India is geared to accelerate Digitization for connecting the last mile

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA
 

Digital Transformation is sweeping boldly across businesses and society at a breakneck speed – and it is taking us towards a new reality i.e. from 
“Going Digital” to “Being Digital”. 

Businesses around the world are embracing digital technologies and the cloud to transform the way they do business. Today’s unpredictable reality, from supply chain disruptions to new regulatory restrictions, means the need for flexibility and adaptability has never been greater. At the same time, technology has become increasingly embedded in every aspect of customer interaction with brands over the last decade, from advertising and outreach on digital platforms to online shopping and automated voice support. The pandemic and the push for social distancing have worked as catalysts in the last year, substantially boosting the rate at which technology is being harnessed at various levels of customer engagement.

The pandemic has changed the way consumers interact with brands and the aim of this partnership is to enable companies to continue building on this acceleration. COVID-19 was a catalyst for digitisation and there is no going back to the old way of interacting. A brand's relationship with its customers is more than a transaction. Personal relationships, beliefs, and values-all contribute significantly to consumer loyalty and long-term product purchase decisions. 

In this context, brands must understand how to preserve and enhance their customers' experiences in an increasingly technologically equipped world. It is high time for the enterprises to transform not just by advancing their external digital presence for customers but also by transforming their internal business operations to stay abreast with the industry needs.

Over the last two years, the terms "digitalisation" and "digital transformation" have become very commonly used buzzwords. While much has been accomplished and India has made significant progress in this area, we still have a long way to go before we can call ourselves a “Digital India”. The Indian tech industry has shared its wish list for the government ahead of the Union Budget 2022, emphasising the importance of incentivizing digital transformation.

Digitization is set to accelerate, and India will leverage its expertise in developing products and solutions to digitally connect the country to the last mile. It will be encouraging if the budget can introduce steps towards building digitally skilled human capital at a much faster pace and to enhance the infrastructure and connectivity measures further. The ongoing pandemic and work from anywhere models have further increased the attack landscape for cybercriminals. In addition to this, organizations are facing cybersecurity resource crunch and stringent budgets.

India saw a euphoric rise in the number of unicorns in 2021, adding 33 in a year making it one of the fastest growing technology startup ecosystems globally. This growth has been on the back of overall improvement in ease of doing business, and this should continue to remain an ongoing focus and priority.

When it comes to Electronics System Design and Manufacturing, we as a country have a huge potential in becoming a global hub. The recent semiconductor-focused Performance Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme announced by the government has been a major boost for the ecosystem. The Design Linked Incentives (DLI) which is another element linked to the scheme has been beneficial for the design and fabless companies.

It is an interesting time for India's top IT services firms, who  are working on embedding various technologies to tap the Metaverse market, which is estimated to provide a $8 trillion opportunity, as per global investment bank Goldman Sachs. Conventionally, India’s software service exports have been in consulting and IT infrastructure services, but Indian companies have now expanded their offerings to deep tech like Artificial Intelligence, data analytics and augmented/ virtual reality as part of Web3.0 or Metaverse.

Embedded technologies will create an alternate reality for clients, and can help unlock huge value for Indian IT companies, especially in a new normal where work, education, and some health services have shifted to a remote model, according to industry experts.

Secondly, Web 2.0 has been successful for many companies like Facebook, Youtube, Google and they have changed the way the internet used to operate. But one problem that persists is that everything is still centralised in the hands of these companies. Now, Web 3.0 is claiming to be addressing the concerns of centralisation by giving control in the hands of the user and making the ecosystem more decentralised. 

Finally, certain enterprises have already started building Metaverse gaming platforms where the control lies in the hands of the users.