Focus for India Should Be on Removing Friction and Bottlenecks: Amit Agarwal

NEW DELHI:
Speaking at the 14th India Digital Summit organized by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) Amit Agarwal, Country Manager, Amazon India and Chairman, IAMAI said that the focus for India should be on “removing friction and bottlenecks” and added that the target of USD 1 trillion digital economy is not far-fetched for a country that is seen as a digital powerhouse.

A lot can be achieved by focusing on removing friction, he said expressing hope that there will be more attention in enabling this space for successful entrepreneurs, he said.

Agarwal further advocated a clear focus on skilling, grassroot entrepreneurship, driving equal opportunity through greater women’s participation as well as Artificial Intelligence backed solutions, and said a multi-pronged approach can enable India to meet its target of USD 5 trillion economy. He exuded confidence that bold reforms of last few years and India’s rising tech clout globally backed by success of Aadhaar, UPI and other initiatives will help the country scale new highs.

Baijayant Panda, Vice President, BJP & Former Member of Parliament [Lok Sabha] in his leadership talk on leveraging PDP to build a data economy, said that though privacy is a fundamental right but there can’t be absolute standards to define it. Shri Panda said there can’t be absolute standards for privacy like not allowing use of biometrics in current times as “we are no longer living in 14th century.”

“We willingly give away our private data to apps,” he said. He further stressed that facial recognition and other such technologies will become common in coming five years and there should be checks and balances for privacy rather than absolute standards. Panda said privacy is a fundamental right but there are also 5 exceptions to it like national security and governed services where government can seek data.

Another highlight of day 1 was the launch of a report titled ‘Intelligent Automation – A Key Catalyst for India’s Economic Growth’ by Aruna Sundararajan, Former Telecom Secretary and Chairman of the Telecom Commission. Launching the report, she said the report seeks to address what can catalyze the India’s economy growth. She further stated that investment is the next driver of growth. As the digital footprints in India grows across sectors it will help in benefiting the several of India’s fastest growing companies from Intelligent Automation, she added.

According to the report by ‘Automation Anywhere’ and IAMAI, Intelligent automation will catapult Indian economy to USD 5 trillion in the next five years, up from USD 2.7 trillion.

The report examines the economic impact of automation and found that large-scale adoption of automation technologies, such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), artificial intelligence, natural language processing and machine learning will drive increased efficiencies and new jobs resulting in economic growth in the next few years.

According to the report, automation is driving intrinsic growth in every sector of the Indian economy and is influencing every activity of the workforce by creating higher skilled jobs, resulting in more opportunities for workers and higher economic output.

Talking about the report, Milan Sheth, Executive Vice President, IMEA, Automation Anywhere said: “As an Indian heritage company, Automation Anywhere is uniquely positioned to make an impact as our complete intelligent platform empowers businesses to bridge the gap between the front office and back office, making businesses more efficient and agile.” He added: “We are helping thousands of government and industry entities embark on their automation journeys to unlock business productivity, thereby enabling India to catapult its economic growth.”