India has large scale growth opportunities for the industry, but policy initiative remains a crucial factor for its success, believe experts. While speaking at ‘Digital Services Asia 2016’, earlier known as the VAS Asia, in New Delhi, A Robert Jerad Ravi, the Advisor (quality of services), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said, “Majority of apps which are based out of other countries are developed by Indians, either working out of India or stationed abroad. This process in itself is a business opportunity, which should be encouraged by the Government.”
Currently, India is the world’s second largest user of applications and 2017-18, the country is expected to have the largest developer base. Ravi also mentioned, the developer community is already 300,000 strong in India, and would grow exponentially with government support. Also, it has been revealed, that the paid apps revenue would touch INR 1,500-crores in 2016, as compared to INR 900 crores in 2014. Application downloads too, are expected to grow to 10 billion downloads this year, which is a 5-fold increase since 2012.
The event witnessed participation from government officials, and various industry leaders, who shared their views about the applications market in India.
Driving Innovation through Mobile
The recent launch of the Digital locker system, is something which India will adopt to, for the ease of use it provides. “Digital Locker and the National e-Governance Division of the Department of Electronics and IT would facilitate the transformation of India to a digital environment and benefit the citizens of India. Currently, applicants have to carry as many as six input documents on identity, with this only one output document would be enough. The Digital Locker would move the country and services towards paperless governance and provide legal validity to these documents,” said Debabrata Nayak, Additional Director (Digital Locker) & Project Director (Open Source Collaboration), National e-governance division, said
In the same session, Amit Malviya, National Head, IT and Digital Communication of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said, “With the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi driving a digital India initiative, the use of digital services in every department, like from municipal department to having access to the Prime Minister himself will be available to every citizen. People and government are now being transformed into partners through ‘Jan Bhagirdar’ and portals like ‘MyGov.in’ and providing ‘one stop play’ for common people to speak directly to government at all levels and thus changing government-people interaction culture.”
Shyam P. Mardikar, Chief of Strategy, Architecture & Engineering, Bharti Airtel, on Digital Society, “Virtual Reality has already enabled people anywhere to experience anything faraway. He illustrated how an NRI buyer of a flat can experience a ‘digital walk’ through the flat faraway in India that he intends to buy.”
He also spoke of 25 virtual reality user cases covering many services from the cinema to shopping. “With the country’s largest youth population and policy changes for resource readiness, the digital society is all set to transform the country.”
Of the other dignitaries, Milind Pathak, Chief Operating Officer, Madhouse, discussed on how 4G and 5G services is set to change customer experiences. “Mobile phones with 4G and 5G would drive not just innovation but promote disruption that would turn current devices into obsolete ones and provide new consumer experience,” he said.
Prabhjeet Singh, Chief Strategy Officer, Uber India too believes, “The benefits of traffic aggregator innovations by Uber India are benefiting city planners and creating self-employment while reducing pollution and creating more open space in cities.”