India on the Brink of Digital Transformation in 2021

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When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, but when done wrong, all you have is a really fast caterpillar.

George Westerman, Research Scientist with the MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy.

With growing competitiveness to the edge, meeting new business dynamics and market requirements is critical, in this scenario, digital transformation has become pivotal. In this digital age, reimagining of business is stated as advanced customer experience and transiting to newer opportunities with the power of digitalization. In many cases, digital transformation begins and ends with how you think about, and engage with customers. Digital transformation in the year 2021 shall allow greater innovation and technology that allow companies to compete, differentiate, and outperform. When it comes to what shaped digital transformation in 2020, not to deny, IoT, robotics, connected cars and 5G took the headlines.  

Semiconductor Designing the Digital Transformation

Human-centric digital experience is shaping the semiconductor industry. Collaborative digital experience is bringing successful digital interactions for the semiconductor industry. 87% of semiconductor companies report piloting or adopting AI in one or more business units. The internet of things (IoT) market is growing to 75.44 billion connected devices by 2025, with a projected market value of $1.1 trillion by 2026. Companies can now change the functionality of smart products or reconfigure their ecosystem over time. But they have to make sure that the customer experience remains consistent and supported throughout all these changes. Advances in sensors, speech recognition and computer vision are combining with lower hardware costs to make robot technology more accessible for the semiconductor industry, and the rollout of 5G networks is set to unlock new opportunities outside of controlled environments.

DYK – “48% robots will be used in uncontrolled environments within the next two years in semiconductor organizations.”

54% of semiconductor executives believe rapid advancements in modern technologies and scientific innovations are poised to disrupt the semiconductor industry.

Smarter Transportation is a Reality Now

Edge computing and 5G finally go more mainstream hitting new sectors and empowering new applications. But importantly transportation sector is adopting smarter technologies to change customer experience. With urbanization fitting more than 45% of the new demographics, easing transportation and way people transit will be critical. Hence, smarter transportation remotely accessing transit schedules are shaping newer and wiser customer experience.  Also, cities around the world need a solution to better analyze traffic data for smarter planning. Critical Need to extend asset life in a sustainable manner for aging infrastructure. Most transportation companies have mission-critical platforms that contain valuable data, but they are reluctant to bridge these systems for fear of losing their value proposition. Those monolithic processes and siloed data-hoarding strategies no longer work. A connected transportation platform comprises elements such as enterprise services, a partner ecosystem, API gateways and infrastructure delivered by scalable hybrid cloud computing, and storage that incorporates external data sources such as internet of things (IoT) sensors and geolocation data from different transport modes. It allows third parties to gain access via an API portal, with software distributed through a microservices marketplace that enables platform members to inform users across different channels. Every element of the platform is connected by ubiquitous, software-defined, secure digital networks. Companies that are connected to this kind of ecosystem can benefit in multiple ways. Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven analytics can be applied to monitor data streams to identify irregular operations (IROPs) that might have an impact on the delivery time of a package or a customer’s ability to make a flight connection, and initiate actions to mitigate delays. For example, if a small local delivery company were notified that a high-priority package requiring special handling was arriving soon at an airport, it could dispatch a pickup early to account for heavy traffic conditions, thus avoiding late fees and possibly compromising the contents of the package.

Security in Digital Transformation Age

High-profile security lapses ensued as expected, although it’s hard to pinpoint that digital projects were the leading cause. “Regardless of whether highly publicized breaches were directly linked to digital transformation, they got business leaders thinking again about risk and solutions that minimize risk,” says Pete Lindstrom, vice president of security research at IDC. Today, some 79% of global executives rank cyber attacks and threats as one of their organization’s highest risk management priorities in 2020, according to a Marsh & McLennan survey of 1,500 executives. Overall, security’s role in digital transformation has improved both in awareness and involvement in earlier stages of the design process, but CISOs are still grappling with visibility into the breadth of projects in their ecosystems.

Regulatory Complexity

Nowadays several organizations operate in complex regulatory environments, which impose a need for compliance with many security regulations and standards. For instance, U.S financial organizations must adhere to regulations associated with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX, P.L. 107-204), the Gramm-Leach- Bliley Act, the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 and more. Cybersecurity systems are evolving in order to support organizations in their alignment to the required regulations and standards.

Sophistication of Attacks 

Over the years, cybersecurity attacks are increasing in sophistication through becoming asymmetric and less predictable. For example, ransomware attacks have been added to the list of phishing, DDoS and social engineering attacks, while the methods used by cybercriminals are constantly evolving based on the use of advanced sniffing and encryption techniques.

India for Digital transformation – Potential, Prospects and Possibilities

Despite a significant rise in digital payments since demonetization and Indian banks having issued a billion debit cards, many Indian consumers still rely on cash transactions. While no single move can make a country the size of India cashless, demonetization succeeded in significantly reducing the anonymity and lack of traceability of money in the Indian economy by routing all currency through a formal banking channel. Comparing the current demand for cash with the historic rate of growth of the economy we have calculated that the Indian economy is operating at an estimated $33 billion less cash than it would have without demonetization. India has been on a digital-first trajectory for a few years, spurred on by its goal of becoming a trillion-dollar digital economy by 2025. Digital transformation across key sectors like manufacturing, education, healthcare, as well as government services and labor markets has the potential for each sector to create $10-$150 billion incremental economic value by 2025. Access to public healthcare services is a challenge in India. There are only 0.55 beds per 1,000 people and more than 16 lakh people die every year due to poor quality healthcare services. Of the 25,300 primary healthcare centers in the country, more than 8% do not have doctors, 38% lack laboratory technicians, and 22% have no pharmacists. Approximately 44% of these were from non-metro cities. Now is the time to build on this momentum to create an innovative extended healthcare model that can address the gaps in the public health infrastructure and enable universal access. Manufacturers were just beginning to explore technologies such as IOT, robotics, AI, and 3D printing and now they must accelerate the pace of technology adoption. Industry 4.0 is well underway, and India must move fast to unlock the potential of smart factories that connect people, processes and machines for better efficiency and enhanced output. The country’s large talent pool is an asset that needs to be upskilled for the smart factory era. With supportive policies, digital infrastructure development and an unremitting focus on innovation, India can not only recover from the impact of the pandemic but also establish itself as a global manufacturing hub.