Five focus areas for India in tech next year

At the forefront of all tech trends is artificial intelligence (AI), and its subset, generative AI, or gen AI, was where all the focus was in 2023. Come 2024, most conversations are likely to be based on realizing real-world, practical use cases of gen AI. Speaking about its adoption, John Roese, global chief technology officer (CTO) at Dell, said: “While generative AI has sparked incredibly creative ideas of how it will transform business and the world, there are very few real-world, scaled generative AI activities. 2024 will see the first wave of generative AI enterprise projects reach maturity levels that will expose important dimensions not yet understood in the early phases.”

This would be crucial for India’s information technology (IT) services industry, too. Brokerages say many service providers, which have struggled in FY24 to grow revenue and improve margin, could see gen AI start making a business impact in FY25. A 20 December investor note by brokerage firm Elara Capital cited global IT major Accenture’s industry-defining $450-million generative AI sales to project that the upcoming year could signal generative AI becoming the “new growth driver” for the domestic IT services sector.

The new year will likely see more policies to regulate the fast-evolving tech scene. While gen AI continues to be a key growth factor for enterprises in 2024, new policies and regulations will simultaneously shape the guardrails of technology in India. In an interview with Mint on 13 December, Union minister of state for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said that one of the first policies to be released next year is the India AI Programme, on 10 January. “What we’ve (so far) lacked is real, cutting-edge, scaled AI compute—and organized, quality datasets that are legal, diverse, high-quality and curated. These two are part of our India AI Programme that we’ll launch on 10 January. The disables of our AI ecosystem will be addressed here,” he said.

Other areas up for scrutiny and evaluation will likely include formalizing rules of the Digital Personal Data Privacy (DPDP) Act, revisionary meetings for taxation in online gaming, regulation of over-the-top (OTT) internet-based messaging, communication and entertainment services, and even the overarching Digital India Act (DIA). An advisory on implementing cyber safeguards against the proliferation of deepfake and AI-manipulated content is also expected soon, while depending on progress under this advisory, further amendment to the existing Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 could be in order.

The third key tech focus would be cyber security. As AI matures, cybersecurity could come under greater strain. As AI continues to be the bildungsroman for technology, cybersecurity’s tryst with AI will amplify into greater warfare across all formats. A joint report by homegrown cybersecurity firm Quick Heal and Nasscom-backed industry body Data Security Council of India (DSCI) on 20 December projects increasing malware sophistication with gen AI, and an increasing frequency of cyberattacks on global supply chains, as key themes for 2024.

AI, as a result, is the clear new nemesis that presents a challenge to be tamed. At a 5 December roundtable, Pascal Brier, global chief innovation officer at IT services firm Capgemini, said that state-backed cyberattacks globally will emerge as a key factor in quantum-backed cyber threats. “Ultimately, quantum computers won’t just be breaking cryptography, which is why we’ll soon start seeing plenty of security applications that rely on quantum systems—2024 is the year when we’ll start thinking about this,” he said.

India, incidentally, will be at the forefront of this—a note by Quick Heal chief and former Infosys senior vice-president and chief information security officer, Vishal Salvi, highlighted that last year, 13.7% of global cyberattacks took place in India. This puts proportionate emphasis on India’s efforts towards cyber defences, too.

Fourth, the overall operations of data centres and semiconductors are all set to expand next year, with landmark deals and announcements. In an interview with Mint on 12 December, Sunil Gupta, chief executive of data centre firm Yotta, said the company will expand its hyperscale data centre and build new-edge data centres to cater to AI-boosted demand from clients through next year. Real estate consultant JLL said in a 5 October report that AI-driven demand for absorption of available data centre capacity will be boosted through the next 12 months—projected to rise to 1.48GW in three years, from 778MW in June this year.

The semiconductor industry could see landmark deals too—while Micron’s Sanand, Gujarat, plant may become partly operational by end-2024, other deals such as Tata Electronics’ planned $4.8 billion outlay for a “semiconductor processing” plant in Assam are likely to see more details, too.

Finally, the year ahead could prove to be interesting for the gaming industry. For real-money gaming startups, referred to in courts as ‘online gaming’, 2024 will be about consolidating offerings. In an interview with Mint on 6 December, Harsh Jain, chief executive of Dream11, said that the company may invest up to $100 million for strategic acquisitions, as smaller firms fold up under the impact of increased goods and services tax (GST) burden. Sudhir Kamath, chief operating officer of publicly-listed Nazara Technologies, said that this will be the obvious next step for the industry in the coming year.

For esports, meanwhile, 2024 will be all about improving monetization. In an interview with Mint last month, Sean-Hyunil Sohn, chief executive of BGMI maker Krafton India, said that optimizations to grow the esports offerings will include India-specific pricing models of in-game items in order to leverage the impact of UPI. This, projected a report by venture capital firm Lumikai, could see monetization of esports and casual games grow through 2024, and the next four years to come.

Milestone Alert!
Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world 🌏 Click here to know more.

