DIGITIZATION OF INDIA ..OPPORTUNITY FOR INDO-BRAZILIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Our generation is the age of impatience where we spend less time running or waiting for something in our life. We need everything at the speed of optical fiber. The biggest gift of globalization is that knowledge is free and one can use the same to create turnaround in the world economy. This is what we have witnessed in the last 2 decades in India and also on the global platform. But at the same time we find that there is a huge income inequality which is widening every day and after the recession the gap has widened enough. Rural development across the globe is a priority through which one can get growth and can solve the gaps of income –inequality. Chamber of commerce particularly the cross border ones are the best ones to come ahead in this area. I will be discussing the same today here in a broader pattern. One needs to understand the place where one can create difference in the society development followed with revenues.   Entrepreneurship are required by every economy hence cross border chambers of commerce could play a significant role. We need change in entrepreneurship culture.

After the recession of 2008 doing investments in sustainable assets over the long term has become a challenge and an opportunity. What I am trying to figure out is that where and how the cross border chamber of commerce can come together to create global synergies where in-equalities are resolved. Time has come where we need to partner and move aggressively with these cross border Chambers of commerce to drive business and growth. We need to change the landscape of entrepreneurship and opportunities.

If India needs to become one of the 2nd largest economies then one needs to throw a higher challenge to the neighbouring countries simply by connecting the huge population of India. the ambitious ‘Digital India’ drive, Kerala’s Idukki obtained the distinction of being the first district in the country in January this year to be linked to the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) which aims to offer high-speed broadband connectivity in all villages in India. The fibre, laid by the state-run BSNL, is expected to assist NOFN to launch next-gen services and employment opportunities.

What India is doing delay in understanding is that increase in network connectivity would open mass business opportunities.  According to a 2009 World Bank report, in low- and middle-income countries such as India, every 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration could increase GDP by 1.4 percentage points. Indio- Brazilian chamber of commerce can come together to bridge these gaps of knowledge and can upgrade the level of society. This same theory has been measured correctly by World Bank.  Indo-Brazilian chamber of commerce could come together where efficient use of technology promoting business opportunities and society development and bridging the income inequality could be used.

In between the smart phone penetration India has spooked another bubbling opportunity to the entire India where everyone is trying to create networks and spread opportunities of growth. Mobile subscribers figures are close to 100 crore and hence stupendous achievement for digital India to take a giant knowledge based hub. But there is question about the content which provides this knowledge since everyone don’t have the same intelligence or power of grabbing the same knowledge. So content of upgrading the information is a big responsibility. Hence preparing and presenting information in an easy format is an opportunity for the entrepreneurs.

Growing technology demand also raises the alarm of high imports of devices and instruments. Currently, India imports electronic goods worth $100 billion every year. By 2020, this is expected to grow to $400 billion. Hence engineering and computer background knowledge fellows have stupendous opportunities for coming as entrepreneurs in these segments. Indo-Brazilian chamber of commerce can easily come together to create India into a manufacturing hub at the same time promoting joint entrepreneurship where India and Brazil both could benefit from the same. Well there is another problem that we need educated investors to grow these entrepreneurs markets and replace India from import to export market of tech products.  This is another core area where Brazilian investors community can easily promote and deployed their capital for creation of long term assets generating sustainable income over the long term. Remember that normal ROI and sustainable ROI are two different things and the later one has more demand currently compared to the former one. Global recession has created this demand. The depth of the immense opportunity lays in the hands of chamber of commerce particularly the ones who are having cross border.

Countries like the US, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and China, Malaysia and Israel run their own fab facilities that continue to contribute significantly to the growth and development of their economies. Hence in India we find there is significant opportunity for this industry to grow and for this extensive technical knowledge sharing followed with investors class who can understand these projects are going to be the key game changers for both the economies to grow.

 I find that Indo-Brazilian chamber can be a game changer since both the economy share common structural problems of economic growth and hence cross border, rural focused investment strategies are going to be the game changers. This will lead to huge employment opportunities and growth due to experts coming from advanced economies.

According to NASACOM-Impact of Digital India by 2019

•         Broadband in 2.5 lakh villages, universal phone connectivity
•        Net Zero Imports by 2020
•         400,000 Public Internet Access Points
•          Wi-fi in 2.5 lakh schools, all universities; Public wi-fi hotspots for citizens
•         Digital Inclusion: 1.7 crore trained for IT, Telecom and Electronics
•         Jobs Job creation: Direct 1.7 crore and Indirect at least 8.5 crore
• ·       E-governance and E-services across government
•          India to be leader in deploying IT for services across health, education, banking
•           Digitally empowered citizens-public Cloud, Internet access

Hence the opportunities are huge for the chamber of commerce to come together.On the other hand up gradation of digital facilities is a challenge and this itself creates more opportunities for the countries to build long term sustainable assets for investments.