Union Budget 2022 to lay down path for a future-ready digital India

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated technological adoption across sectors in India. Today, technology has become an integral part of all supply chains. Tech-driven organisations are slowly becoming a key contributor to the country’s GDP, employment rate and social goals.  

Digital adoption has taken a quantum leap at both the organisational and industry levels. India saw a huge boost in emerging technologies and startups across industries. 

In 2021, India became the host country to 70 unicorns and 2,250 startups, over 600 more than the previous year. 

As per the report titled 'NASSCOM Tech Start-up Report 2021 – Year of the Titans', the Indian ecosystem is expected to have 37,000 tech startups and 180-200 unicorns with a cumulative valuation of $600-700 billion. Currently, the valuation stands at $320-330 billion. 

From a consumer point of view, the year 2021 saw the rising awareness and interest in cryptocurrencies, NFTs, Metaverse and Web 3.0.  

Cryptocurrencies saw an exponential increase in interest ever since the RBI ban was lifted in March 2020, with Indian exchanges clocking impressive user additions and a sustained surge in daily trading volumes. 

By end of the year, India became one of the biggest bases of crypto and blockchain technology users in the world with 10.07 crore crypto users.  

This rise of technological adoption across sectors has also called for advancements in the country's policies. New regimes for the regulation of personal data, e-commerce, the content of video streaming services, and related spheres are in the offing. 

In November 2021, the government introduced its plans to regulate cryptocurrencies in India, owing to the increased user interest, as well as look at banning private cryptocurrencies. 

As is the general case, compliances and growth go hand in hand. Given the fact that the marketplace for digital assets and services expanded manifolds within the country, the bold step taken by the government to introduce a policy brings a potential for clarity on regulation around blockchain technology. This regulation also came at the cusp of the rise of 'Year of NFTs and Metaverse'.  

As the internet evolves itself to Web 3.0, the Indian tech industry is expected to see a boost in the metaverse and a human renaissance that highlights exponential use of Web3, blockchain and NFTs. 

As per the NASSCOM report, India is expected to see 200 unicorns by 2025 highlighting the tech boom in the tech industry. 

The government's policies and initiatives such as Digital India, Start-Up India among others have most definitely given a playing field for many entrepreneurs. 

With emerging technologies becoming a hot topic in the market, new startups using AI, AR-VR, NFTs, exploring virtual worlds and more are expected to grow.  

Today, global NFT sales are exploding across the globe but experts predict this is only the beginning of a bigger surge in Asia. 

The Indian market is expected to see more growth due to regulations happening. Sectors such as the film industry, art and luxury, where celebrities, artists, content creators will observe a new YouTube-like platform in NFT space. Web3 based social networking will be happening in the NFT space and the uses of NFTs are also immense.  

In India, celebrities have not shied away from hopping on to the bandwagon and have actively either invested in NFT-Crypto startups or launched their own NFTs. But while there is potential, there is also a sense of uncertainty.  

Recently, there have been some cases reported about an individual's security in the metaverse, how secure are your crypto investments, among others. 

In such cases, regulatory policies that come into play will have a much larger role. They will not only ensure industry stability but will also further increase the ease of doing business in India to mark it as a leader in a futuristic industry. 

(The author is Founder and CEO, NFTically.)  

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