India’s economic development grows; Atlanta businesses are invited to Hyderabad to connect
At the October 17, 2019 meeting on IndiaSoft at the Westin Perimeter North hotel, Consul General Dr. Swati Kulkarni proudly presented data showing how India's GDP is growing “click by click,” not necessarily brick by brick. The IndiaSoft team was touring the U.S. to increase participation from entrepreneurs and businessmen all over the world, for its GlobalSoft conference on March 3-4, 2020 in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Atlanta was not originally included as a stop. However, on CG Kulkarni's insistence, they did come and stage a presentation—which was an eye opener, received with much excitement.
IndiaSoft is a two-day IT event of the Electronics and Computer Software Promotion Council, sponsored by the Government of India, and is in its 20th year. Its new GlobalSoft showcases Indian companies to the world and also matches visiting guests with partners to allow them access to the developing world through Indian relationships. Small businesses may not need collaboration with Titans such as TCI, Infosys, or Wipro, but with SMEs (small to mid-size enterprises) that can do the job.
Dr. Kulkarni gave a PowerPoint presentation on “India surging ahead in the Digital Sector.” India increased it rank on innovation from 81st in 2015 to 52nd in 2019, due to triangulating of the National Aadhaar Card with biometrics identity and recognition (prevention of fraud, and complete transparency), digital banking via mobile apps (free flow of money and zero black money) and e-governance (ease of doing business with Government, less bureaucracy and corruption). With emphasis on women’s empowerment and youth, coupled with strong policy initiatives, the ease of doing business with India has significantly increased, climbing 23 points in the index to 77th place in 2019, becoming the top-ranked country in South Asia for the first time and third among the BRICS (emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).
India is the 2nd largest start-up ecosystem in the world with over 26,000 startups creating close to $90B in value. Patent applications rose by 15 times from 61 in 2016 to 909 in 2017. Each year raises 6,500 to 7,000 start-ups, of which 1,200 get funded. SME Sector accounts for 29% of the Economy. India-US bilateral trade crossed $140B in 2018 and India-US defense trade crossed $18B. GlobalSoft 2020, with 400 foreign delegates from more than 60 countries, is thus an incredible B2B opportunity to expand India-US SME collaboration. It’s easy to find a partner from 200+ Indian exhibitors, and the costs of participation are negligible.
IndiaSoft–GlobalSoft Executive Director D. K. Sareen invites Atlanta businesses to Hyderabad in March.
IndiaSoft–GlobalSoft Chairman Nalin Kohli and Executive Director D. K. Sareen spoke on “India as Global R&D Hub in IT.” India’s IT market now offers opportunities of partnerships and third-country exports. The 2030 scene projects 1B Indians accessing the internet, about 839M regular smartphone users, over 500M accessing digital content in regional languages, and India’s retail E-commerce sales going from $20B in 2017 to $52B by 2022. India can create up to $1 trillion of economic value from the digital economy in 2025. India is the second-fastest digital economy amongst 17 leading economies of the world.
Priority areas are Quality education for all, Healthcare for all, E-Governance, Next generation financial services for transparency, Doubling farmer’s income, Make in India for India and for the world, Jobs and skills for the future, IT Infrastructure, and Software capabilities. Productivity could support 55 to 60M workers in 2025. The Smart Cities Program will have an initial investment of $6.5B for 100 cities. Foreign companies can provide IOT, AI, Fintech, analytics, etc. The online education market in India can grow from $247M to $2B by 2021, with paid user base growing from 1.57M to 9.5M in 2021. Digital payments can grow from $50B last year to $500B by 2020. Mobile payment solutions, such as wallets, P2P transfer applications, and mobile points of sale, are enjoying strong user adoption. The Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow to $200B by 2026 from $38.5B in 2017. India’s internet user base can grow to 829M by 2021 from 445.96M in 2017. In healthcare, IoT will support operational decisions and will aggregate as well as integrate data. Mobile and wearable devices can be used to identify risk factors and provide preventative treatment to patients. The IoT market is forecast to reach $15B by 2020. The Big Data Analytics market of $2B is expected to reach $16B by 2025. India is among the top 10 countries in Big Data analytics market. In 2019, security services will represent 51.5% of the total enterprise information security spending, growing more than 12% to $1.86B in 2019.
What To Do at GlobalSoft: Explore business opportunities and develop IT Partnerships in India and other neighboring countries. Meet 350 hosted buyers from over 60 countries at IndiaSoft. Enhance competitiveness in global markets with India connection. Foster joint ventures, marketing tie-ups, etc. Increase co-development, customization, and collaboration.
A question in the Q&A session was, with hundreds of members in IndiaSoft, how can a foreign buyer trust that all are vetted? The answer was that member privacy must be protected, but that tax records might show the member’s resource capacity before a commitment is made to partner with them. Other suggestions were made that the organizers were willing to explore. The morning agenda ended with lunch; evening networking continued at the Consul General’s residence, India House.
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