A digi-manifesto

The adoption of 5G will help businesses accelerate their global footprint

We are in the middle of a massive technology revolution that is continually enhancing our lives. Technology has the potential to create a shared future in a fragmented world. 5G is the enabler for all technologies to maximise their impact. The incredible speed of 5G will assist devices in communicating in almost real time; on its part, blockchain has the potential to solve many of the world's most pressing problems. It has the ability to change the way we buy and sell, the way we interact with others and verify everything from our property records to even where our vegetables come from.

 
The road to 5G has unleashed a revolution leading to an explosion of connected devices like mobile phones, televisions and security systems. However, 5G will go beyond mobile broadband and connected experiences and will foster innovation across sectors. It will enable businesses to accelerate their global footprint by re-examining existing processes, and adopting next generation technologies to improve productivity. In healthcare and agriculture, 5G can make a meaningful difference right from precise diagnosis to enabling robotic surgeries and remote monitoring. The potential for disruption is enormous and those who prepare well for 5G, have much to gain. However, challenges like cost, regulation and infrastructure need to be resolved before the low-latency capabilities of 5G can open up a new world of possibilities.

 
That said, the pace of innovation over the last few decades has been remarkable. Our ability to leverage new-age technologies can help India speed up its transition to a developed nation. As a nation, India is well poised to lead the fourth Industrial Revolution given the right mix of accelerators — regulatory frameworks, partner ecosystems, favourable tax norms and entrepreneurial initiatives such as Start-up India and the Make In India.
 

The adoption of cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, analytics among others is leading to re-calibration of workforce requirements in every sector of the economy. As a result, there is a demand for a workforce that is not only geared up for the new digital world, but also has the ability to constantly up-skill, re-skill and change gears as need be. It is equally important to revisit the overall education system to incorporate future employability requirements.

 
The world is becoming more connected than ever before, making global networks an attractive target for hackers. With the Internet of Things becoming more pervasive, security related responsibilities are getting complicated. The world’s next war may well be fought on the internet where a country’s vital networks and infrastructure would be the target and that will create a bigger disruption than a real war. Hence, protecting sensitive data from the hackers is crucial to organisations.
 
What we need is a holistic and strategic approach to ensure security of devices against all possible breaches and improving network infrastructure. While governments can’t control every aspect, they can certainly help shape the future of cyber security based on lessons learned from other nations. Besides defining stringent laws and implementation policies, the government needs to come up with innovative and cost-effective solutions and laws to curb cyber-crime.

 
In this age of disruption, we need to nurture an ecosystem that supports collaboration in the real sense. It is important for the industry and academia to undertake collaborative research programmes and provide experiential learning opportunities to the youth.