The world’s top digital economy

India has suffered terribly during the pandemic. But in the long-term it is poised to become the world’s leading digital economy, says Abhishek Rungta. “India is not the only place that has coders, designers and computer-science graduates”, but it has more than anywhere else and they also speak English. They are needed not only in India, which already has 560 million digital subscribers – second only to China – but also abroad. It owes its success in part to 2015 policy reforms that included pioneering e-governance and a digital educational platform, Diksha, used in state schools. Within five years, the digital economy will make up 20% of India’s GDP, more than double the US figure. If this digital-first – and remote-working – approach was a strength for India pre-pandemic, now it is a lifeline. As the EU’s GDP shrank by 0.4% in the last quarter, India’s GDP grew 1.6%. Jio, a tech platform that aims to bring a digital lifestyle to every Indian, raised $15bn in the pandemic. In a world where digital skills, flexibility and entrepreneurship matter more than geography, India’s tech sector could be the digital equivalent to the City of London. If Britain wants a “slice of India’s digital resilience”, it had better start investing now.