inclusive growth.

We need a collaborative approach amongst all the stakeholders including industry, academia, R&D institutions, government agencies and state governments. Indian IT behemoths have already started shifting their mandate from software services to software products development. With the focus on technology start-ups and R&D, India can make a stride in software product development space, continue its brand as a global IT leader, and become a wealthy nation, eventually bringing prosperity to all.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) promises impelling potential for the growth of society and economy in today’s times. As India is moving on the trajectory of digital transformation, the growing penetration of digital technologies in the lives of Indians and the generation of huge volumes of data at every interaction point projects a germane use-case for an AI-driven economy. However, for making the ocean of data points work in synergy to transform India as the AI leader, we require the power of AI to address the complex challenges that the country is facing across its demographic diversity.

According to an Accenture report published in December 2017, AI alone can add $957 billion, or 15% of the current gross value added, to the Indian economy by 2035. The economic value can be unlocked primarily through three ways: augmentation delivered through human and machine collaboration, intelligent automation and productivity that comprise $597 billion, $83 billion and $277 billion, respectively. The report further chalks out the transformative potential of AI-driven opportunities in three major areas, including mobilising intelligent automation for complex physical tasks requiring adaptability and agility, empowering existing workforces by complementing and enhancing the skills and abilities, and driving innovation for broad structural transformation of the economy.

The role of AI in the broader economic perspectives of India entails the participation of the government, large enterprises, MSMEs, start-ups, young entrepreneurs and society at large, and this can make AI a game changer. According to a PwC report, AI could contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, of which $6.6 trillion is likely to come from increased productivity and the rest $9.1 trillion would be generated from consumption-driven economy. Similarly, a Gartner report suggests that, globally, AI-derived business value will reach $2.9 trillion by 2021 from the projected $1.9 trillion in 2019. Another report by McKinsey suggests that AI could provide additional economic output of around $13 trillion by 2030, boosting global GDP by about 1.2% a year.

The economic opportunities through AI that India can achieve are huge. Innovation in AI can help us lead to numerous solutions to address societal issues. For example, India’s linguistic diversity is a major opportunity for developing AI solutions to unify communication across various digital platforms. AI has a potential to address the challenges of demographic diversity of India. A billion-plus population, and hundreds of languages and dialects open up enormous opportunities for AI-powered solutions in the areas of language, vision, translation, speech, machine reading and comprehension. Localisation of technologies using AI can play a critical role in not only unifying a billion-plus people in resolving social challenges, but will also add value to the economic growth of the country. For instance, intelligent digital assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri and Cortana are enabling people to use local languages and fetch the desired online services without any hassles. AI can play a major role here as a codec for seamless communication across language diversity.

Today, the agricultural and allied sector contributes around 18% to the $2.97-trillion Indian economy. With 50% of India’s working age population employed in agriculture, it’s pertinent to modernise agricultural workforce to improve their productivity and ameliorate farmers’ incomes. The opportunities for AI in the farm sector are undoubtedly massive. According to a report by Accenture, digital and connected farm services can empower 70 million Indian farmers to add $9 billion to their income by 2020. AI can also support SMEs and make them competitive at a time when the government is planning to increase the GDP share of the manufacturing sector to 25% by 2022. According to the World Economic Forum, AI can build additional value up to $3.7 trillion through Industry 4.0 technologies by 2025.

While the opportunities for AI in India are vast, leveraging these opportunities is the key to transform India as a global leader in AI. Indian information technology (IT) services industries are ferrying exceptionally well in executing R&D projects of global technology companies, but the R&D for own products is not equally impressive. The Indian IT industry can leverage collaborative R&D to produce more home-grown technology products for domestic consumption. Every sector in India, be it agriculture, education, healthcare, transportation or communication, has tremendous potential for AI applications to improve the ecosystem and economic output. Indian IT behemoths have already started delivering AI-based platforms to empower clients transform business processes, automate technology maintenance and execute mundane tasks through AI bots.

