The era of digitization and Artificial Intelligence is here and the Indian economy can gain significantly from an efficient and planned implementation. The advantages range across all verticals, in the private and government/public sectors.
India’s Digital India initiative intends to make the nation take a digital leap. Papers are old school now and everything is digital. Aadhar is a living example of the principle that Digital India stands upon. Every day more and more people are adapting to the digital way of living, be it commuting, paying or enrolling somewhere. When we add the technology on rise Artificial Intelligence, to the existing force, the digital and the smarter India is not too far. In the coming years, the role of Artificial Intelligence and Digitization in Indian economy is going to be a very crucial one.
Digitization -in public and private sectors both- makes the lives of people easier by communication and synchronization across the platforms. While De-monetization rang the bell of digitization, projects like Aadhar have been on a consistent progressive track. Having to carry only one unique ID rather than multiple different documents for enrollment or verification, has helped the Indian public in an enormous way.
AI and Digitization in Governance
India’s consumers -who may not realize it- are at the forefront of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology with products like Google’s Assistant, Netflix’s watch suggestions, etc. AI touches more common lives than it does on the business or government side. With a proper implementation of AI, the Indian government can set up better communication channels with citizens. The communication of new policies, their effects and enrollment become more seamless in conjunction with digitization. These two phenomena can truly revolutionize the governance.
Artificial Intelligence can help the government track any leakage in subsidies, making sure that the funds are utilized properly. After digitizing all the tax filings on synchronized platforms, Artificial Intelligence can be used to find out any kind of fraud or tax evasion patterns. It makes the job automated and easier rather than people going through the records, where it is possible for them to miss critical details. An efficient and planned roll out of digitization and AI can minimize the corruption and in turn, will help the economy flourish.
AI and Digitization in Industrial sector
In the industrial sector, the implementation of Artificial Intelligence and automation will bring up the production quality and speed to match and surpass the existing production market leaders like China and USA, which are way ahead of the Indian subcontinent. The increased percentage of production in a relatively smaller timeframe will boost India’s GDP significantly. In IT sector, introductory jobs like testing, patching and troubleshooting will be managed more conveniently with the use of Artificial Intelligence. It will optimize the efficiency of organizations which will also boost the revenue generation.
Roadblocks Ahead
Bringing Artificial Intelligence to work for the Indian economy has a steep curve ahead. Automation threatens 69% of the jobs in India, while it’s 77% in China, according to a World Bank research. Many major figures in the industry believe if automation is not planned well and addressed holistically, it is a disaster in the making. India has a history of pushing back technological upgrades that cut jobs. The resistance against on-demand cab services, Uber and Ola is a rather fresh example of that. Moreover, the unemployment continues to remain as a challenge.
The internet penetration has increased substantially but has not reached a critical point for a country-wide digitization and same can be said for banking services. One of the major challenges for Artificial Intelligence and digitization in India is the country’s lack of IT infrastructure. The nation just started seeing world-class IT infrastructure in terms of data center and cloud being built in the country. This contributes to adaption of the “IT” technologies and thereby in betterment of the Indian economy.
In addition to the lack of infrastructure, the research on Artificial Intelligence in India is limited to a few passionate individuals and labs. To match the countries like China and USA, India needs more funding and adaptation of AI in the regular educational curriculum. The national education system also needs a restructuring such that it makes young Indians adapt quickly to changing paradigms rather than sticking to a particular skill-set their entire career. AI and digitization can make a major contribution in jump-starting the country on the path of rapid progress.
Finally…
The era of digitization and Artificial Intelligence is here and the Indian economy can gain significantly from an efficient and planned implementation. The advantages range across all verticals, in the private and government/public sectors. These technology innovations can take India to a whole new level of total production as well as citizens’ quality of life and thus improving the economy. There is a long way to go and the need of the hour is more investments in IT infrastructure, to support the technologies, the first step to which, has already been taken.
