How Indian Knowledge Force is Impacting Global Digital Transformation

Mahima Garg Jun 11, 2021

In the early 1990s, India was one of the popular destinations for outsourcing back-office functions. The companies from the US and Europe frequently outsourced their services to India to improve their organisational efficiency and reduce their operational costs. However, in the decade between 2010 to 2020, the Indian software industry has transformed from providing back-office support/project management to a key global digital transformation enabler. This has been possible only due to the quick adoption of digital technologies by the Indian knowledge force focused on building software products and platforms for global markets.

Growth of Indian Software Industry Over the Years

1990-2000: Although the Indian knowledge force comprising programmers were hired in several leading software firms across the globe, especially in the US, many Indian companies were to improve their service delivery capabilities to global clients. These companies modelled themselves as software exporters. These companies helped clients to manage their back-office operations, as well as legacy infrastructure portfolio and applications. The IT services in India was available at fractional costs than the United States and Europe. This made India a preferred destination for many global corporations. As a result, they established their offshore development centres across prominent cities in India such as Bombay, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. The growth of the IT industry in this decade by fuelled by the introduction of the Internet and the telecommunication policy reforms in 1999.
2000 -2010: In the early years of this decade, several Indian start-ups established themselves as multinational companies with centres and offices across the country and other third-world countries. They started offering a wide range of services including IT strategy design and consulting end-to-end IT infrastructure management, software products and engineering services, and hardware.
In addition to this, many global technology companies started building or expanding their presence in India by setting up R&D centres, and business process management (BPM) offices across tier 1 and tier 2 cities in India. Many leading enterprises in retail, banking and healthcare also established their digital engineering centres in India. In recent years, OVHa Unicorn and Uber established their digital engineering centres in India.
2010 - 2020: In this decade, India emerged as a hub of technology start-ups. According to NASSCOM, there are currently 12,500 technology start-ups in India. It suggests that 1,600 tech start-ups were added in the year 2020 itself. This makes India the third-largest software ecosystem in the world. In the years, between 2010 to 2020, aggregated revenues of Indian IT exports were USD 180 million. India pioneered several technology innovations such as cash on delivery in eCommerce, and so on.
In 2020, NASSCOM reported that the Indian IT sector employs more than 4.36 million employees in various capacities. Two-thirds of our IT services exports are from the United States.
The emergence of start-ups coupled with the presence of R&D centres owned by large global companies, the presence of skilled IT professionals, minimised brain drain rates, and increasing investments by global venture capitalists have created a favourable environment for the growth of the Indian IT ecosystem in this decade. Adding to this, the Indian government has introduced initiatives like Start-Up India and Digital India, which suggests a bright future for domestic software services in India.

The growth of the software industry in India has increased the demand for IT certifications and certified professionals. Digital technologies are rapidly evolving. Thus, the technology professionals working on these technologies need to update themselves. There is a high demand for a knowledge workforce certified with the latest technology like Google Cloud, AWS, AI, and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). These technology certifications enable them to update themselves and maintain their position in extremely competitive environments. Having said that, earning these certifications may not be easy and require dedicated preparations including rapid learning courses, tests, and preparations. You can see several test preparation platforms offering rapid learning courses and test preparations. It is important to check their credibility and authenticity before choosing the right one. It is always best to choose the platform that offers well-structured and revised courses, authentic tests, and simulations, and above all - supports the certification dreams of candidates irrespective of their experience.