India is 90% digital already

Urbanization is affecting Indian cities in a big way. India loses almost 60k crores annually in traffic congestions. If infrastructure expansion alone is considered as a means to address this challenge then India would need approx. $1 Trillion in the next 5 years says Rupak Ghosh, Vice President at Cyient.  However, a good framework of smart transportation initiative can address this need without having to expand the infrastructure with all the over laden costs. Here is how smart technologies and IoT are helping.

Where do you think India stands in smart technologies adoption?

I think that over 90% of the business whether small, medium or even large business houses are adopting the smart technologies in terms of IOT enablement. Tier II and Tier III cities are highest adopters of payment gateways technologies using smart phones and PCs. Retail businesses are using Smartphones to interact with customers and suppliers, hospitality businesses use online platforms aggressively to acquire and communicate with new customers, manufacturing businesses primarily leverage Smartphone enabled platforms to integrate and closely monitor their suppliers.

Do you think the digital initiative is supported adequately by skills and adoption?

It is estimated that over 4 million IT jobs will be created around digital India initiatives between 2015 & 2018; however, only a third of these new jobs will be filled. While many Govt. programs and research centres have been launched to help create the skills needed for Digital India, the reasons driving this skills shortage are not hard to identify. The usage of mobile, social and analytical tools is permeating the length and breadth of every function across. Unlike the past, the impact of these digital technologies and tools is felt not just in the IT companies. Moreover, each new technology cycle has brought forth new requirements and these cycles are increasingly getting shorter. People must now refresh their skills more frequently if they wish to stay relevant in this rapidly changing digital environment.

What were your expectations from the budget in terms of encouragement for development of smart technologies? Do you think it has done enough?

Few expectations from the budget I guess all would have are – (1) Tax holiday for start-ups for a period of 5 years would facilitate India to become the start-up capital of the world. (2) The government must also roll out the much delayed GST as it will boost economic growth. This is very important given that India has one of the lowest IT penetration rates. Once rolled out, the IT sector has to be kept under the lowest percentage slab which will enable companies to take greater advantage of the benefits and invest more in manufacturing. (3) Focus should be on digital literacy, improved connectivity and access to technology supported by radical government process re-engineering. This will not only empower citizens but also enable start-ups and large organisations to experience digital transformation. (4) Support for Digital India initiatives and access to Internet connectivity in rural areas will boost the economic and domestic spending of the country as more citizens will be able to access e-commerce.

What more do you think should have been done, to speeden up adoption of IoT and smart technologies.

Initiatives like smart city and digital India provide a platform for IoT in terms of big revenues and higher operational efficiencies. Talking about smart energy, the energy saved in one building could be around 10 or 15 percent. Just imagine the immense savings across all domains which will have a positive impact for our country. IoT is not something that will happen over a year. However, the key part of IoT is, when you start implementing it, the returns are significantly quick. Speedy adoption of IOT requires experts across businesses to come together to discuss trends, issues and solutions. Data security and data privacy issues need to be addressed. Capability and skill building around IoT needs to happen.

There is big talk of Smart Cities, do you think the budget has provided support to it?

The budget proposals have given quite a big boost to the Digital India initiative, digital literacy, application of cloud and electronics manufacturing. The government has allocated Rs. 27,996 for communications and IT ministry in the current budget. For the telecom sector, the budget brought clarity over taxability of third-party usage of spectrum and it will now attract service tax. With this announcement, such transactions will be outside the purview of the value-added tax. Finance minister announced a duty advantage of 10.5% for domestic manufacturing of mobile phones, battery, wired headsets, speakers and components. Changes in customs and excise duty rates on certain inputs, raw materials, intermediaries and components, and other goods and simplifying procedures aids to reduce costs and improve competitiveness of domestic industry in sectors like Information Technology.

What will be your strategy for the smart technologies (like IoT, M2M, analytics), adoption in the coming year?

• Have dedicated leadership to drive IoT momentum
• Evaluate value captures using both experiences from industries like healthcare, Aerospace, Industrial, Automotives, and a maturity continuum
• Create IoT adoption plan, categorizing projects into low priority stage covering covers specific IoT possibilities that would create value but are not yet being pursued because of prioritization choices, medium priority covering both with the aim of testing the technology and with the commercial aim of proving its worth, and high priority based on the quantifiable impact, the most successful pilots would be selected
• Explore partnerships to fast track adoption.