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it’s all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Published: 26 Dec 2023, 09:44 PM IST

At the forefront of all tech trends is artificial intelligence (AI), and its subset, generative AI, or gen AI, was where all the focus was in 2023. Come 2024, most conversations are likely to be based on realizing real-world, practical use cases of gen AI. Speaking about its adoption, John Roese, global chief technology officer (CTO) at Dell, said: “While generative AI has sparked incredibly creative ideas of how it will transform business and the world, there are very few real-world, scaled generative AI activities. 2024 will see the first wave of generative AI enterprise projects reach maturity levels that will expose important dimensions not yet understood in the early phases.”

This would be crucial for India’s information technology (IT) services industry, too. Brokerages say many service providers, which have struggled in FY24 to grow revenue and improve margin, could see gen AI start making a business impact in FY25. A 20 December investor note by brokerage firm Elara Capital cited global IT major Accenture’s industry-defining $450-million generative AI sales to project that the upcoming year could signal generative AI becoming the “new growth driver” for the domestic IT services sector.

The new year will likely see more policies to regulate the fast-evolving tech scene. While gen AI continues to be a key growth factor for enterprises in 2024, new policies and regulations will simultaneously shape the guardrails of technology in India. In an interview with Mint on 13 December, Union minister of state for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said that one of the first policies to be released next year is the India AI Programme, on 10 January. “What we’ve (so far) lacked is real, cutting-edge, scaled AI compute—and organized, quality datasets that are legal, diverse, high-quality and curated. These two are part of our India AI Programme that we’ll launch on 10 January. The disables of our AI ecosystem will be addressed here,” he said.

Other areas up for scrutiny and evaluation will likely include formalizing rules of the Digital Personal Data Privacy (DPDP) Act, revisionary meetings for taxation in online gaming, regulation of over-the-top (OTT) internet-based messaging, communication and entertainment services, and even the overarching Digital India Act (DIA). An advisory on implementing cyber safeguards against the proliferation of deepfake and AI-manipulated content is also expected soon, while depending on progress under this advisory, further amendment to the existing Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 could be in order.

The third key tech focus would be cyber security. As AI matures, cybersecurity could come under greater strain. As AI continues to be the bildungsroman for technology, cybersecurity’s tryst with AI will amplify into greater warfare across all formats. A joint report by homegrown cybersecurity firm Quick Heal and Nasscom-backed industry body Data Security Council of India (DSCI) on 20 December projects increasing malware sophistication with gen AI, and an increasing frequency of cyberattacks on global supply chains, as key themes for 2024.

AI, as a result, is the clear new nemesis that presents a challenge to be tamed. At a 5 December roundtable, Pascal Brier, global chief innovation officer at IT services firm Capgemini, said that state-backed cyberattacks globally will emerge as a key factor in quantum-backed cyber threats. “Ultimately, quantum computers won’t just be breaking cryptography, which is why we’ll soon start seeing plenty of security applications that rely on quantum systems—2024 is the year when we’ll start thinking about this,” he said.

India, incidentally, will be at the forefront of this—a note by Quick Heal chief and former Infosys senior vice-president and chief information security officer, Vishal Salvi, highlighted that last year, 13.7% of global cyberattacks took place in India. This puts proportionate emphasis on India’s efforts towards cyber defences, too.

Fourth, the overall operations of data centres and semiconductors are all set to expand next year, with landmark deals and announcements. In an interview with Mint on 12 December, Sunil Gupta, chief executive of data centre firm Yotta, said the company will expand its hyperscale data centre and build new-edge data centres to cater to AI-boosted demand from clients through next year. Real estate consultant JLL said in a 5 October report that AI-driven demand for absorption of available data centre capacity will be boosted through the next 12 months—projected to rise to 1.48GW in three years, from 778MW in June this year.

The semiconductor industry could see landmark deals too—while Micron’s Sanand, Gujarat, plant may become partly operational by end-2024, other deals such as Tata Electronics’ planned $4.8 billion outlay for a “semiconductor processing” plant in Assam are likely to see more details, too.

Finally, the year ahead could prove to be interesting for the gaming industry. For real-money gaming startups, referred to in courts as ‘online gaming’, 2024 will be about consolidating offerings. In an interview with Mint on 6 December, Harsh Jain, chief executive of Dream11, said that the company may invest up to $100 million for strategic acquisitions, as smaller firms fold up under the impact of increased goods and services tax (GST) burden. Sudhir Kamath, chief operating officer of publicly-listed Nazara Technologies, said that this will be the obvious next step for the industry in the coming year.

For esports, meanwhile, 2024 will be all about improving monetization. In an interview with Mint last month, Sean-Hyunil Sohn, chief executive of BGMI maker Krafton India, said that optimizations to grow the esports offerings will include India-specific pricing models of in-game items in order to leverage the impact of UPI. This, projected a report by venture capital firm Lumikai, could see monetization of esports and casual games grow through 2024, and the next four years to come.

Milestone Alert!
Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world 🌏 Click here to know more.

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it’s all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Published: 26 Dec 2023, 09:44 PM IST