India’s recent economic growth journey has been one where it has been leapfrogging and adopting the latest technology advancement rather than taking a ‘legacy modernization’ path. This is possible because there is not much legacy to modernize. That said, it is also a testament to the people and businesses where the appetite to absorb the latest new tech is relatively high.
Some great examples of this leapfrogging are
1. Skipped Landlines -> Mobile phones
2. Skipped Malls-> online shopping
3. Skipped Physical Banking -> Online banking and payment
Our belief is that with the rapid expansion of broadband and fibre access throughout the country, India has the unique opportunity to be the few countries in the world to skip the massive migration to large cities. In reality, India’s infrastructure is in a dismal state. As an example, over the last several years Mumbai (#2), Bengaluru (#6) and Delhi (#8) have consistently featured on TomTom’s top 10 most congested cities in the world for traffic. Pune stands at #16 with 42% congestion.
As an example, if Pune is not to join this top-10 list, the way forward is evolving a hub-and-spoke model of a number of smaller towns along with Pune, so that most of the jobs are created in the small towns, thus reducing migration to Pune and hence the congestion.
We are doing our bit to accelerate this leapfrogging by creating centers of economic activity in smaller towns in the country starting with hgh-end tech jobs.