With a population of 1.4 billion, India has surpassed China and is now the fifth-largest economy as also the largest democracy in the world. The median age of the population is 27.6.
This year, 642 million citizens cast their vote in the country’s general elections and a new national government has been formed for the next five years. The government is aiming for:
- 8 percent GDP growth each year in the next decade and growing India’s GDP to $19 trillion by 2047.
- Creating 90 million jobs by 2030 and 600 million jobs by 2047
- Investing $600 billion annually to transition to a net-zero world by 2050
- Raising income six-fold to over $12,000 per capita
For India, economic growth and business innovations will be critical to future economic inclusion; in fact, these levers could erase more than 90 percent of the empowerment gap. This means that accelerated economic growth and business-led innovation alone could lift about 700 million people above the threshold by 2030, says consulting firm McKinsey.
India is unique in the global market in that companies can complete an entire initial go-to-market move there. This is a major advantage in a sector wherein the biggest constraining factor is how rapidly you can induce growth.
The private sector will be crucial in helping India achieve the growth needed to effect economic inclusion. The report claims that Indian companies can achieve growth by:
- Leveraging the potential of AI and data, both physical and digital
- Reallocating resources with agility and nimbleness
- Investing in the next line of leaders – empowering leadership in the organization to enhance operational efficiency
- Expanding trade and businesses to new markets across the world
India’s scale of economy and the challenges it faces—means that innovation in any sector stands to have a huge impact. Technological innovation has a major role to play in accelerating equality. “For a country of our size, and with our kind of population and geography, we will never attain financial inclusion without very strong technology backing,” says Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO of Salesforce India and former chair of the State Bank of India, India’s largest bank.
In 2010, the government rolled out a digital identity card called Aadhaar, which is the world’s largest biometric program, enabling previously unbanked people to open accounts and gain financial inclusion at very low or no cost. As of 2022, 1.3 billion people had an Aadhaar ID.
Innovation can help improve India’s agriculture industry as well. By 2030, McKinsey estimates that agriculture could contribute about $600 billion to India’s GDP. Agricultural technology, or agtech, is essential to powering India’s farming transformation:
- Farm supply providers are using technology to create direct-to-farmer sales channels to bypass intermediaries.
- Financial-services providers are using technology to better understand farmers, provide targeted products, and reduce loan risks.
- Agricultural product procurement, processing, and sales firms have started to integrate backward into the supply chain and create market linkages for the farmer.
India’s healthcare sector can produce drugs and medical devices inexpensively and at scale. Indian talent, manufacturing capabilities, and equipment could significantly lower the cost of these therapies, potentially making them available to a much wider market.
Another opportunity for India lies in clinical development. India has a large population of patients who have not previously received any treatments and are therefore eligible for clinical-trials. Additionally, there is also a robust hospital network and clear regulatory pathways for clinical development.
G. V. Prasad, co-chair and managing director of India-based pharma multinational Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, says, “The economics of competing in India, “builds a lot of muscle in an organization, which makes it very competitive in the global arena. To that extent, I think Indian companies have demonstrated that they can be as competitive as anybody in the world.”
