Expert from MEITY calls for nurturing of talent pool in tier-2 cities
16 September, 2020: “We need to give impetus and incentives to India’s software product industry to impact all other sectors of the economy as we have unique public platforms and innovation relevant to the country,” said Dr. Ajai Kumar Garg, Director (International Cooperation & Bilateral Trade, Innovation and IPR), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.
“Services and products, to the tune of USD 1 trillion, is primarily captured by large corporations with proprietary platforms while India has created public digital platforms be it Aadhar, GST platform etc.,” he said, adding that companies like JIO, Freshworks have proved that India has the ability to move from services to products.
MSMEs in India need customized software products, especially in a post-COVID world, to reduce costs, he argued, noting that software products are the mechanisms of growth for all sectors of the economy.
“Either we remain buyers (of these products) from global MNCs or we create our own.” He said creating our own products will create jobs in the IT sector. This could be achieved by nurturing tech start-ups from tier-2 or tier-3 cities so that they can address problem sets of these geographies.
He called for the need to create 20 sectoral clusters in places different from where the services clusters exist today in the country.
Ease of doing business
Dr. Garg also called for creation of special plug and play ecosystems for the products industry, involving young IP-based players, remarking that the single-window clearance mechanisms like STPI had actually become obstacles to the growth of the products industry.
“There is also a need for a rupee capital flow,” he said.
Context
In a special talk titled, ‘National Policy on Software Products in the Post-COVID World’, organized by IIM Bangalore’s one-year fulltime Master of Management Studies (Public Policy) – the Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy & Management (PGPPM), today, as part of PGPPM’s event ‘Policy Speaks’, a Public Policy talk series, Dr. Garg first offered a brief history of the country’s software products and services journey.
“TCS, Infosys and Wipro were the early movers. India soon became an IT Services hub and manufacturing shifted to our neighbours in the east. Today, the Indian IT industry is worth USD 180 billion and it has a fantastic talent pool that is extremely adaptive,” he explained, adding that in the 1990s, Industry 3.0 laid emphasis on networking – be it FB, Google, Microsoft etc. “Around 2010-11, the next wave of revolution happened because of increased processing speeds – a mobile became as powerful as a super computer of the 1960s and 1970s. The bandwidth increased from kilobytes to megabytes. Now, we are looking at 5G capacities for gigabytes.”
He pointed out that Industry 4.0 aims to bring IT into all sectors of the economy and help them grow and enhance their productivity.
The COVID effect
Explaining how COVID has made most people live increasingly digital lives, Dr. Garg said the pandemic is not just a health crisis but one that impacts development and said digital is the way forward for all economies.
“There has been a shift towards technology adoption by MSMEs, large companies and individuals, whether it is Work From Home or enhancing healthcare capacities or working of global supply chains,” Dr. Garg explained, stating that while COVID has created disruptions, it has created opportunities for markets which are democratic and transparent.
Policy & its priorities
He said the national policy on software products attempts to bring fragmented players under an umbrella.
“Young companies participating in government tenders are still a challenge as there is still a resistance in government to buy new innovative products that improve their productivity. This must change. The national policy believes this RFP-style of working in government must change. We should instead provide problem sets, which governments are grappling with, and get companies to work on these problem sets,” he explained, saying that government should be the first buyer of products that can help solve problems specific to India.
The talk was attended by students of the doctoral programme, the two-year MBA, the one-year Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management, and the Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management at IIMB.
About the speaker:
Dr. Ajai Kumar Garg is an engineer by qualification and a champion of Information Technology by choice. He is a seasoned technocrat and key strategist who likes to see himself as a relentless disruptor at the forefront of initiatives shaping the contemporary digital narrative.
Dr. Garg is passionate about promoting the startup-entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially in the realm of emerging technologies in the country.
Expert from MEITY calls for nurturing of talent pool in tier-2 cities
16 September, 2020: “We need to give impetus and incentives to India’s software product industry to impact all other sectors of the economy as we have unique public platforms and innovation relevant to the country,” said Dr. Ajai Kumar Garg, Director (International Cooperation & Bilateral Trade, Innovation and IPR), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.
“Services and products, to the tune of USD 1 trillion, is primarily captured by large corporations with proprietary platforms while India has created public digital platforms be it Aadhar, GST platform etc.,” he said, adding that companies like JIO, Freshworks have proved that India has the ability to move from services to products.
MSMEs in India need customized software products, especially in a post-COVID world, to reduce costs, he argued, noting that software products are the mechanisms of growth for all sectors of the economy.
“Either we remain buyers (of these products) from global MNCs or we create our own.” He said creating our own products will create jobs in the IT sector. This could be achieved by nurturing tech start-ups from tier-2 or tier-3 cities so that they can address problem sets of these geographies.
He called for the need to create 20 sectoral clusters in places different from where the services clusters exist today in the country.
Ease of doing business
Dr. Garg also called for creation of special plug and play ecosystems for the products industry, involving young IP-based players, remarking that the single-window clearance mechanisms like STPI had actually become obstacles to the growth of the products industry.
“There is also a need for a rupee capital flow,” he said.
Context
In a special talk titled, ‘National Policy on Software Products in the Post-COVID World’, organized by IIM Bangalore’s one-year fulltime Master of Management Studies (Public Policy) – the Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy & Management (PGPPM), today, as part of PGPPM’s event ‘Policy Speaks’, a Public Policy talk series, Dr. Garg first offered a brief history of the country’s software products and services journey.
“TCS, Infosys and Wipro were the early movers. India soon became an IT Services hub and manufacturing shifted to our neighbours in the east. Today, the Indian IT industry is worth USD 180 billion and it has a fantastic talent pool that is extremely adaptive,” he explained, adding that in the 1990s, Industry 3.0 laid emphasis on networking – be it FB, Google, Microsoft etc. “Around 2010-11, the next wave of revolution happened because of increased processing speeds – a mobile became as powerful as a super computer of the 1960s and 1970s. The bandwidth increased from kilobytes to megabytes. Now, we are looking at 5G capacities for gigabytes.”
He pointed out that Industry 4.0 aims to bring IT into all sectors of the economy and help them grow and enhance their productivity.
The COVID effect
Explaining how COVID has made most people live increasingly digital lives, Dr. Garg said the pandemic is not just a health crisis but one that impacts development and said digital is the way forward for all economies.
“There has been a shift towards technology adoption by MSMEs, large companies and individuals, whether it is Work From Home or enhancing healthcare capacities or working of global supply chains,” Dr. Garg explained, stating that while COVID has created disruptions, it has created opportunities for markets which are democratic and transparent.
Policy & its priorities
He said the national policy on software products attempts to bring fragmented players under an umbrella.
“Young companies participating in government tenders are still a challenge as there is still a resistance in government to buy new innovative products that improve their productivity. This must change. The national policy believes this RFP-style of working in government must change. We should instead provide problem sets, which governments are grappling with, and get companies to work on these problem sets,” he explained, saying that government should be the first buyer of products that can help solve problems specific to India.
The talk was attended by students of the doctoral programme, the two-year MBA, the one-year Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management, and the Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy and Management at IIMB.
About the speaker:
Dr. Ajai Kumar Garg is an engineer by qualification and a champion of Information Technology by choice. He is a seasoned technocrat and key strategist who likes to see himself as a relentless disruptor at the forefront of initiatives shaping the contemporary digital narrative.
Dr. Garg is passionate about promoting the startup-entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially in the realm of emerging technologies in the country.