As the entire world is looking forward to harness the potential of AI for the growth of the industry and for the betterment of society, India has already taken steps to leverage the potential of AI in all walks of life. To foster AI-led growth across all the sections of the society, the government is taking steps to promote Indian tech talent and skills to achieve national goals. With a unique vision of “AI for All”, India can enhance and empower human capabilities to address the challenges of accessibility, affordability and quality of skilled expertise, which, in turn, can help develop scalable solutions for emerging technologies by leveraging collaborations and partnerships among various stakeholders including industry, industry associations, academia, and state and central governments. Besides collaborations, this segment requires a lot of incentivisation and funding support from various stakeholders. As this technology requires massive R&D and innovation, and a highly-skilled manpower for the creation of world-class products, hence sufficient funding is necessary to exploit this technology to its fullest extent.

Pivoted to the visible success of the IT services industry in India, the legacy of technology prowess can further propel the adoption of emerging technologies in various sectors to boost efficiencies, competitiveness, productivity and quality. The adoption of AI across sectors and industries will not only drive competitive edge and operational excellence, but will also considerably improve the quality of life and ensure prosperity for all. Clearly, AI can bring enormous economic and social benefits to citizens across demographics and also help in transforming the country into an economic superpower.

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The entire world is amazed by the amplest success stories created by startups. Globally, startups are engaged in developing breakthrough innovations, building affordable solutions, generating wealth and creating enormous job opportunities for others. According to Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2019, the global startup economy has created USD 2.8 trillion value between 2016 and 2018, which is a 20.6% spike from the previous period and more than double what it was five years ago.

Startups have brought new magnetism to the narrative of entrepreneurship. Successful enterprises in the world are tapping the potential of startups to leverage their expertise and R&D to transform their vision into reality. The world has already witnessed a first-generation startup growth. The companies those started their journey with few people and nominal seed capital are now global giants and valued more than USD 1 trillion, for instance Microsoft and Apple those started on a garage mode in 70’s are the global tech giants today. Even though we joined late in this movement, India, today, is not far behind in this race.

With over 20,000 startups, India is the second largest startup ecosystem in the world having 7,200-7,700 tech startups, expected to witness 10-12% year-on-year growth. Despite global slowdown, Indian startup ecosystem is raring to surge. Low cost of doing business, proximity to customers and vendors, availability of large consumer market, 7 million graduating students per year, 4.14 million professionals in the IT services industry and 627 million internet users are the key drivers for the rapid surge of tech startups in India.

To further bolster the growth of startups, Government of India launched the Startup India programme in 2016 by bringing proactive policy measures for hand holding, funding support & incentives, building industry-academia partnership and incubation support. In the last three years, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has already recognised 22,128 startups, which are leveraging a host of tax benefits, easier compliance and IPR facilitation. 264 startups have also been funded by SIDBI Fund of Funds. Under Scheme for Facilitating Startups Intellectual Property Protection (SIPP), around 1,800 startups have availed the benefit of 80% fee rebate and more than 150 patents have been granted.

Many such initiatives by various government departments, private players, startup accelerators, academia and industry associations in the country are in place to further buoy the growth of startups. I would like to cite one of such initiatives undertaken by my organisation STPI for supporting the startup ecosystem by way of creating Centres of Entrepreneurship (CoEs) in emerging technologies such as AI, IoT, Blockchain, AR & VR, FinTech, MedTech, Data Analytics, Agri IoT, Automotive, ESDM, Gaming & Animation, HealthTech and LegalTech. The uniqueness of these CoEs lies in a collaborative model in which various stakeholders such as government, academia, industry, industry associations and mentor pool pitch in to build world-class startups focused on R&D, innovation and IPR creation.

As opportunities for the startups are enormous in India, still there are certain challenges, which need to be addressed timely. Although few have become unicorns over the years, the majority of the startups have been fledgling due to lack of infrastructure, funding and mentorship support, market access, talent and inexperience in transforming an idea into a successful product or business model.

In the 12th edition of Global Innovation Index (GII) India has ranked 52nd in 2019 by rising 29 positions from 81st in 2015. One of the many reasons that put India lower in GII is the R&D spending in India with respect to its GDP. It’s conspicuous that R&D spending in India is 0.8% of GDP, while the countries like Israel, Republic of Korea, USA and China spend 4.3%, 4.2%, 2.8% and 2.1% of GDP respectively and the private spending in R&D in India is even more dismal. Even though, the number of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) filed by Indian organisations in 2017-18 stacks at 47695, it is not commensurate with the potential and need of the country.

