BT India@100: ‘Youth is India’s biggest asset,’ says Games24x7 co-founder

Innovation in India takes place because there is a need to solve problems of billions of people, says Rajan Navani, CMD, Jetline Group of Companies

Trivikraman Thampy, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Games24x7

SUMMARY

India needs to leverage its youth to drive growth over the next 25 years, said Trivikraman Thampy, co-founder & co-CEO, Games24x7
As per Rajan Navani, CMD, Jetline Group of Companies, India will set practices for the next 25 years for the world to follow
The drone industry has become a must-have industry for policymakers and consumers after pandemic, said ideaForge CEO

Online gaming industry sees several innovations across the world, but what does this mean for the Indian gaming industry? At the BT@100 India Summit, Tech Today Editor Aayush Ailawadi held a panel discussion with Rajan Navani, CMD, Jetline Group of Companies, Trivikraman Thampy, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Games24x7 and Ankit Mehta, Co-Founder & CEO, ideaForge Technology where they discussed the rise of gaming industry in India.

Talking about the strength that India can utilise when it comes to gaming, he said: “India’s biggest asset today is its massive youth population that also includes children. India’s population just under the age of 25 years is probably 60 per cent larger than the entire US population. So when I about the asset that India needs to leverage to drive growth over the next 25 years is its youth. If we figure out to make the youth better educated and skilled, everything else will happen organically. AI can be used to offer personalised education to kids that too cheaply.”

Navani also weighed in and said India will set practices for the next 25 years for the world to follow. He stated: “India is going to create best practices of the next 25 years for the world. Innovation in India is there because there is a real need. There are billions of problems that need to be solved with non-negotiables of the innovations like scale, affordability. Any Indian company has to perform better performance at low cost at all times. That is the model that the world will have to adopt.”

Online gaming industry has witnessed a major change in India after the government announced 28 per cent GST. Several top leaders from the industry share their thoughts on the same. Thampi said: “There is a very substantial tax increase but the government has done what is best for the country. But this will make things very tough for the industry. People at our company are trying to figure out how to adjust product offerings, business models and more to continue to not just survive but hopefully do well. It is certainly going to set back the industry by a few years. But we are hopeful that we get past this and re-pivot and kick off a new journey from here.”

Talking about the drone industry, Mehta said, “The drone industry, after the pandemic, has switched from a good-to-have industry to a must-have industry in the minds of policymakers and customers. In this industry, we see that the deployment is actually strengthening globally in terms of wars. It has a pivotal role in being the evidence creator in making each and every process, particularly on the infrastructure side, very transparent to the stakeholders.”