India in for digital transformation: Report

Foreign portfolio investors have put in `5,322 crore into the Indian equity market in the first half of this month, primarily on their positive view on the interim budget, against pulling out `5,264 crore in January. FPIs pulled out a net `248 crore from the bond market this month. India is on the cusp of a digital transformation, thanks to the spread of high-speed data services. Not just that, as new age technologies like digital, analytics, AI, robotics disrupt industry value chains, Indian firms would be at the forefront of driving this change in the global market, says a report.

The report by Deloitte predicts that the year 2019 will be the inflection point for conversational AI in India, with voice assistants moving well beyond information access and entertainment in the next two to three years. AI-powered voice assistants could become an important element in home automation, hospitality sector, heath care, potentially progressing to voice-based commerce. “The technology industry in India is in a truly exciting phase right now, unlike any other country at any other point in time. For more than two decades, its technology services industry was at the forefront of driving the technology-enabled transformation of businesses across the world,’’ said Deloitte

Joshi.

India’s first phase of digital India’s Hemant explosion was driven by smart phones and mobile internet penetration. Its next growth phase will be led by mobile-first and voice-first technologies. Original and localised content will play a crucial role in ensuring the faster adoption and wider application of voice technologies, the report said.

Another area that will witness significant growth is financial services technology. The shift in consumer preference towards digital channels for investments and wealth management is steadily rising. While digital investing may increase at varying rates for different asset classes, the facility of immediate service, better discovery of products, and innovations in providing improved customer experience will cause customers to gravitate towards these new-age platforms, found the study.

It expects the entertainment industry to reach a high-growth phase this year. Deloitte India’s Jehil Thakkar said: “This is a good time to be a (content) consumer in the Indian market. Large players have entered the Indian OTT (over-the-top) market and allocated sizeable budgets for creating original and exclusive content.’’ New Delhi, Feb 17: Soon, an Indian buyer would be able to walk into a shopping mall and try on clothes with the ‘India Size’, tailored to suit the body measurements of the country's populace.

In March, the government will launch an exercise to measure a group of people to prepare a comprehensive 'India Size' chart, which can be adopted by the country's apparel industry.

"We want that we should have Indian size for two things. It can boost our retail market. South Asian size will also get a fillip, and we will become influence drivers for foreign companies also. We are actually rolling out the exercise in March itself," Textiles Secretary Raghvendra Singh told PTI.

He said the government is trying to complete the "sizeable" project early so that a standardised size chart can be prepared for the ready-to-wear industry, based on body measurements of the domestic population.

The project approved earlier by the government will entail measuring of 25,000 male and female Indians in six cities across six regions of the country: Kolkata (East); Mumbai (West); New Delhi (North); Hyderabad (Central India); Bengaluru (South); and Shillong (North-East). Devices like 3D whole body scanners and computers will extract hundreds of measurements from the scan.

Providing well-fitting garments is a big challenge for the domestic textile and apparel industry, which is projected to reach $123 billion by 2021. —PTI