India’s Software Product Industry to be over USD 80 billion by 2025
India’s IT Service industry currently stands at USD 177 billion with exports amounting to USD 136 billion and the industry employees around 4.1 million people.
“Currently the global software product industry stands at USD 511 billion out of which India’s share is USD 8.1 billion. The objective is to take India to USD 80 to 90 billion by 2025,” says Dr Omkar Rai, Director General, Software Technology Park of India(STPI). “It is the intention of the Government of India to transform the country from an IT service Industry to a product nation. The National Software Product Policy 2019 which is approved by the union cabinet aims to capitalize on the strength of India’s IT industry in order to make the country a software product nation.”
He was speaking at the 15th India Innovation Summit 2019 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Bangalore.
STPI is in the process of opening 28 Centre of Excellence (COE) in emerging technologies at an investment of more than Rs. 400 crores. 5 centres of excellence are currently operational and in 2 years all 28 COEs will be operational. Emerging technologies such as AI, IOT, Medical Electronics, IOT in Agriculture, Automotive Electronics will be the focus of the COEs.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, Past President, CII & Chairman, India Innovation Summit, said that the march of technology is continuous and the world has made great strides in quantum technology and artificial Intelligence. New business models are continuously emerging, and it is imperative to stay up to date in order to be relevant. With industry boundaries blurring, policy makers need to ensure that regulations keep up with innovation. Sandbox models maybe needed to test innovation and business models to ensure the desired outcome is achieved. India Innovation Summit is a platform to deliberate, debate and learn. Citing the current distress in the auto industry he said that it is encouraging that the government is promoting greener technologies however In order to successfully implement new policies, we need to adopt a holistic approach that looks at the entire ecosystem right from raw materials to finished products.
Rekha M. Menon, Chairman & Senior Managing Director, Accenture said that in India, Innovation will be the main pivot for India to be a USD 5 Trillion economy. Innovation will be the cornerstone and there is no other choice. We need to be mindful that in achieving our target of a $5 trillion economy, innovation for social economic growth is not overlooked. Though India has moved up the global innovation index, the country excels in certain sectors. In order for India to move up the index we need to ensure that innovation is a process, a collaborative approach that involves government, academia, research and start-ups.
Nicole Girard, Consul General, Consulate General of Canada, said that India is Canada’s fastest growing trade partner and people to people ties continuous to grow in double digit. Canada has a strong innovation partnership with India and there is a strong opportunity to explore. Both countries have phenomenal tech talent and for deeper India-Canada relations Canada has launched an Innovation Super Cluster Initiative to become engines of economic growth. She enumerated 5 super clusters i.e. digital technology, protein industries, advance manufacturing, Ocean Tech and AI that will be key focus areas for Canada.
“In order to emerge as a global power, India needs to work towards becoming an innovation economy. Karnataka is the leader in the country to achieve this objective and it is initiatives like the CII India Innovation Summit that will help understand and highlight issues critical to achieve this aim. Bengaluru has been widely cited as one of the fastest growing technology hubs and startup capitals in the world. Bengaluru is ranked 11th Best Global Startup Ecosystem, as per the Startup Blink Startup Eco-system Rankings Report 2019, moving up from rank 21 in the year 2017. Our Department is in the process of drafting a new policy on innovation and technology with the view to address the new age challenges in regulation for innovation. We are considering innovative concepts such as regulatory sandboxes to ensure adequate legal framework for innovation is available. Our aim is to make the state a leading promoter for all emerging technologies by strengthening existing technology Centers of Excellence in areas such as Cyber Security, Data Analytics, IoT, Artificial Intelligence,” said Dr. E.V. Ramana Reddy, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of IT, Bt and S&T, Government of Karnataka.
Start-ups are a key in the innovation ecosystem, India now is the third largest hub for technology start-ups which is a positive sign. The other area to focus on is investment in R&D, India ranks 50th in R&D investment and this number must go up with participation of government, academia and private sector.
