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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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