Pitch Off Season 4 also witnessed a panel to discuss the futuristic technologies and its advent in our country. The panel was honored by major industry experts including Prabhakar Jaykumar, India head for Digital Ocean, Prasoon Sharma, EMEA APAC Transformation strategy head for Motorola along with Ajay Data, CEO of Data Infosys. Also, the panel was moderated by none other than our chief editor Deepanshu Khandelwal.
The panel poured in their views over expectations tied up with the country’s cloud and employment opportunities. The experts shared their opinion saying technology does help businesses reduce costs and organize data, though startups may spruce up without any prior tech experiences. Similar reasons account for cloud computing, analytics solutions, and data providers emerging in the country.
Talking about job availabilities in tech ventures targeting futurism, a massive growth has been witnessed for the past few years. This is majorly due to the fact, the young generation is much more tech-friendly and prefers being employed under early ventures; as they raise their chances of being promoted any day soon. Moreover, in India, cloud is being used to expedite projects and ideas you would’ve never imagined.
Ajay Data expressing his viewpoint over integration of cloud platforms on every mobile app said,
They require the cloud to power them, and we do not need to stick to on-premise metal box data centers or managed centers. Only sensitive data needs to be stored on-premise, and the cloud isn’t being used for that.
While Prabhakar, one of the leaders in startup ecosystem rallied his viewpoint saying that in India cloud is being used currently for niche data and there is a great potential and space to fill up. The companies usually put all that data collected from the companies on the cloud. However, witnessing the current market choices, the platforms are gradually collecting data for the public. He further added,
So, it is not only the West but India is also accepting cloud at a steady pace.
The panel moved to smartphone space and what potential the field has to offer. As we all know, a lot of smartphones companies beyond the boundaries have entered the country. Indian companies are suffering from Chinese and Korean counterparts and do need to pace up their efforts to survive in the market.
Dismissing the similar concerns, Prasoon Sharma, EMEA APAC Transformation strategy head for Moto found that the smartphone space quite commoditized. However, he agreed on the fact that innovation still needs to gear up in the country. Startups massively focus on software but forget to emphasize on hardware matters. The consumers these days want a smartphone equipped with the best hardware that does not trouble them in future. He kept with his stance and said,
Over 10 smartphones are being launched in a month and not much hardware makers are from India. Not much innovation, except for a few startups who’re trying to make something different for the indian audience.
Our panelists conceded that initially, the mindset of Indian consumers requires to be changed. The country has some of the top minds and brainers across the globe and hence people should start looking at hardware differently. What we require today is perseverance to fund and launch a tech startup. There are a lot of companies who are trying to go mainstream but most of them are still from the West. Currently, people are focused on numbers, which needs to go away. Investors have a limit. So isn’t it time for the industry to step up and integrate these smaller future tech companies into their own?
These days budding hardware startups usually suffer from a shortage of funds but the experts were of a view Investors have a limit of investing. It is generally difficult for small and budding tech companies to progress but a great business model remains key. A lot of examples of innovation centers as well as acceleration programmes proves to be the lack of a stable idea. These ventures then try to integrate them into their products. But there is a dearth of that.
On being questioned on the usable space and open area in the hardware industry, speakers were of the view that the country demands a take on Software patent ban in the country. Presently, there is no provision for IPs in the country, which is important for the growth of hardware startups. Lack of infrastructure is yet another reason for limited growth in the hardware domain.
However, the main question remains the same — whether technology which goes into a product is being developed in the country or not. Answering to that Prasoon Sharma said,
That’s missing from India. The government has launched ‘Make in India’ campaign to encourage hardware development but that doesn’t help hardware innovation in India.
