A recent report titled “Digital India: Technology to transform a connected nation” generated by McKinsey Global Institute revealed that core digital sectors in Inida like information technology-business process management (IT-BPM), digital communications, and electronics manufacturing may contribute from 8- 10% country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by 2025.
India’s GDP from core digital sectors as recorded in the year 2017-18 was found to be 7% i.e. about $170 billion, of which IT-BPM accounted for $115 billion while digital communication for $45 billion and electronic manufacturing for $10 billion.
Considering industry revenue, cost structures, and growth trends as the main factors, there can be a contribution between $355 billion and $435 billion from these sectors that will account for 8 -10 % of India’s GDP by 2025, the report said.
The study that took 17 mature & emerging economies across 30 dimensions of digital implementation since 2014 for analysis found India to be digitizing faster than any other country except for Indonesia.
As recorded in September 2018, there were 560 million Internet subscribers in India. The number however is expected to increase by about 275 million by 2023 resulting into 835 million as the total number of Internet subscribers in the country, revealed the report.
The report also found that while on one hand the public sector is a strong reason for India’s rapid digitization, private sector on the other has made online usage more accessible by bringing Internet-enabled services to millions of consumers.
“For example, Reliance Jio’s strategy of bundling virtually free smartphones with mobile service subscriptions has spurred innovation and competitive pricing. Data costs have plummeted by more than 95 percent since 2013 and fixed-line download speeds quadrupled between 2014 and 2017,” the report stated.
Therefore, it is no surprise if the mobile data consumption per user has grown by 152% per annum, which is more than twice the rates in China and the United States, the report added.
Source: The Economic Times