Recent announcement made by the government for expanding the scope of spending of CSR funding for incubators those are engaged in facilitating startups, which are working in the domain of R&D in science, technology, engineering and medicine, is a laudable step. According to reports, CSR spending has jumped from Rs 10,066 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 13,327 crore in 2017-18.

This initiative will give much needed impetus to the incubators in providing risk capital to the startups for the purpose of innovation and R&D for creating world class products. This step will also provide an opportunity for the companies to witness the success of incubators in real term and motivate them to invest more in R&D. As we know, India is already a preferred R&D destination for so many MNCs, these reforms taken by the government will further improvise the sentiments of the industry at national & international level and encourage them to think for expansion of their R&D setups in the country.

The startup journey in the country has just begun. Government initiatives, policy impetus, entrepreneurial drive in today’s youth and a vibrant ecosystem for tech startups can together fuel the startup growth story. Imbibing the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship early in the life of students will drive their passion to build tomorrow’s enterprises. With the desired ecosystem combined with support from the government and participation of academia and industry will rev up the startup momentum in the country.

It’s not far from today that many of the budding tech startups, young entrepreneurs and innovators would transform themselves into tomorrow’s global unicorns, not just in value, but making India a superpower in innovation and entrepreneurship, thereby creating immense economic value for the nation both in terms of creating enormous employment opportunities, eradicating the root problems of society, and playing the role of catalysts to achieve the $5 trillion economy in times to come.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETGovernment.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETGovernment.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.

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The financial services sector has witnessed a massive shift towards digital technology. First it was the convergence in the financial services business, and now we are witnessing the advent of AI, ML, blockchain, data-driven insights and analytics. Several start-ups have emerged with path-breaking ideas that make fintech one of the fastest growing areas within the broader banking and financial services sector.

The financial services domain consists of many verticals: robo advisors and personal finance, regtech, digital/open banks, payments and remittances, insurtech and alternative finance.

India’s payments landscape is growing faster than the global average. Mobile wallets, smart devices, quick response (QR) and near-field communication (NFC) have increased digital adoption and impacted the way customers transact and interact with payment partners. Growth factors include emergence of mobile payment service providers, evolving business services by incumbents, inclusive government policies and literacy programmes, robust payment infrastructure, high consumer acceptance and strong regulatory support, and all these are helping India transition into a cashless economy. In fact, India is forecasted to see the fastest growth in digital payments transaction value between 2019 and 2023, with a CAGR of 20.2%, ahead of China and the US. With over 560 million Indians online, the transaction value of the Indian fintech sector is growing hugely and is estimated to reach $73 billion by next year.

Digital platforms are a crucial mechanism for engaging with both existing and potential customers. These facilitate banks’ and financial institutions’ global operations, regardless of their geographic location, via cutting-edge software and automation systems.

Fintech disruptors are fast-moving companies, often start-ups, focused on a particular innovative technology or processes, in all areas from mobile payments to insurance. With over 3,000 fintech start-ups, India bags the second spot globally in terms of the number of start-ups. Fintech in India also offers a platform to start-ups for them to evolve into billion-dollar unicorns. The recent India Fintech Opportunities Review Report by YES Bank notes that ‘payments’ and ‘lending’ dominate the landscape, and ‘analytics’, ‘digital wealth’ and ‘process automation’ are also gaining importance. According to venture intelligence firm CB Insights, fintech start-ups in India received venture capital investments to the tune of $286 million for the first quarter of 2019. In 2018, Indian fintech start-ups registered the highest number of equity deals, at 144. Also, in 76 of these 144 deals, ‘lending’ was the hottest fintech sub-sector in 2018 when it came to attracting investor attention, raising a total of $1.21 billion. From tapping new segments to exploring foreign markets, fintech start-ups in India are pursuing multiple aspirations.

