Since the day the word 'Digital India' has been amplified from PM Modi's voice, there is palpable optimism, hope and anticipation in the year.
Who wouldn't want this grand goal to translate visibly around our daily lives? Who would discount that it is high time to re-invent and re-invigorate the country from throes of inertia, ignorance and the quicksand of nineteenth century's baggage? Who would ignore the deep-cutting impact that those nine pillars of 'Digital India' blueprint will drill into an India? Name one person, one citizen, one organization that would not gain exponentially when broadband highway, e-governance, electronics manufacturing leading to 'zero import', universal phone access, electronic delivery of services, jobs, rural internet, information for all and 'early harvest' programmes make their way and wield their transformation magic.
The gains are staggering and once the mission is planted well into its trajectory, India would re-incarnate into a new world altogether.
People will stay connected and when they do, they will leverage technology for never-before-experienced efficiency, comfort, productivity and outcomes. Government will open up to and possibly even befriend the idea of transparency and allow citizens to finally have a utopian life of no queues, no pile of files, no red tapism, no prejudice and other such malaises.
Industry will cause and relish tectonic shifts with the digital foundation firmly in place and both the corporate world and the consumer universe will enjoy the edge and delight that only technology can catalyze.
But wait and hold those dream horses for a second. Is it just about laying a digital fiber across our country, specially a skeleton still being chewed upon termites of decrepit infrastructure and archaic incumbency? Is it as easy as driving in a new nail on the wall? Do we have the hammer to start with?
A small example. There was a 2012 report that cited that 25% of attempts to book a ticket on the Indian Railways website end in failure and frankly, we don't even need these numbers but just our own experiences to define the so-called digital interfaces that have popped up but have not really made a mark.
We are betting so much of this 'digital revolution' on the wheels of mobility but look out of the corner of your eye and there are studies highlighting how one-fifth of Indians who have smart phones still don't find it as a reliable way to transact.
When we are thinking of broadband highways, universal access to mobile connectivity, public Internet access, advanced manufacturing, agile governance, electronic delivery of services and the likes, are we also thinking of the kind of un-learning, re-learning on skills and the level of digital literacy that our people need to pack?
If we are envisaging creating ICT infrastructure like high-speed Internet at gram panchayat level, on-demand availability of government services like health, education etc, and digital empowerment of citizen; can we do so without removing legacy warts dotting the nooks and corners of our hinterland and not just applying a cosmetic change?
When we are aiming high for e-governance, do we realize that there is perhaps no audit of the digital records or lack of enough the processes that allow creation of the digital records?
Have we learnt our lessons well with the way some UID initiatives have faltered unveiling a grim state of fundamental issues that have been infecting the country for almost a century now? Even after an exercise done at a scale and with giant expense of funds and resources that this one mustered, we still hear criticisms that this is at best, just a random 12 digit loop and only traces to unverified and unaudited data submitted by third parties paid per record, with almost no route to verify the issuance chain or linking to assurance that this number belongs to a real individual.
This is just one criticism and a whole bunch of others cover other handicap areas around ecosystem viability, authentication credibility and fairness of enrollers, registrars and the entire chain.
'Digital' is clearly no magic broom and there is a lot to clean up and repair before we can aim it for the skies.
Let's swing to the market forces now. Yes, India presents a ripe and juicy ecommerce market slated to hit $6 billion in 2015 with as much as a 70 % increase over 2014 revenue of $3.5 billion according to Gartner, Inc.
But Gartner analysts also caution how digital commerce is at a nascent stage in India and while India represents a $3.5 billion market, growing at approximately 60-70 % every year, it still turns out to be less than 4 % of the total retail market.
Think of reasons and there are not constrained by imagination - limited internet penetration, low digital commerce volume, confusion and chaos of multiple payment models (e.g., cash on delivery, credit card and wire transfers), tardy logistics and fulfillment challenges, issue of injecting efficiency in the supply chain are just a few to name. To tap the grand opportunity, first the right set and practical level of investments in people, process and technology are important.
If enterprises are predicted to spend over $40 billion designing, implementing and operating the Internet of Things; can they do so in isolation, when the country's rudimentary fabric is pockmarked with legacy-lazy scars. That means that IT spending in the government sector will have to dovetail with the overall strategy. Yes, it is assumed to grow five % to touch $7.2 billion in 2015, as Gartner opined and rightly pointed that the focus would be on expanding broadband penetration, accelerating digitization of core government processes, leveraging mobility to engage citizens, cloud initiatives and public private partnerships.
So let's not be caught snoozing when someone reminds that despite all the buzz and frenzy around 'digital', just a handful of local and regional companies understand what it takes to build a digital business yet. Forrester had rightly illustrated that regional organizational inertia will be the biggest hurdle to digital transformation in 2015 and Asia Pacific organizations are expected to be complacent to the growing wave of global digital business houses crashing in their backyards.
We cannot ignore how China is set to become the world's largest ecommerce market by 2015, with market gains of $315.3 billion in online sales (B2C), specially as Indian government's own $17 billion ambitious Digital India program is struggling with anticipated key ground-level challenges in terms of infrastructure operations and standards as well as the lack of technology management involvement.
India has catch up a lot on many fronts. For example. 36 percent of adults in Asia are predicted to own a Smartphone – but while this figure hovers around 86 % in Singapore to 44 % in China; it is as low as 23 % in India.
We cannot afford a bolt-on digital strategy because that would translate only into limited value from digital investments. Especially as Forrester analysts quip well, digital strategy is not about adding a new mobile app or building a social media presence but about a fundamental shift in business strategy, responsibilities, technology capabilities, and organizational structure.
In fact Forrester has warned to the extent that while digital transformation will drive technology spending growth of 4.9 %, majority of companies in Asia Pacific will be unprepared for digital disruption.
It's like a tug-of-war. There are strong forces on both side of the pond, to be fair.
Digital India has every possibility to accelerate and morph the country as envisioned, and it runs an equally loud probability of slipping on neglected potholes.
As Gartner recently outlined, India's landscape, especially the industry side has shown notable changes since 2013. We have seen 650 million new physical objects coming online, 3D printers turning a billion dollar market; 10 percent of automobiles becoming connected; and the number of Chief Data Officers and Chief Digital Officer positions doubling and what more, in 2015, all of these things will double again.
India Inc's investment has been outpacing its global counterparts in all aspects of SMAC. Some 42% of Indian companies were seen investing in social media as part of external communications for customers and suppliers against a global average of 33%. Around 48% investment in public cloud applications compared well to a global average of 24% and if 40% were adopting mobile technologies for customers, the corresponding global average was 31% as per PwC's fifth Annual Digital IQ Survey.
Circa the sixth digital IQ survey by PwC, technology disruptive power also came to the fore when it was noted how its constant evolution and change can make it tough for industries to keep up. Some 83 % Indian respondents have said that they are extremely or somewhat concerned with the threat posed by technology's speed and its effect on company's growth prospects.
In short, the tide is on our side and we have woken up at the right time. From here on, what will matter is not only how much or how soon can we invest in making India digitally-equipped, but whether we are able to steer those investments in the right direction, with the right gears of skills, people, ecosystem partners and a smooth governance.
The coin has been flipped, and it can land on either side, depending on how smooth the ground beneath turns out.
