Modi’s heavy technology investments will drive jobs

The sectors which will see an influx owing to technology uprising includes agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing and infrastructure especially in core departments such as railways, highways, roads, BFSI, retail and services…

India is poised to become an innovation and a manufacturing hub with the Modi’s Government impetus on heavy technology investments and zero-defect manufacturing. The first 100 days of the new government has already demonstrated a positive impact on the economy as well as the jobs market.

According to Praveen Bhadada, senior director, Zinnov, a leading management consultancy, the stage is all set to create a long term sustainable growth and reposition India on the global map. The positive track record of the new government has instilled hope for an economic turnaround in citizens and investors. “Technology, by means of digitisation in sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, infrastructure and education, will attract a USD 26 billion investment from the government in the years 2014-15.”

Talking about how the investment in technology will spell out in terms of jobs, he mentioned that focus on technology helps in ensuring the global competitiveness of organisations and creates jobs for technology professionals, especially honed in cloud mobility, analytics and IoT (Internet of Things).

The sectors which will see an influx owing to this technology uprising includes agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, infrastructure especially in core departments such as railways, highways, roads, BFSI, retail and services, added Bhadada.

Ø  Digitisation: In focus across government functions

There is good opportunity for technology MNCs to target digitisation across government functions. The new government plans to take digitalisation to the next level by implementing the digitalisation of agriculture & PDS data, enabling e-governance & m-governance, facilitating the National Rural Internet and Technology Mission, using IT for real time information gathering, and the digitisation of all government files. In the past, the government has engaged multiple MNCs such as IBM, HP and Cisco for digitisation projects.

Ø  Technology: Establishing next generation infrastructure

The Indian government plans to invest USD11 billion in key focus areas to drive the next wave of technology-backed infrastructure growth. The key focus is to create national optical-fibre networks and build 100 smart cities with high-speed digital highways along with national solar missions and national gas grids. To fulfil this task, the demand for technology skill-sets across all experience levels will rise.

Ø  India: The global manufacturing hub

With Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign to help India transform into a global hub for manufacturing, Bhadada believes the Indian Manufacturing Industry presents a USD 8 billion opportunity for the ICT sector by 2017. With the government’s push for manufacturing backed by increasing adoption of IT and increasing relevance of IoT in manufacturing will help create more jobs.

To support the plan, the government has also planned to set up 14 IITs, IIMs and AIIMs to develop an innovative ecosystem fostering high quality research. “The idea is to boost India centric product development for global consumption. This ecosystem will also allow joint R&D efforts across industries for accentuated product development”.