We foresee ample opportunities for fintech start-ups in India in terms of enhancing efficiency in transaction processes, shredding legacy baggage, developing contextual banking applications, enabling instant gratification, and providing efficient, simpler and accurate on-boarding of last-mile customers. The current disruption in the fintech start-up ecosystem will definitely help in improvising the position of India in the Global Fintech Hub Index (GFHI) in the times to come.

Financial sectors are highly regulated in every country, to protect and secure transactions across banking and other financial sectors. As banks and customers are empowered and facilitated through increased digitalisation, they need to be protected at all levels, for which data and IT security are important. Regulatory openness pertaining to fintech laws and overall regulatory environment in terms of ease of doing business, credit availability, taxation policies and presence of regulatory sandbox shall provide a boost to the thriving fintech start-up ecosystem of India.

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Evolution in technology has fostered ubiquitous digital connections, bringing together people, devices and objects across platforms. Predominantly, verticals like banking, financial services,  insurance, retail, healthcare, hospitality and education are sprinting into the digital realm, putting identity at the centre of the digital ecosystem. Consequently the identity of people is exposed to cyberthreats. According to RiskBased Security, 3,813 breaches were reported through June 30, 2019, exposing over 4.1 billion records. The Cybercrime & the Internet of Threats, 2018 report published by Juniper Research deciphers that around 33 billion records would have been stolen by cybercriminals annually by 2023. Such mind-numbing figures advocate why data protection legislation is paramount in a digital world susceptible to zillions of cyberthreats. The economy is becoming more globalised with the advent of digital connectivity and billions of people will be added into the ecosystem in days to come. Hence, it is imperative for Governments to safeguard their citizens’ personal data. This is because data is the new form of securitisation. It has tremendous potential to derive massive economic value by generating smart insights and utilising them as feeders for building new business propositions.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), 58 per cent countries have data protection and privacy legislations, while 10 per cent nations have draft legislations. This shows that the clamour for data protection has grown ever since the European Union (EU) laid the groundwork by legislating General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and executed it on May 25, 2018 to protect privacy rights of EU individuals. It also  warranted that the law was applicable to all enterprises processing or controlling personal data of EU residents. Considering this and the rapidly-growing digital footprints of Indian citizens across various platforms, including the web, smartphones, storage media and other smart devices like the Internet of Things and sensors, there is a need for data localisation. Thankfully, the Government realised this early on and it led to the formulation of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019.

Data localisation may create opportunities for the Indian information technology (IT) industry and technology start-ups in terms of infrastructure and products suited to the requirement of the Data Protection Bill. Data localisation will also encourage domestic tech companies and international behemoths to venture into setting up massive digital infrastructure, like data centres, in the country. While data localisation will build a robust ecosystem for fostering local business models in data mining, data analytics and big data, it will equally boost opportunities for tech start-ups to build path-breaking products around data-driven businesses. Moreover, this will herald a new breed of skilled professionals like data scientists, analysts and warehouse architects to propel the growth in this segment. According to a report on the State of Analytics at Domestic Firms in India, 2018 by Analytics India Magazine and INSOFE, the Indian analytics, data science and big data industry is estimated to be around $30 billion. Of this, the domestic market captured $3.03 billion in 2019 and it is expected to double by 2025. Data localisation will further fuel the growth of this industry.

Sensing the potential of data analytics in eGovernance, the Centre is also planning to build an advanced technology platform to host and interpret huge amount of data that will integrate and help in better understanding of citizens’ data, spending patterns of the Government, consumption trends and the success of various Government policies. This will increase transparency in eGovernance by giving citizens access to the statistic. Data localisation is certainly going to catalyse this mission. The Government can also leverage citizens’ information for economic empowerment, address educational and health service challenges, foster financial inclusion and expedite verification and validation for Government schemes. The other dimensions of data localisation include thwarting of  breeches, safety and security of privacy and curtailing of cyber frauds that happen very often in a digital world. When information is stored locally, the Government can easily access the payments data and investigate financial crimes expeditiously. The proposed Bill will provide the right framework to protect India’s sovereign rights on citizens’ details and strengthen its leadership in the digital economy. 

