Transformation in Indian business

Coming in power of NDA government has lead to political stability according to many reports and that has helped in transforming the Indian business scenario. Priyadarshi Mohapatra, MD, Avaya India and SAARC shares thoughts on the essentials for transformation in the upcoming budget.

The IT industry in the last year or so has never been so challenged and yet so proud. Government has made a pledge to gradually transform India into the fastest growing economy in the world and this makes us proud. The path to economic sustainable growth, with all its facts, is challenging, not only for the government and the country’s economic pillars, but also for the IT industry in India that carries a lot of weight on its shoulders to help accelerate the transformation.

Promises that were made to build a digitally inclusive India are being delivered. We have made great progress and the way forward is going to be bumpy unless the government and the industry in general make the right choices today.  The nationwide fiber optic as a foundation to build digital inclusion, the creation of smart cities to create sustainable economic centers, the emphasis on “Make in India” to transform our economy and enable it to play a bigger role in local markets as well as the international exporting market place, the emphasis on education, women inclusion and protection, to name a few, are all outstanding initiatives in creating a modern and economically viable India. With these initiatives, coupled with a restructuring of our financial systems, India is on the right track long term economic growth.

As leaders and active contributors to building modern India, we see the country as is truly breaking down the barriers to citizen engagement, reaching out to the world, rebuilding its core and driving inclusion. In our view, India has entered the “era of engagement” which will be the engine of value creation to the country and our people.  With the Make in India, Digital India and Smart City initiatives in place, while we share the government’s vision to create a digitally engaged India, we look forward to some further policy momentum on key areas of growth and development through this year’s announcements in the Budget.

In our view, while the government has made great progress in connecting the country with its fiber wide initiative, we believe that, in order to accelerate digital inclusion, Mobility is at the heart of India’s digital inclusion. The industry continues to  innovate mobile engagement environments that are transforming lives, businesses and governments across the world and India’s plans would only be accelerated with not only mobility in enterprises, but also, by enabling citizens to government engagement across India, as the country becomes more and more connected.  Mobile government environments will not only leapfrog G2C, but will also ensure it is done in the most efficient way with highest financial, social and economic returns.  In fact, technologies that deliver mobile environments have the potential of phenomenally transforming education, healthcare, delivery of government services, ensuring public safety and security.

The businesses in India will be best supported with a rationalized tax scheme from a holistic economic perspective. From a broad, macro-economic perspective, the government is already acting on curbing inflation, and we look forward to a stable rupee, and hope to see a greater degree of fiscal stability this year.

We seed the “Make in India” from a number of perspectives: The country hosts some of the largest R&D centers for the technology industry in the world; the intellectual power, innovation, and the resources within those R&D centers are one of the country’s most important assets that should be protected, nurtured and more importantly, supported to build more from India, to India and the world. The potential for growth for India’s R&D centers is beyond the imagination. While we export our innovation to other countries to build, what we’d like to see are new regulations that enable us to diversify our investments in India to include manufacturing. There is an enormous opportunity for “Make in India” to expand into organically grown industries supporting our R&D.

The Indian government envisions 100 smart cities, and we as an IT infrastructure company aim at bolstering the growth in tandem with the government. We look forward for further support from the state and central governments for pilot projects, which will leverage cloud technology, mobile devices, data analytics and social networks to streamline information across businesses, leaders and citizens, thus driving the speedy and efficient implementation of smart city solutions. We envision that the government’s vision to transform cities will help citizens and city administrators to realize opportunities for economic growth and improved competitiveness overall.

We hope for adequate support for the SME’s in the country in order to foster development. Small-to-medium enterprises employ 40% of India’s workforce, generate millions of jobs, and are responsible for 40% of India’s export output. Small enterprises and entrepreneurs represent the future of growth for this country, it is widely hoped that the government will look to support them with technological enablement and innovation-friendly policies such as a favorable investment climate and access to funds, and a more conducive taxation and compliance regime.

We call onto the government to realize the impact of its investment choices today for the future; the spirit of this transformation, in our view, is having an open and flexible base, for us to innovate and becoming actively part of the engine of progress.