Data and AI to unlock 10% of $5 trillion economy dream

Data and AI to unlock 10% of $5 trillion economy dream

NASSCOM in its latest report says data and artificial intelligence have the potential to add $450-500 billion to India's GDP by 2025, with 45 per cent of the value coming in from consumer goods, retail, banking and insurance, and agriculture sector

Rukmini Rao | August 18, 2020 | Updated 23:38 IST
By supporting social and equitable growth, both data and AI could play a major role in not just COVID-19 response but also faster recovery of the ailing economy

IT industry body NASSCOM in its latest report 'Unlocking Value From Data And AI - The India Opportunity' has put a figure of $450-500 billion to what Data and Artificial Intelligence can add to India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2025. By supporting social and equitable growth, both data and AI could play a major role in not just COVID-19 response but also faster recovery of the ailing economy.

According to the report, almost half the value of data and AI will be unlocked from three sectors -- consumer goods and retail bringing in around $90-95 billion, banking and insurance and agriculture contributing $60-$65 billion each.  Acknowledging AI to be strategic lever for economic recovery, Minister of Law & Justice, Communications, Electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said, "Digital India has re-imagined how our government connects with citizens and accelerated deployment of AI and other emerging technologies will help further this objective.  In order to harness its full potential, India needs to embrace AI innovation and regulation with an open, inclusive, principal-based and a collaborative mindset."

In the near term, data and AI have helped governments and businesses for effective COVID-19 response. "Data and AI's true potential emerges from its ability to drive transformation across multiple sectors through a diverse range of applications. The report articulates the key structural steps that India needs to take to realise the value of this opportunity," said Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM.

To realise the potential the report also calls  for a  coordinated program across all five building blocks (strategy, data, technology stack, talent and execution) and intervention such as  identifying  datasets of national importance with each ministry with specific use cases and also establishment of a central agency for defining and enforcing data standards.