BUILDING TECH-ENABLED INDIA – DIGITIZATION TO ACCELERATE DISRUPTION
India will be one of top 3 global economies by 2023. As we stand in the midst of an unimaginable crisis, India is at the cusp of an opportunity – one that can make it a new, self-reliant, resilient and a digitally enabled nation. Digital technology serves as a catalyst to turn adversity into opportunity – as is evident from trends we have been seeing in the country – 500% rise in healthcare teleconsultation, 33% increase in digital payments, estimated 3-fold growth in e-commerce.
As I look into the future, there are 4 trends that I see shape that journey: Everything cloudified, diversified ecosystem, talent & workplace fluidization, and infrastructural localization that will help us achieve our vision of a transformed and inclusive India. I believe it is critical for all of us as an ecosystem to collaborate closely to fulfill this vision of an inclusive India enabled by technology
I got an opportunity to attend very fruitful conversations on the Virtual Tech Leadership Summit hosted by @CNBCTV18Live and #IntelIndia on how Covid-19 led disruption is giving businesses a chance to remodel themselves and evolve. The Summit was hosted on a 3D virtual platform with the aim to provide the attendees with a realistic experience digitally. For the 2300+ live attendees viewing the webisodes and tuning in to the panel discussions, the Summit provided key insights on how digitization can accelerate disruption. The industry stakeholders confirmed the key role being played by Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), and also shed light on how the business landscape will continue to transform.
It was great to hear industry stalwarts talk about their experience in Embracing Disruption – The Digital Advantage. A key takeaway was that businesses had started using technology as a force multiplier to power transformations, some of them utilizing AI and IoT to deliver better customer experience and talent management. In that vein, some excellent use cases were shared from the industry – how digital innovations could contribute to shaving half a second off the manufacture of a two-wheeler that currently takes 17.5 seconds, or even how a German car manufacturer is using technology to perform ~5million precision welds on a car. This certainly shows the impact smart manufacturing can have in reducing the design to delivery time while enhancing the quality of the end product.
Key insights were also shared on digital infrastructure powering the public sector and government machinery to ensure seamless continuity of government services during the pandemic. Going forward, use of AI will become much more pervasive in applications across sectors, not just in customer facing sectors such as banking, healthcare, and retail, but also in agriculture, judiciary, education, and governance.
The cross-sector views on Calm Clouds Ahead – Cloudification of Everything aligned with my thoughts on how Cloud serves as the foundation for broader digital adoption. During the current pandemic, businesses are shifting their workloads to the cloud to bring forth an agile approach to applications, talent, and technology platforms. We are seeing it become the default operating model to deliver services, especially as it allows for scale and speed needed in the business environment today. Case in point, one of the country’s largest mobile and broadband service providers was able to keep the country’s connectivity infrastructure running during the lockdown by enabling 50K workforce to work from home via cloud.
However, businesses are also realizing the challenge inherent in developing a well-defined cloud strategy, and that in order to manage it successfully, they need to map their operational processes effectively and comprehensively. Further, adding AI and ML capabilities to the mix at scale will not only allow businesses to offer a smoother customer experience, but also offer a broader spectrum of services to their consumers.
The pandemic-induced change in customer priorities – to health and safety – as well as a shift in delivery channels – to mobile and online – has led to businesses responding with agility to ensure business continuity. Greater acceptance of Work from Home (WFH) model has paved the way for part-time employment, contractual employment, and work from anywhere. Enterprises are now evaluating the benefits of being able to scale their workforce up and down based on the demand for goods and services, and the skillsets that are needed to deliver them, by exploring flexi-staffing, gig workforce, and crowdsourcing. The session on Business Continuity in Crises and Beyond defined information technology in the new normal as part of the country’s infrastructure and underscored the need to have secure yet agile network that spans across personal devices to public cloud.
The role of data as a key building block and enabler came through with great clarity. Being able to leverage pools of data to make better business decisions is the backbone of digitization efforts. It is also a way to figure out what consumers or businesses may need, before they ask for it. This point was driven home in the conversation on Disrupting the Disruptors, where we learnt that India’s largest at-home service provider is driving precision and compliance of services rendered, by tracking the technicians’ job flow as well as identifying areas where reskilling or upskilling is required, through automated data processing.
Another interesting example of the increasing relevance of data was shared in the segment on Tech-Led SME Transformation. A leading airline was able to analyze the same volume data in one day that earlier used to take them a couple of weeks to go through, by shifting to the cloud. With the travel patterns changing in the new normal, this agility is sure to deliver great value.
Obviously, the ability to collect, process and share large quantities of data will lead to fundamental disruptions in the design of business models going forward.
Through all this, I am very sure that the digital ecosystem, which connects businesses with customers and one another, automates interactions, and analyses data, will act as a catalyst and enable India to leapfrog to a new, dynamic, and digitally enabled nation.
This summit itself was for a me a great example of what technology makes possible. This journey of creating an Inclusive India promises to be an excellent learning for all of us, and a journey that will make us push the boundaries of what we collectively thought was possible. Together we can find a way!