The information technology industry driven Digital India economy has the potential to grow beyond $1 trillion, according to Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology.
After a meeting with the IT industry on the future of the digital economy, Prasad said, “There is unanimity among partners that a $1-trillion economy is an understatement. India has the immense potential to go for a $2 trillion to $4 trillion investment. I have been told that the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry alone has the potential to grow to $1 trillion, another participant said that electronics manufacturing itself has the potential to reach that figure within the next 3 to 4 years.”
“The industry particularly acknowledged the potential of the new economy, like digital payments, e-commerce, internet of things and a more expansive version of BPO,” he added.
Prasad said there is a need to encourage startups in the field of healthcare and education. He said, “We will be having a coordinated action with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Human Resource Development to promote an ecosystem to facilitate more startups in these fields.”
He said the government will be coming up with policies to encourage manufacturing in the country. “We will shortly be laying down a New Electronic Policy to boost electronic manufacturing. There is a need to look inward, therefore, we will come up with a New Software Product policy. And we are going to have a framework for Data Security and Data Protection Policy.”
In response to a question on whether the call by domestic manufacturing industry to contain Chinese imports figured in the talks, he said, “No, we noted with immense satisfaction that a large number of Chinese companies are coming in India.”