India heading for $trillion digital economy: NASSCOM

Gandhinagar: There are tremendous opportunities in start-ups right now in the country and India predicts a $trillion digital economy in the coming years, said NASSCOM chief Devyani Ghosh on Thursday.

Speaking at the pre Vibrant Global Investors Summit (Vibrant Gujarat StartUp and Technology Summit 2018), Ghosh said: "The information and technology (IT) business in India is a $167 billion industry.

"It is predicted to be $one trillion digital economy in the coming years."

She said of the $167 billion business, Gujarat's share was only $one billion.

"Gujarat is the home of entrepreneurs in the country. How come it has to learn from other experts from outside, whereas it should be the other way round?" Ghosh wondered.

"Gujarat's growth is at 10.5 percentage which is nice. Which other state is growing at that rate?

"But the IT sector needs to catch up. There are tremendous opportunities in energy, water, specially in health. But rather than treating IT growth as an isolated entity, there is a need to utilize IT in the existing traditional industry to make it grow," she said.

Ghosh also pointed out that start-up was not about money or creating infrastructure.

"It needs a market. What the government really needs to do is start buying from budding start-ups. An atmosphere and an eco-system needs to be created. I think you can just leapfrog from here, just disrupt."

The NASSCOM chief said that when Gujarat showed growth in other areas, the IT growth should be 10 fold than what is now.

Accepting the challenge, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said: "We accept the challenge. We have also now decided to give IT a University status."

Gujarat Chief Secretary J.N. Singh said: "Ahmedabad has now become a new entrant in start-ups centres across the country. We have received more than 1,200 applications for start-ups in this summit. This is the first time where 25 IT research papers will be released."