Important footnotes in India’s economic transformation, ranging from liberalization to sweeping reforms in the ease of doing business, and more recently Aatmanirbhar Bharat, have been necessary policy responses to their contextual contexts.
Likewise, each of them has contributed to boosting the main engines of the economy: services, agricultural production, manufacturing and demand generation.
India’s sustained digital revolution will ripple through all sectors of the economy. As the adoption of emerging and new technologies take center stage, the actualization of ideas around “data” as a capital good will drive policymaking, investment and, ultimately, range of digital offerings to the Indian consumer.
Electronic products and digital services today cover sectors such as health and personal finance, communication, mobility and entertainment, and have contributed to the country’s demand-driven GDP. The debate will continue on the importance and regulation of data. As such, it is imperative that they place the user first, while ensuring an environment conducive to innovation.
There will also be the dawn of new types of services and business models driven by the explosion of data, further highlighting the need to embrace digital skills to propel India’s growth. Along with this technological progression, we will also see the need to re-skill labour-intensive economies.
The proliferation of connectivity will force India to reap the dividends of the Indian government’s investments in technology adoption. This will not only drive innovation but also contribute to GoI’s sustained efforts to improve core skills to support Digital India’s vision and skills initiatives. Furthermore, it will complement the market-induced transition from labor-intensive modes of production towards the development of a
skilled labor.
Arguably India’s greatest asset to itself and its exports has been its working-age population. This rings perfectly true today with over 62% of the population falling into the 15-59 working age category. Unleashing the potential of this superpower depends on several factors such as cyclical investments in the retraining of the population and determined efforts to increase the participation of women in the labor market. The added benefit of these resolutions will be a ripple effect on other economic indicators, such as the improvement in per capita income commensurate with population growth.
With 41.49% of India’s population engaged in agriculture in 2020, it remains the main generator of jobs and the engine of the economy. A radical transformation of the sector is likely in the next two decades, largely due to the consolidation of land holdings, the modernization of the sector and the rise of precision agriculture. Despite these critical changes, agriculture will continue to employ the largest number of people, and digitalization is likely to bring higher productivity gains as well as greater prosperity in the sector.
From building resilience globally through country agreements, to developing logistics infrastructure across the
Shakti program, India has also deliberately bet on the global restructuring of supply chains. As these take shape, the country is poised to mark its presence with a critical role to play in stabilizing global supply chains as a trusted partner.
Today marks a historic milestone in India’s existence as a free, diverse and democratic state. These values anchored in our markets and in our external relations will continue to propel our growth as a key global player.
