What Will World Be Looking Up To India And Technology In The Year 2020?

For close to two millennia, India accounted for close to 30 per cent of the global economy. As a nation, our having missed out on the First Industrial Revolution was the first setback, as we missed the bus on the transition to new manufacturing processes, something Europe and the United States benefitted from. Colonisation, therefore, became a very easy process as these manufacturing advantages led thereon to military superiority. 

The Second Industrial Revolution then witnessed an expansion in the sectors of electricity, petroleum and steel, another miss for India. These sectors actually took off in India close to four decades later. 

Where we have however learnt from past mistakes, we have managed to capitalise on, during the Third Industrial Revolution or the Digital Revolution. While architecture and innovation were not spaces we managed to lead initially, we truly became a hub for global support in the digital space. 

The Pew Research Center did a global survey about the perception of India called, The Public Opinion of India in 2018, where close to 75 per cent of respondents said the country has gained importance rapidly on the global stage. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his keynote address at DAVOS 2018, spoke about how India will not be confined by its ambitions of hard economic power but also soft power. That time is truly here. Proof of the pudding is the fact that conglomerates such as Microsoft, Mastercard, IMF and more are today headed globally by Indians. 

Add to this the fact that India is the fourth-largest app economy globally, and one realises the reason behind Indians’ strong media consumption footprint across almost all social media platforms. Here again, a classic case in point is the T-Series versus PewDiePie saga that played out in favour of the homegrown music industry behemoth, showing that we are leading a razor’s edge race with global powers. 

The Fourth Industrial Revolution now upon us fuses various technological advances such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, autonomous mobility, 5G telephony, nanotechnology, biotech, robotics, quantum computing and the like. 

For India, the Fourth Industrial Revolution brings tremendous opportunities to leapfrog several stages of development, hastening its journey towards the destination of becoming a developed economy far ahead of its peers. In many ways, this revolution shall be a great leveller. Technologies more often than not being developed in India will be those that shall drive the evolution of economy and commerce globally. 

Aiding this growth is the launch and proliferation of cheap data metrics in India, read JIO. For India, the launch of JIO will always be remembered as the fount from which the Fourth (and thereon, the Fifth) Revolution sprung. Cheap internet and a massive uptick in indigenous device manufacturers and inbound shipments have ensured that people across strata have access to great digital infrastructure, leading to great economic development.  

Aiding and abetting in India’s growth is our space technology, evidenced by ISRO’s continuous presence in the news by dint of their wonders with the Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan. The best part is that it is not only ISRO but even Indian commerce, such as homegrown films conglomerate UFLEX which makes films for ISRO, that has benefited from the technological strides that our nation has rapidly taken. 

Also helpful has been bodies such as the NITI Aayog, which is now working on introducing technology as an enabler across industries as disparate as agriculture, IT, energy, health, and education. What will also help India is our aim to become a vital contributor to the expansion of global frontiers of technology by developing and leveraging its already significant achievements in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, software, space, and energy? 

In the past decade, cloud technologies, analytics, and digital experience had disrupted IT operations, business models and markets. Even though not the current trend, these technologies have shaped the world that we live in today. They have become the foundations of businesses and IT. It is in this space that the world will now turn and look to India to lead the way as Indian technology becomes the bedrock for the superstructure that is going to be global growth, in the years to come.