The expansion of the digital economy will create opportunities to improve the social and economic standards of people living at the bottom of the pyramid by addressing challenges through data-driven insights. Since India is an IT superpower coupled with a high internet penetration and a strong business economy, the Bill seems to be very timely and this will revolutionise the entire gamut of services delivered by IT companies. In effect, this will build up a synergy between enterprises and the regulatory authorities to establish mature business processes, which, in turn, will help companies correct their business procedures to significantly safeguard data of citizens. Furthermore, start-ups and the IT industry can leverage the humongous data universe generated from digital transactions and build innovative products with a significant socio-economic impact while safeguarding a $1 trillion digital economy by 2025.

(The writer is Director General- Software Technology Parks of India)

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India is shifting quickly to become digital on the backdrop of a robust foundation of IT industry and swiftly moving on the cusp of a data revolution. An average Indian today consumes approximately 8.3 GB data per month, a 92 per cent increase compared to the data consumption four years ago, and by 2022 the per capita data consumption is expected to touch 14 GB.

By 2022, the next half billion Indians will come online for the first time through their mobile phones. The immense digital presence of Indians in terms of 1.25 billion Aadhaar, 1.2 billion mobile phones and 1 billion bank accounts requires colossal digital infrastructure for storage and processing of data. This massive amount of data appetite of a digital-first nation has opened magnificent avenues for businesses and government alike.

Data provides a golden opportunity for India to become a global data hub as a billion-plus populous country is poised to reduce the digital divide between rural and urban population by connecting the entire country through broadband. India's digital consumer base is the second largest in the world and growing at the second-fastest rate amongst major economies. India's inclusive digital model is narrowing the digital divide within the country and bringing benefits of technology to all segments of people. To leverage this opportunity, India needs to develop a chain of data centres across the country to store, process and analyse data.

Let's have a closer look at the data dynamics of India. IndiaStack, the paperless layer that leverages Aadhaar, is reported to have powered around 17 billion e-KYCs (know your customer) and saved more than $7 billion in authentication services for the Government of India. This stack offers endless opportunities to fintech companies, healthcare providers and others to understand customers better and provide value-added services.

Similarly, the deployment of Unified Payment Interface (UPI) has enabled financial inclusion of millions of unbanked citizens while the online Goods & Service network has brought in transparency in the flow of funds across states. Since the inception of UPI by the end of December 2019, India has captured 149.65 billion transactions. Given the volume of digital transactions happens daily on various platforms such as GSTN, GeMin addition to IndiaStack and UPI, and many others, it demands pertinent use cases for building further layers of technology to harness the power of data.

The emergence of deep techs such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data will further fuel the growth of the data economy in India. What's needed now are essentially various frameworks and technology interventions that can govern all the dimensions of data, encompassing generation, processing, storage, utilisation and application.

Technology interventions are empowering citizens digitally. The availability of vast resources across the country enabling Indian IT industry to scout for business models through which the resources can be aggregated and optimised so that the same can be available to everyone at an affordable price and the timely technology intervention will disrupt the transformation of traditional businesses into a technology-led shared economic model. With the rapid digitisation, the ambit of the sharing economy is expanding further.

From mobility to hospitality and asset sharing to equipment rental, the sharing economy is becoming a new normal for millennials. According to a report by EY, the global sharing economy can reach $335 billion by 2025 and during the same period, India's shared economy will touch $20 billion.

On the premise of data-driven economy, in the current budget, the government's thrust on further easing of business norms and incentivising startups; embracing emerging technologies such as AI, ML, IoT, 3D Printing, Drones and Quantum Computing; building required digital infrastructure in terms of connectivity to public institutions at Gram Panchayat level and also to create data centres pan India will definitely build the necessary ecosystem needed for inventing and creating cost-effective solutions and services to citizens in a seamless manner for their inclusion in the mainstream of the society.

Such initiatives/policy interventions will also ensure the growth of the industry verticals and the startup ecosystem exists in the country. These initiatives will certainly disrupt and ignite the youth of the country to empower them to become job creators and contribute towards the social upliftment.

