Page 180 - CW E-Magazine (26-3-2024)

Special Report

in emerging areas, including electric Demography Technological advancements have not
vehicles and advancements in lithium India accounts for around 67 percent only enabled virtual education, remote
recycling capabilities. In this regard, of the global working-age population,(10) work, and contactless sales during the
ongoing mining reforms to sustainably and is expected to add another 183 mil- pandemic years, but also aided effi cient
exploit available mineral resources in the lion people to the working age over the public delivery and acted as a positive
country need to be fast tracked. Overall, next three decades. The median age for shock to overall productivity growth(13).
it is vital to adopt a holistic approach India is expected to be a little over 30 by
to improve infrastructure, technologi- 2030(11). Given this demographic advan- It is important for Indian businesses
cal adoption, training and skilling of the tage, India would be a signifi cant source to take the lead in rapidly adopting fron-
workforce, and digital advancements. of human capital amidst anticipated tier technologies like artifi cial intelli-
shortage of labour supply globally, and gence (AI), Internet of Things (loT) and
Services also a thriving market capable of adapt- Big Data. Combined with the presence
India’s emergence as one of the ing to evolving demands for goods and of a young and skilled workforce, a
fastest growing economies in recent services. This can lead to an improved dynamic and nimble ecosystem and strong
decades is largely attributed to the rapid growth differential in favour of India public digital infrastructure, this can set
growth of its services sector. The con- and increase India’s relative size in the in motion a virtuous cycle of growth for
tribution of services to gross domestic global economy. The evolving demo- Indian businesses. This decade has been
product (GDP) has been more than 60 graphic profi le is also expected to lead described as India’s ‘Digital Decade’,
per cent since 2014-15. India emerged to a substantial increase in the quantum with the country poised to reach a US$1-
as the 7th largest services exporter glob- as well as quality of remittances. Over trillion consumer internet economy
ally in 2022, up from 21st position in the years, there has been a gradual struc- by 2030(14).
2001. India has played a leading role in tural shift in Indian migrants’ key desti-
establishing global service networks and nations from largely low-skilled and At the Reserve Bank, we strive to
has become a global hub for information informal employment in the Gulf coun- constantly improve and offer all users
technology (IT) and business process tries to a dominant share of high-skilled safe, secure, fast, convenient, accessible,
outsourcing (BPO) services. Newer op- jobs in high-income countries. Inward and affordable e-payment options. The
portunities have been harnessed to im- remittances have scaled record peaks to Reserve Bank has been at the forefront to
prove India’s participation and competi- reach US$112.5-billion in 2022-23 and facilitate safe and inclusive growth in the
tiveness in global value chains (GVCs). accounted for around 3 per cent of GDP. digital fi nancial sector(15). The UPI has
Going forward, labour market transfor- been recognised as the fastest growing
Service industries like tourism, edu- mations driven by technological break- retail payment system in the world and
cation, telecommunications, utilities throughs, energy transition and geo-eco- many countries have expressed interest
and healthcare can generate signifi cant nomics are going to be signifi cant forces in having a UPI-like platform. Together
employment opportunities. Activities like to offer crossborder benefi ts to India with the National Payments Corporation
road transport and construction services from its migrant population. of India (NPCI), the Reserve Bank’s initi-
have the highest backward and forward atives in linking UPI with the fast pay-
linkages along with high employment Improving the labour force participa- ment systems in Singapore, Bhutan,
intensity. These services have received tion rate, especially of women, is critical Nepal, the UAE and several other countries
a boost after the introduction of GST. to realise our full potential(12). There is demonstrate the huge potential of UPI
India’s business services exports are a need to invest in education, skill deve- in the years to come. The availability of
growing rapidly, owing to its status lopment, and healthcare to capitalise on RTGS on a 365x24x7 basis has helped
as the preferred destination to set up our demographic advantage. Continued in reducing the settlement and credit
Global Capability Centres (GCCs) by and greater focus on innovation and risks in the payments ecosystem. This
multinationals(9). The development and social sector infrastructure could increase feature was introduced in the middle of
provision of services such as internet infra- labour productivity, India’s potential the COVID-19 pandemic.
structure, cloud computing, and data growth and per capita income.
analytics are vital in supporting the digi- Innovation and Start-ups
tal transformation and growth of vari- Technology Innovation is a key driver of long-
ous industries. India is well positioned With the world on the cusp of a term economic growth. The recent
to leverage these opportunities and cater technological revolution, the time is breakthrough in Artifi cial Intelligence
to more skill-intensive and increasingly opportune for India to establish itself (AI), not by a BigTech company, but by
digitalised services. as a digital-economic powerhouse. a start-up, i.e., Open AI, speaks volumes

180 Chemical Weekly March 26, 2024

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