India is fast adopter of emerging technologies

It is evident that India is a world leader in delivering IT services; we need to be equally adept in creating crucial IT apps, as software is the infrastructure equivalent of the digital age. No event has affected mankind more than the COVID-19 crisis. The rapid spread of the virus impacted major economies across the globe, with governments announcing lockdowns to tackle the pandemic. For organisations, supply chains-the most crucial link in any business, were severely impacted. India has tried to adapt to this crisis, in its own unique way, by leveraging the strengths of its indigenously developed digital platforms.

India has several home-grown success stories. This includes Aadhaar, the world’s largest biometric identity database. A recent study by People Research on India’s Consumer Economy (PRICE) in partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has revealed that one-third of Indian households today use digital payments. Other equally important initiatives include GSTN, GeM and DigiLocker. NITI Aayog, India’s policy think tank, has established the national program for AI, with the objective of guiding research and development in this important technology. Similarly, the draft of the National Strategy on Blockchain by MeitY was put up for public consultation.

Digital payments have grown exponentially, and no country comes close to India when it comes to scale and impact. Now India is well recognised as the fastest-growing markets for e-commerce.

In India, a number of initiatives have been taken to build the country’s innovation ecosystem. With more than 50,000 startups, India is believed to have the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) released the Global Innovation Index 2020, and India ranks at 48 among 131 economies. India’s ranking has moved up by four positions since 2019. While a lot has been done, India has several other important areas where the country needs to be Aatmanirbhar or self-reliant. For India to progress faster on the path of innovation, there is a need for a sustained push towards building the required infrastructure and the necessary skill sets.

The pandemic has ensured that every company today has to be a digital company. In 2020, online mediums prevailed and we witnessed a huge spurt in e-commerce transactions and a quick transition from physical mediums to online. In the initial stages of the pandemic, the spending on IT was muted. In 2021, India is moving towards another important initiative that is the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for large-scale electronics manufacturing, which will have a major impact on making India one of the preferred destinations for electronics components manufacturing.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Chief editor, VARINDIA