siliconindia | | July 20199ment. Its revenue for last fiscal year is estimated to be USD 180 Billion contributing to nearly seven percent of national GDP.Disruption by Digital TechnologiesToday, combined force of multiple new technologies is creating an unprecedented disruption all over the world. The advent of digital technologies comprising of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics, 3D Printing, Block Chain etc. is having profound impact at all levels ­ individuals, organizations, businesses, governments, etc. It is feared that there is a threat that these technologies will displace millions of jobs even faster. For example, robots are replacing low-wage jobs in the coming years. On the flip side, digital technologies will create opportunities in the form of new class of jobs which require different type of skills. But the beneficiaries are different from those who lose their current jobs. Data Enabled ServicesThe key element of all digital technologies is underly-ing data that drives them. It has been said that data is the new oil of digital economy. Data needs to be collected or created, enriched, analysed and finally monetized by businesses. For example, annotation and labelling of re-corded video data is essential for all autonomous vehicle projects. One hour of video data requires about eighty hours of labelling by humans. In Industry 4.0, ML plays an important role in using the data generated by robots for resource optimization. Most AI/ML algorithms need training data sets before they become useful. We may call such services as data enabled services. These ser-vices are like traditional Business Process Management (BPM) services.In addition, we also need highly specialized skills such as data scientists, statisticians, algorithm experts etc. These are like high end IT services being offered by cur-rent IT companies.Characteristics of Data Enabled ServicesThe key characteristics of data enabled services are very large volumes, high quality and low-price points. It has the potential to create several million new jobs in India for global markets. Though current IT industry has the capability to undertake data enabled services, their cost structure won't meet the expected price points. They have gathered large overheads due to its operations from metros and Tier 1 cities. It requires huge investments into land, buildings, campus recruitment, training, bench, attrition, reskilling, transportations, etc. but viable at scale of their operations.The obvious option for metro-based IT/BPM companies is to locate their delivery centres for data enabled services in small towns / Tier 2/3 towns where cost of operations can be substantially lower. However, such efforts in the past by themwere not successful as they followed the large city model in small towns. The financial benefits accrued were paltry at their size.Several governments encouraged entrepreneurs from small towns to set up IT companies through incentives. However, such units didn't scale and suffered from inadequate marketing and management competencies.Distributed Delivery Model for Data Enabled ServicesSo, what is the right model for data enabled services? We suggest a hybrid one that combines centralized management from a city and multiple delivery centres distributed in small towns. The city unit can take care of all customer facing functions and manage small town centres remotely. They can do high-end work needing data scientists, statisticians and algorithm developers etc., as such talent will not be easily available in small towns.On the other hand, small town centres can take responsibility for infrastructure, recruitment, training and delivery. It is essential that small town centres must be managed by entrepreneurs who have the required qualification, experience and emotional connection to the location. The proposed distributed delivery model not only meets expected price points but also creates good social impact like arresting migration to cities, development of local economy, employments of women and people with disabilities etc. If work can move from overseas developed countries like United States to Indian cities, why not we move the work from Indian cities to small towns?In summary, Indian IT companies are in an advantageous position to assist the global economies to adopt digital technologies and create new employment opportunities in India both in metros and small towns. We should not let go this opportunity. NASSCOM has already identified data enabled ser-vices as next big opportunity for India and working out strategies to address in association with all the stakehold-ers- Industry, government and academic institutions.
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