Poised to grow
— Sameer Garde
We are living in a time of relentless and swift change, where technology is constantly upending familiar social and economic arrangements and norms. In the midst of this transformation, India is digitising faster than any other country, at an unprecedented pace. As digital capabilities improve and connectivity becomes omnipresent, technology is poised to quickly and radically change nearly every sector of the country’s economy.
India is already establishing itself as a significant presence in the digital landscape. In terms of key metrics, especially proliferation of smartphones, internet penetration, growth of mobile broadband, consumption of data, and social media usage, India is gaining momentum, and will soon surpass a number of its global counterparts. A recent report by McKinsey states that India’s digital economy generates about USD 200 billion of economic value annually, with the GDP contribution estimated to reach 8.2% by 2020, which is expected to increase to almost 20% by 2025. By 2030, more than one billion Indians will be online, with 800 million regular smartphone users.
Having identified digital as the key to leading India into its next phase of growth, unlocking the USD five trillion economy and achieving the ‘Digital India’ goal, the government and private sector are moving quickly to extend high-speed connectivity across the country and offer the necessary hardware and software services to take Indian consumers and businesses online. For instance, Google has recently partnered with the Indian Railways and Cisco to solve the connectivity issue in India, where we are setting up free WiFi stations to give everyone access to the internet. This will not just benefit individuals, but can enable millions of SMEs across the country and even students in small villages and towns, to have access to information and resources that they’re currently lacking.
New-age technologies such as the IoT, Cloud, AI, ML, 5G, WiFi, and VR are aiding this digital transformation. These emerging technologies are all network-centric, so inarguably, the network has never been more critical to business success. Shaping and building networks that are adaptable, secure and automated for future technologies are of utmost priority in today’s world. Nations are racing ahead to develop networks and put in place architecture that will be necessary for 5G and next generation WiFi services.
Enterprises too are gearing to build robust, dynamic and agile networks, taking an architectural approach to ensure the network can adapt quickly to future business developments and technological advancements. An open, adaptable and secure platform will provide the necessary support to allow innovation at scale. Network architecture should be built on the principles of virtualisation, automation, analytics, and cloud, which are all designed to boost IT productivity, and provide a wealth of information at lower operational costs. For example, for farmers in Kerala, Cisco has built an Agri-Digital Infrastructure (ADI) Platform and set up Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) to provide data-based recommendations and insights to improve agriculture planning, reduce the risk of crop mortality and overall operational costs.
As is the case with all technological breakthroughs, network transformation comes with its own challenges. The rapid explosion of IoT devices, autonomous vehicles, robotic systems, and other digital platforms has resulted in an overflow of data and a vast expansion at the edge of the network. This has caused a strain on the network
and requires new ways of processing, analysing, and acting on this data in real-time. The other more daunting challenge is security. With the convergence of 5G, AI and IoT, security is becoming a major focus area for India’s telecom industry. Security architecture too must transition to 5G. Threat intelligence should be at the heart of any effective security strategy, which addresses both preventative and responsive capabilities. Enterprises and governments are therefore working together to create a secure network today that can support the aspirations of tomorrow.
The implications of an open and secure network are so much more, that just the speeds it promises. The network is going to serve as a social equalizer in a dispersed country; it will enable the empowerment of people agnostic of geographies, and could even bridge the divide between Bharat and India. information and knowledge to a large population. New digital ecosystems are already reshaping consumer and partner interactions in agriculture, healthcare, retail, logistics, and other sectors. In healthcare, patients have advanced to tele-consultations via digital voice or HD video; in retail, brick and mortar stores have been able to reach a much larger audience on e-commerce platforms; in banking, digitization is ensuring financial inclusion of the rural unbanked.
We are in an accelerating “take-off” stage of our journey in realising the Digital India dream. India is poised for tremendous economic growth and digital empowerment of its 1.3 billion citizens, and the network is the foundation upon which this highly connected nation will be built.