The Upward Spiral Of Technology In India

Despite the gale-force of the Covid-19 pandemic, the technology sector continued to progress over the last two years (2020 and 2021). However, is this forward thrust and resilience sustainable? 

 

Experts believe that it is. Accelerated growth is possible if technology companies realign and refocus on elevating dexterity, alliances, transparency, sustainability, and digital transformation. India ranks third on the global list of most lucrative investment destinations for technology and its transactions. 

 

Contemporary India is focusing on technology, given its vast potential to spur economic growth in a way that possibly no other sector can. As the government continues to promote research parks and technology business incubators, an increasing number of innovative proposals are on their way to becoming commercial enterprises. 

 

Last year, 2021, the spending on R&D by the government was nearly 0.7% of the country’s GDP, while this year, it’s targeted to reach a minimum of 2% of the GDP. The sector also became the top employment generator in the last financial year – employing an additional 1,497,501 employees. The current total workforce in the tech industry is 5 million, placing the country amongst the top global hubs for digital talent. The revenue for the tech industry has already exceeded the $200 billion mark for FY 2022(revenue of $227)

 

Industry experts are bullish and confident that the Indian tech sector will likely accelerate the turnover between $350 billion and $400 billion by 2025-2026. The excitement within the industry is palpable, given that the sector continues to be a cornerstone for the economy despite the ‘thrashing’ meted out by the Covid-19 pandemic – contributing about 8% to the GDP. 

 

The top tech companies are the ‘big boys’ of the tech league – scoring deals worth multi-billion dollars, and landing more than one-third of the global managed services deals for 2021. Even the small and mid-sized companies were landing bigger deals and are on the fast track to growth. 

 

Experts reveal three major factors contributing to the meteoric rise of the tech sector in the country – open-mindedness and focused digital spending, significant advancement of pricing patterns, and the evolution of midsized IT firms. 

Most digital spending is focused on reducing costs, the cloud, advancing the supply chain models, data mining, UX for AI, building digital platforms and assets, and ensuring data confidentiality, security, compliance, and an ethical digital ecosystem. 

Since employee turnover continues to be a pain area, companies need to upgrade and realign their policies to drive engagement and keep employees at the company longer. AI techniques should also be pressed into ‘service’ to gauge overall ‘sentiments and mood’ and help to take proactive corrective action.  

During this year, 2022, about 70% of the end-users of the tech industry (the enterprise sector) are expected to increase their digital investments. NASSCOM released a report listing about 25 technologies that enterprises should aim to invest in/buy for their companies over others. 

This is done to steer tech investments in the right direction and is sure to attract massive investments. These steps, in turn, would positively impact not just the core tech industry but also the value chain and economy of India as a whole. This paves the way for a solid foundation of innovation and growth. 

Tech companies and leaders would need to remain aware of the impact on the environment from current and future technology systems. Manufacturing new devices, proliferating command and control centers, managing connected devices, and more – all require humongous amounts of energy, and currently, the tech sector is possibly responsible for about 2-3% of global greenhouse emissions. 

The saving grace is that tech giants have already put steps and bold drives in place to manage the negative impact on the environment. It is expected that these ‘big tech boys’ will form the biggest market for renewable energy sources for 2022 and beyond. They are looking at ways to reduce their carbon footprint by bringing down e-waste, using recycled and biodegradable materials for their products, elevating their design such that the products can be repaired and recycled, and ensuring a circular economy for the electronic items. AI can be pressed into action to elevate the efficiency of manufacturing and agricultural practices, better output from buildings and data centers, and reduce the burden of traffic congestion. 

All these factors have placed India on the global tech map, with companies and employees seeking to move base to the country. The future is digitally bright and tech-savvy!