Nandan Nilekani presented an "alternate view of the future for India," which was digitised, connect and converged. Infosys co-founder and ex-chairman UIDAI, Nandan Nilekani was speaking at inaugural address of the Chennai International Centre on Friday. Nilekani said that while people were underestimating automation, the manufacturing outsourcing trend was reversing, with several companies looking at the west as a destination for manufacture.
Nilekani highlighted that the key drivers for India's growth would include domestic consumption stories, a surge in services and growth driven by Small and Medium Enterprises - all powered by digitisation.
India is set to have 700 million smartphone users by 2020, and Nilekani's expectations are driven by these. With Internet penetration of more than 300 million users for India, digital disruption may be the way to go. Nilekani said merchants and businesses will be able to transact business easily and efficiently, a process that's progressively improving.
He even talks about robots, Internet of Things (IoT) and other technologies that are rapidly changing businesses and processes. What's interesting at the heart of these Nilekani wasn't expecting big conglomerates to create jobs but expects SMEs to be growing the job market. "Platforms that will act as aggregators providing common services will drive transparency , lower costs and more jobs," he said.