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Follow UsIndia’s economic destiny in the new decade will most
certainly be dominated by new ideas, radical changes in traditional
approaches and a creative blend of the old with the new, especially in
the technological arena. Nothing is beyond reach now for the technology
savvy Indian entrepreneur, who is measuring risks with a certain sense
of audacity and a keen willingness to try out all that is new, always.
Be it the phenomenal mobile penetration in the Indian market or the
race to get Internet connectivity even in the remotest Indian village,
the technology juggernaut is unstoppable and has found its most dynamic
ground here. While the metros displayed the first examples of
leveraging this tool in the post open market era, the India that we see
today is being powered by innovation at the grassroot.
The decade that unfolds with
will see technology adoption bring to fore a level playing field where
no dream is
too big, and no market too small. We have seen some flashes of this in
the past few years as small entrepreneurs, armed with a suitable
platform and tool, have kick started dream projects.
The UK India Business Council in its recent report ‘
Cities of India’
identified Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Jaipur as the top four
emerging cities followed by Vadodara, Goa, Indore, Kochi and
Nagpur.Clearly, Indian metros, by virtue of the availability of the
human capital, will continue to dominate business, but only in the
short term. As the study notes,
It will be the country’s lesser known small towns and cities
that are more likely to sustain the long term economic benefits. It
throws light into some interesting new areas that will grab the
limelight in the coming years. For instance, Ahmedabad is seen as
perfect for the media and creative sectors, Chandigarh suitable for
software, IT and BPO and Kochi for food production.
So what will power this growth? Simply, technology led innovation. IT
is no longer about the emailing and printing alone. Today’s
SMEs demand IT for competitive differentiation. No longer considered
simply a support function, IT is streamlining processes, supporting an
online repository of valuable data, extracting business insights,
reducing risk and identifying opportunities for growth.
Entrepreneurs in India’s smaller cities, powered by new
technology now have the opportunity to rewrite the rules of traditional
businesses. Currently, this sector employs more than 59 million people
spread across over 26 million enterprises. It accounts for 45% of the
manufacturing output and around 40% of the nation’s
exports<5>. It is little surprising then that SMEs are today demanding
implementation of ERP, CRM, inventory optimization and payroll
management<6>.
The early adoption of technology by the Government along with the
substantial technology uptake by retail chains such as Planet Fashion,
Reebok etc in states such as Uttaranchal has already shown
revolutionary economic growth in an otherwise mediocre economy.
With more than 7,000 government schools in the far flung areas being IT
enabled today and the Uttaranchal Gramin Bank, a newly established
state sponsored bank, becoming completely automated using Thin Client
technology, the State is buzzing with a new spirit of entrepreneurship
aided by tech support. All the branches of the Gramin Bank - have been
brought on to an online platform including a tiny hamlet Bajirao
– nestling in the indo –china border!
SMEs in different regions have unique needs and aspirations based on
their geographical and cultural setting. IT technologies are the simple
solution supporting their business aspirations by delivering a holistic
business tool including standardized customer experience throughout the
value chain, right from choosing, using, protecting to transitioning.
Technology adoption and innovation is the new vehicle which benefits
both the provider and the user equally.
Simple technology applications which create new opportunities and
provide versatile indigenous business solutions is the new buzzword in
India’s emerging hubs of growth in tier two cities. The
under-penetration of technology in India, especially in sectors such as
financial services, education and health care, opens up a huge canvas
of opportunities for investors and fuels innovative use of technology
in the new decade.
This will see the nation seeking different avenues to keep the last
vestiges of the economic recession. Sanjay Puri, the
President of the nonprofit Alliance for U.S.-India Business, was
recently quoted as saying that less than 1.5% to 2% of India's US$65
billion technology sector revenues comes from innovation.
Poised at the frontier of new technology in the next five years,
India’s potential in technological innovations within the
financial services sector is attracting immense attention from
investors and experts. India could go the US way where the
banking industry drove innovation in back office processing and
financial products even though the scale of operations would be smaller
than the US markets to begin with. Experts also predict innovation in
payment-mechanism products and mobile banking, even though Internet
banking may be slow to take off.
Technology-led innovation in other areas, too, such as the "
initiatives in several states has hugely reduced paperwork in
maintaining land records etc. Land records have been automated in more
than half of the country's 29 states and there are 15 more states
waiting for this1. India's railway reservation system is the
world's single largest e-commerce portal and hugely popular matrimonial
sites are also buyers of new technology. Hungry to adopt and try out
new technologies, Indian markets are going to be an exciting
destination for new entrepreneurs offering customized technology
solutions/services.
This is reflected in the way small towns are adopting technology to
reinvent traditional businesses. A good example in case is
that of Chhindwara, a small town in Madhya Pradesh where an
enterprising entrepreneur has given the daycare centre a technological
spin by installing webcam feeds to enable mothers to watch their
children from their workplaces!
India being a multilingual country presents unlimited possibilities for
technological innovation in the translation services area. The
possibilities presented by globalization and India's myriad languages
seek innovative
applications compatible with
many languages. Working with many languages comes naturally
to Indians and most Indian software is written in Unicode which gives a
language translation capability.
With governments in different states insisting on people using the
local language for official communication, such as Maharashtra
requiring forms to be filled out in Marathi or West Bengal insisting on
Bengali, technology can step in to solve this issue with the
software translating it into the language the bureaucracy
understands.
The reasons are compelling. The economic downturn exposed the Indian
market to the global economic upheaval. While Indian SMEs were
vulnerable to the risks, they were also the first to bounce back on
track and are now leading the revival. In addition, increased dealing
with global partners is driving them to align their processes and
methodologies to integrate better with their counterparts, and to meet
global compliance requisitions.
These are all examples of innovation happening in India’s
smaller cities, with immense possibilities ahead. Small then, is the
new big. And a good idea is only a technology away from the big league.
Next Innovations to Come from Small Town Businessman
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