India’s digital economy is expected to get further boost from the scaling up of digitally skilled talent pool, according to a strategy report by ICICI Securities.
As per IT industry apex body Nasscom, India has about 1.17 million digitally skilled employee base as of FY21, a year-on-year growth of 32%.
Emerging technologies related to digital economy include blockchain, IoT, cloud computing, Industry 4.0, automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, data analytics, and 3-D printing, which are already being implemented in India for example usage of AI, robotics, blockchain and data analytics by leading banks.
While India has the potential to lead the digitalization wave, it needs to work towards further scaling up the skillsets of its workforce. A recent study commissioned by Amazon Web Services (AWS) revealed that digitally skilled workers currently represent 12% of India’s workforce but the number of workers in India requiring digital skills will need to increase nine times by 2025.
The average worker in India will need to develop seven new digital skills by 2025 to keep pace with technology advancements and demand. This amounts to a total of 3.9 billion digital skill trainings from 2020 to 2025.
Several technology companies with presence in India have taken various initiatives to meet this demand for digital talent. In January this year, the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) and AWS announced plans to launch a Quantum Computing Applications Lab in India, to accelerate quantum computing-led research and development and enable new scientific discoveries.
Last year, Microsoft collaborated with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to provide digital skills to over 100,000 youth in the country over a period of12 months. Microsoft will collaborate with NSDC’s eSkill India portal to provide free access to learning resources and conduct digital skilling awareness drives.
Similarly, last year, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced a $10 billion Google for India Digitization Fund to help accelerate India’s digital economy over 5-7 years. Pichai said this will be done through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments.
