India’s Digital Revolution started in 2015 when the government announced efforts to make digital tools accessible, affordable, and useful to the common man. After seven years of effort, India has built a strong digital network, covered almost the entire country with the Internet, and made available many critical services to the people. This has created huge business opportunities, pole vaulting the country to the world stage.
The large young population, internet penetration, and startups have put the country on the digital highway. Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of India Rajeev Chandrasekhar recently said that the digital economy will hit the $1 trillion mark by 2025-26 and create 60-65 million jobs.
The industry body Nasscom stated that India would require a digitally enabled workforce of 95 lakh by 2026. As of 2021-2022, the IT industry in the country employed 51 lakh people. Also, with the focus on digitalization, riding on the Digital India initiative, the other sectors have generated and continue to create many jobs focused on technology.
The story has continued with IT biggies, like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and HCL, hiring fresh graduates in large numbers and expanding their base to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, which have huge growth potential. In the first quarter of FY2023, Infosys hired the maximum number of IT employees in the IT sector at 21,171, Wipro at 15,446, TCS at 14,136, and HCL at 10,966.
The employment opportunities will continue to be high for tech professionals as, according to a study, the demand-supply gap is expected to go up by 3.5 times to 1.4 to 1.8 million jobs by 2026.
To develop the future workforce in emerging technologies, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in association with Nasscom, has started a program called “Future Skills PRIME (Programme for Re-skilling/Up-skilling of IT Manpower for Employability).”
Till now, 8.20 lakh candidates have registered on the portal, while 1.36 lakh have completed their courses. Also, Nasscom has tied up with various academic institutions and Edtech companies to reskill and upskill the employees in the industry and for R&D in emerging technologies.
The industry has seen phenomenal growth over the years, generating billions of dollars in revenue. In FY22, it clocked $227 billion, which was a jump of 15.5% from $196 billion in FY22.
Digital Revolution helping India reap Rich Dividends
The country’s digital revolution is driving its young population, with an average age of 29. Nearly 78% are below the age of 40, and 70% of them use the Internet. The Indian middle class will hit the magical 1 billion figure in 2030, which will comprise 70% of the entire population, further boosting the digital revolution.
The World Bank stated that internet penetration is at 43%, with a total user base of 830 million, which has increased by 530 million in the last three years. Also, the meager cost of internet services has helped increase penetration across the country. Priced at Rs 50 ($0.7) per GB, it is the weakest in the world, while the usage is the highest at 14.1 GB per person.
The country has 750 million smartphone users at present, and the numbers are expected to go up to one billion by 2026, as per a study by Deloitte. India is expected to be the second-highest manufacturer of smartphones in the next five years.
