Text: FWD Business Desk Photos: Various Sources Illustration: Jithin Mohan
THE FUTURE BELONGS TO TECHNOLOGY. WE TELL YOU WHY BEING A TECHNICAL ENTREPRENEUR IS ONE OF THE MOST BANKABLE CAREER OPTIONS.
It took India 10 years to grow from 10 million internet users to 100 million. Another three years to grow from 100 million to 200 million. And finally it took only less than two years to go from 200 million to a present 300 million users.
India has a large internet user base with a growing e-commerce industry and digital advertising market. A huge domestic market is exactly what a technology start-up needs. We have exactly that, which makes us one of the few countries apart from the US that can build a large tech start-up. Our country has many venture capitalists and over 500 angel investors that create a healthy funding ecosystem. We have our share of youngsters who have taken their start-ups to billion dollar companies if you are looking for inspiration. Entrepreneurs like Rohit Bansal and Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal are all prime examples of it. There is 2.8 billion internet users globally and 1.8 billion use internet on their smartphones. This has enabled to build a large consumer company very quickly. India also has many entrepreneurs who have built large companies pretty quickly capitalizing on a growing domestic market and unparalleled internet access.
The day is not far when India too could have its own entrepreneur millionaires born on the digital platforms with outstanding skills. One feels that to get there we need to do a lot as 300 million of internet users in India is just 25 % of our population. We need to possibly even double that number. The consumer e-commerce market is of 5 billion dollars and is expected to grow over 50 billion by 2020. There are many opportunities on e-commerce to build products/services for the Indian consumers. While technology will be a key player in delivering basic services like food, healthcare and education, IT can build a new infrastructure of its own.
There are endless opportunities that we are yet to utilize. E-commerce at present is for the middle class and beyond. But we need to bring in more people in future. New marketplaces
needs to be created. Small businesses like the artisans in villages etc. should be given an opportunity to sell their product globally. Apps should enable laborers, farmers, painters etc. get work easily. Health apps and devices that can be connected to smartphones or tablets should be available at a very low price that allows people to monitor blood sugar, heart rate, blood pressure etc.
Entrepreneurs can come up with smart city apps that help you monitor traffic, water quality, waste management etc. Smartphone apps should also help educate farmers on how to improve crop yields and minimize chemical usage.
There are so many undiscovered areas where entrepreneurs can look into. The future lies in bringing in all classes of people to the internet. One must note that only 200 million people in India are fluent in English. The majority of them use the internet. We need to introduce other languages also so that more and more people can understand how e-commerce works.
India is the fourth largest base of young entrepreneurs in the world with 3000 tech start-ups. It is predicted to rise to 11,500 tech start-ups by 2020. Startups program has successfully paved the way for digitalization, faster innovation cycles, and the rise of young, ambitious talent, which has helped in shaping the Indian economy. Most of the hot startups today in India are backed by funds from foreign VCs. However, in the future, major players from India like Mahindra, Airtel, Wipro, Infosys etc. are expected to partner, and at a later stage acquire the new ventures to not miss out on new business opportunities, which are in sync with their current operations. The start-up ecosystem is dynamically changing every day in India.
The government is considering offering incentives to VC-funded start-ups, which work on IoT (Internet of Things) technologies, as it aims to attract such early stage funding as well as tap the huge potential of this sector for a boost to ‘Make in India’ program. The government also has plans to develop 100 smart cities in the country, for which Rs 7,060 crore has been reserved. Government’s draft IoT(Internet Of Things) policy aims to create an IoT industry in India of $ 15 billion by 2020. This will also lead to increase in the connected devices to over 2.7 billion by 2020.
If you have a passion and the talent to what it takes to be an entrepreneur, then this is the right time to go for it. India can definitely do with more technical entrepreneurs 4.