The Outlook

How are India’s top IT companies gearing up to be a part of the national vision to be a $1 Trillion digital economy by 2023

BE CAUTIOUS, AHEAD! It is well known that India is the world’s largest BPM destination. The revenue of IT and BPM industry in India is estimated to be reach $ 350 billion by 2025, says Invest India. The current size is said to be worth $177 billion in 2019.

India is set to become a $1 trillion

digital economy by 2023, through government technology adoption initiatives, such as Aadhar, GSTN, BHIM, etc. There will also be a JAM Trinity — Jan Dhan – Aadhar – Mobile — to enable digitisation across industries.

DIGITAL INNOVATION HUB

India is emerging as the hub for “Digital Skills”. India spends $ 1.6 billion annually on training workforce. It is the largest employer within the private sector, employing 3.9 million people. India is also transforming into a digital economy with over 450 million plus internet subscribers.

The Indian IT industry has over 17,000 firms, of which 1,000+ are large firms with over 50 delivery locations in India. The country’s cost competitiveness in providing IT services, approximately 3-4 times more cost-effective than the US, continues to be its unique selling proposition in the global sourcing market. The large IT-BPM clusters are based in Delhi NCR, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telengana and Tamil Nadu.

INDUSTRY TRENDS

• Cloud computation - Allows offload data management, backend development & design.

• E- Governance - E- health, E-education & E-ticketing

• 4G and 5G - Significant data usage, low latency, high reliability and low energy consumption.

• Green IT - Environment-friendly batteries, renewable energy sources and management of power systems.

• Molecular communications - Bio-nanomachines communicate to perform coordinated actions. Codigion, from Shilliong, Meghalaya, offers its insights of Indian IT and software industry. The software industry has faced major disruption in traditional business model with the introduction of digital transformation technologies like AI, IoT, cloud computing, Big Data and so on. The Indian IT industry is scaling up, offering more end-to-end solutions and government schemes like Make in India, Start-Up India, and Digital India.

The digitally skilled manpower is also increasing. The wage level is lower than most countries, resulting in the unmatched value proposition. A highly qualified pool of technical manpower, the government’s initiative, and digital technologies, have shown greater impact in the software market.

India has now become one of the largest global outsourcing destination across the globe with a 55% market share. It has 35% in BPM share. The IT sector contributes to 7.7% to India’s GDP. India has over 5,,000 startups with 1,200 startups being added in 2018.

CHARACTERISTICS

India is considered to be one of the major IT force in the global software market with advancement in education, government initiatives, investment opportunities, and skilled manpower. The young and skilled IT development manpower attributes to the Indian software development growth. However, the Indian IT wages are lower as compared to other

India is set to become a $1 trillion digital economy by 2023, through government technology adoption initiatives, such as Aadhar, GSTN, BHIM, etc

countries. The quality of work form India is more robust and efficient as compared to others.

The software industry is backed by the Government initiatives. Banking and financial services are now aiming toward new investment opportunities. The market sector breakup for FY18: IT services ($86billion), BPM ($32 billion), software products and engineering services ($33 billion) and hardware ($15.40 billion). The market size of the Indian IT industry in 2018 constitutes domestic ($41 billion) and exports ($126 billion). • India has become one of the topmost investment destinations in the IT industry. • The Indian IT industry grew five

fold in FY17-18. • Cost competitiveness is India’s USP in the global market. • India holds a 55% share as an out

sourcing destination. • IT industry contributed over 7.9% in Indian GDP in FY17-18. • India has more than 1000 deliveries center in about 200 cities and 80 countries for IT services. • IT industry is expected to add another 100k job in FY19. • The Indian IT industry is expected to grow up to $350 billion by 2025.

THREATS

The increased demand for IT and software is definitely causing a shortage of skilled professionals. There is also the increasing competition from other nations. India specializes in IT-enabled services, and is losing focus on IT and software products. That needs a relook. Companies are neglecting the engineering and R&D services as well, and the emphasis seems to be more on low-end ITeS services. Besides, there is no focus on the hardware manufacturing sector. In Fortune India, BVR Mohan, founder and executive chairman of Cyient, said 2019 will be challenging for Indian IT-ITeS industry. The year, however, will bring in a lot of opportunities as the industry is expected to grow around 10%.

Technologies such as AI/ML, IoT, AR/VR, Big Data analytics, robotic process automation, and 3D printing are increasingly becoming mainstream, cutting across industries. These technology disruptions are presenting a formidable challenge to the $167 billion (2017-18 revenue) strong Indian IT industry. Today, upskilling and reskilling of over 50% of the industry workforce has become an indispensable obligation for the ITITeS industry.

India is emerging as the hub for “Digital Skills”. The country spends $ 1.6 billion annually on training workforce in the sector. The industry is the largest employer within the private sector, employing 3.9 million people.

According to NASSCOM, digital acceleration saw $33 billion revenue and 30% growth during 2018-19. There were 170,000 net new hires. 600,000 are digitally skilled. There were around 7,200+ tech startups in 2018, with 8 Unicorns added. 50% DeepTech startups were added in 2018-19. There were approximately 400+ AI startups. India became the first leading country in RPA deployment. AI for ALL – a National AI Strategy, was also announced. However, 2019 is a year to be cautious. There are ongoing trade wars and policy uncertainty, currency fluc