The 2020s will be a monumental decade for India for several reasons, all thanks to India’s rapidly growing tech space. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology or MEiTY have named it India’s Decade.
India is projected to become the third-largest economy in the world— pegged at $5 trillion—overtaking Germany and Japan, and most of this will come from India’s rapidly growing tech sector.
With many foreign tech companies setting up shop in India and with policies and incentives to facilitate manufacturing, India’s Techade is progressing dynamically and at a fast pace.
Here’s what the next ten years or so will look like.
India is becoming a central manufacturing hub and technology exporter.
India is already in the process of becoming a significant manufacturing destination for tech companies worldwide. Samsung has been manufacturing a substantial chunk of their budget smartphone in India for years and has started making their premium flagship devices nationwide. Similarly, Apple is just beginning its manufacturing plans in the country.
Then, there is the entire India Semicon business. India will emerge not only as a significant chip-manufacturing nation but also as a major chip-designing one. Semicon India 2023 made one very clear – that semiconductors made in India will be a major proponent for tech in India and the rest of the world. Micron and TSMC are already investing heavily in setting up fab units in India, and Foxconn is also looking to set up its fabrication unit. Similarly, AMD wants to set up its largest R&D facility in India.
Moreover, Indian players like Vedanta and Tata are aggressively looking for partners and solutions to set up their fabrication and design units.
Because of this, India-made semiconductors will power essential devices such as EVs and smartphones and the high-tech and more powerful AI and ML data centers.
This means that from being an importer of tech, India is set to become a significant tech exporter.
Private Players join ISRO in becoming a challenge for SpaceX and NASA.
In the last decade or so, ISRO has come into its stride. The fact that we have one of the cheapest and most successful launch programs will be a massive factor for the next ten years. ISRO is already making good money thanks to its launch services to players from other countries. As per a 2022 report, ISRO made well over $200 million in foreign exchange all through its launch services.
Cheap and affordable launch services mean India is in a great position to take advantage of space tourism when it becomes a thing. Not just that, as the world seeks to establish colonies on the Moon and Mars, cheap logistics will be in huge demand. In such a scenario, ISRO’s launch technology will be highly sought.
And it is not just ISRO in India that will be ruling the skies and space; even private players will get in on the action. Several private firms and aerospace startups are working on making their satellites. Some are working on their launch vehicles and rockets.
By the end of India’s Techade, we shouldn’t be surprised if India has a combination as potent as that of NASA and SpaceX.
India’s dependence on crude oil goes down significantly as electrification increases.
The government aims to achieve a 30 percent adoption rate of electric vehicles (EVs) for private cars, 70 percent for commercial vehicles, and 80 percent for two and three-wheelers by 2030. Even if we reach 70 percent of our targets, our dependence on imported crude oil will decrease significantly.
As the country moves towards more electrification, the infrastructure to generate, distribute, and store electricity will also improve exponentially. However, what is more important is that Indian manufacturers must acquire tech to make better batteries.
India is already planning to export power to Singapore, UAE, and a few other allies in Asia. With improved infrastructure and logistics, energy, like data, is set to become dirt cheap.
India becomes completely self-reliant in crucial tech infrastructure
Not many people are aware of this, but India developed its own 5G technology. Similarly, we developed NaVIC, our GPS used by the military and civilians.
There are many other such vital technologies for which we have to rely on others. We imported much of the 2G and 4G infrastructure. This decade, however, in a bid for genuine self-reliance, we will be developing our technology. For example, we are already making significant progress in developing 6G technology in India.
Similarly, we are creating our chips for IoT, which will be used in all fields, from connected cars to smart warehouses and shipping.
Right To Technology
All of this new tech will be pretty useless if it is not accessible to the lowest strata of our society. Fortunately, all of these technological evolutions should culminate in a situation where even the most disadvantaged section of our economy has access to a basic level of technology.
If manufacturers are making in India and developing their tech in India, India’s socioeconomic conditions are bound to influence how they are designed and how they are made.
As a result, technology, some of the more crucial ones at least, will become much more easily accessible. For example, just like we have affordable 4G and 5G internet right now, we will have a cheap and easy way to access IoT infrastructures, AI, and cloud computing.
