Indian Digital Economy Will Cross $1 Trillion Mark By 2024; FinTech, Ecommerce, IT Services Major Drivers Of Growth – GOI
Amidst rising concerns over massive job losses in IT industry, and drying up of VC funds in Internet space, Indian Govt. has decided to push up the spirits for all.
In a statement which signifies more growth and development, Indian Govt. has said that India’s digital economy will swell to $1 trillion by 2024, up from $270 billion, which is the current market size.
In fact, Indian Govt. has roped in consultants McKinsey to create a Digital India Index, which will help the Govt. to take major decisions in the fields of eGovernance, eEducation, eHealth and more.
Hence, Govt. is now looking forward to embedding digital principles across all spheres, and is laser focussed in this endeavour now.
The Minister said, “Indian IT companies are spread across 200 cities and 80 countries around the world, which provide direct employment to 40 lakh people and indirect employment to almost 1.3 crore people.”
How Will India’s Digital Economy Reach $1 Trillion?
As per Govt.’s observations and statements issued by Minister for Electronics and IT (MeitY) Ravi Shankar Prasad, 5 major industries which will drive India’s exponential growth in the digital economy are:
- IT Services
- E-commerce
- Fintech
- Telecom
- Electronics Manufacturing
As per the Govt.’s observations, these industries will not only push for more growth, it will also create more jobs overall, pan-India.
If we break the semantics, then we will find that growth is being witnessed right now, albeit in a smaller scale.
For instance, India’s IT Exports stood at Rs 7.3 lakh crore in the last fiscal, compared to Rs 7 lakh crore a year back.
Rs 90,000 crore worth of electronics gadgets were manufactured in India during last fiscal.
While domestic IT industry is worth $140 billion right now, communications are worth $40 billion; electronics manufacturing is worth $40 billion and Fintech is around $50 billion.
In Fintech space, these statements must be very encouraging, as Paytm has recently launched their Payments Bank, which Airtel had launched earlier. India Post will soon launch their own payments bank, besides Airtel and other wallets will start selling mutual funds as well.
As more and more Fintech startups are coming up, utilising PM Modi’s cashless move, this market estimation of the digital economy has been made at an appropriate time.
Minister Prasad also rubbished the news of large scale job cuts, and have said that the industry is right now experiencing a “very robust and promising” growth rate, which will create more jobs, and more opportunities for all.
As per the Minister, 20-25 lakh new jobs would be generated in the next 4-5 years. He said, “Nasscom has confirmed that the industry continues to be a net hirer and reports that 2.5-3 million new jobs will be created by 2025. In 2016-17, the industry added 170,000 new jobs.”
What are the major drivers for India’s digital economy? Do let us know by commenting right here!