Empowering citizens with technology enablement is the key to success for a nation. To serve this mandate, the government is timely focusing on all the core areas such as data connectivity, secured data storage, adoption of technologies and empowering startup ecosystem to further catalyse economy, bring more FDI, help build low-cost solutions for resolving the wider challenges of various sectors while propelling the economy of the country to achieve $5 trillion by 2025. As connectivity becomes omnipresent with advancing digital capabilities, quick and radical changes across every sector of the Indian economy can also be expected.

The writer is the Director-General of Software Technology Parks of India. Views expressed are strictly personal

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The Indian IT industry is warranting business continuity to global clients and meeting demands of the nation

The impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the world is unprecedented and so humongous that the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs has projected that the global economy could shrink by up to one per cent in 2020. Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the recession triggered by the Coronavirus could be worse than the one caused by the global financial crisis in 2008. However, certain industries will bloom due to the crisis like healthcare, pharmaceuticals, health devices, insurance and so on, while some will withstand it better, like the $191 billion Indian IT Industry. In comparison to other industry verticals, the IT industry is in a better position in terms of communication infrastructure, geographic distribution, business segmentation, global delivery model and virtual work culture, which ensure that companies deliver services to their global clients even during the nationwide lockdown. Most of the IT organisations are leveraging the cloud to deliver business-critical solutions to their clients. Plus, with the majority of the employee strength  adopting the work from home (WFH) model, it was business as usual and there were no productivity disruptions. Barring data centres and other mission-critical projects that needed minimal deployment of employees onsite, most IT functions are cloud-integrated, which supported the remote operations.

Timely Government interventions like relaxations of norms and various policy amendments helped IT companies display alacrity in ramping up the WFH employee strength to comply with business exigencies of clients amid the shutdown. With right enablement like provisioning laptops, communication facilities, secured network like VPN, tools and software, IT companies have shown the maturity in addressing the immediate challenges of the lockdown.

In collaboration with relevant stakeholders, the industry is devising a strategy through which the minimum requirements of the country in this challenging time can be served efficaciously so that the mandate of the lockdown can be met successfully without much interruption. For example, e-commerce companies are ensuring home delivery of essential materials and empowering people to shop from home and reduce the chances of catching/spreading the infection.

Technology empowerment has enabled masses to keep abreast of relevant news and information on a real time basis. The recent launch of the Aarogya Setu app by the Government is a sui generis initiative to help citizens protect themselves by tracking the proximity of infected people, access curated information and medical advisories from the Government  and enable them to self-assess on whether they need to go for a Coronavirus test or not.

Leading technology companies like TCS have gone further to deepen research and innovation by leveraging their technology platforms to develop medical solutions like patient tracker and a platform for a clinical trial system. While IT giants are working towards identifying solutions with the help of emerging technologies, start-ups, too, are looking for answers and working to create low-cost tools. Premier technology institutions, including the IITs and IISc are collaborating with AIIMS, ICMR and leading IT companies and technology start-ups, to build indigenous products such as high-quality masks, personal protective equipment for healthcare professionals, including hazmat suits and affordable ventilators. Individually, some leading IT companies have started collaborating with pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing companies to speed up prototyping, getting approvals from the designated Government bodies for standard confirmation and mass production of required products to tackle the challenges raised by the pandemic. IT companies have taken the battle against the Coronavirus forward by focussing on the application of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT) and Data Analytics to rev up deeper understanding of the virus and its impact on humans. AI is primarily playing an enormous role in helping researchers accelerate study by analysing thousands of digital research papers and delivering conclusive information faster and AI-powered robots have now become part of the healthcare workforce fighting the pandemic. Indian IT companies are also cooperating with pharma companies to expedite the drug discovery process for the Coronavirus by reducing manual work and facilitating the potential of AI, ML and supercomputing to deliver faster results.

The Indian IT industry is in a better position to not only warrant business continuity to clients across the world but also its inherent strength in emerging technologies is complementing R&D, innovation and indigenous product development to handle the crisis triggered by the Coronavirus. At this critical point, the IT industry is the silver lining on the dark clouds looming over the country due to COVID-19.

(The writer is Director-General, Software Technology Parks of India)

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