It’s been nearly two years since World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, the world is still adjusting to the virus’s effects. The pandemic’s burden on healthcare systems has had the most significant and pivotal impact. Then there’s the financial toll, which has been more tenacious and reverberating.
Lockdowns and other quarantine measures created widespread interruptions, and state intervention to combat infections and encapsulate the infection rate resulted in global supply disruptions, particularly in the manufacturing sector. It is now evident that the pandemic has triggered the world’s second major financial and economic emergency of the twenty-first century, with long-term structural consequences. Furthermore, it has exposed the global economic and geopolitical order’s frailties.
The switching in the global system, on the other hand, had begun well before the pandemic, with power equations shifting due to geopolitical shifts. There was an undeniable trend toward a more multipolar world, with Asia becoming the global economy’s power center.
The current world order has been significantly altered, resulting in a new post-COVID epoch. In this constant state of change, an opportunity has arisen for budding and evolving powers to make an appearance and aid in formulating a new world with a brighter future for all.
How far has India arrived in terms of market size?
In the Global Innovation Index (GII), India is now ranked 46th out of 50 countries, up from 48th in 2020. The current regime heavily promotes research gardens, technology business incubators (TBIs), and research parks (RPs), which are designed to nurture innovative ideas until they are ready to be commercialized.
In 2020, India’s gross R&D expenditure was expected to reach US$ 96.50 billion. R&D spending is expected to account for at least 2% of the country’s GDP by 2022. From US$ 31 billion in 2019, India’s engineering R&D and product development market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12% to reach US$ 63 billion by 2025, up from US$ 31 billion in 2019.
India’s IT spending is expected to grow to us$ 93 billion in 2021 (a 7.3% year-on-year increase) and US$ 98.5 billion in 2022.
NITI Aayog’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy outlined a path forward for unlocking the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in various fields in India. In its most recent AI research studies, Accenture provides a framework for assessing the economic impact of AI for selected G20 countries and predicts that AI will boost India’s annual growth rate by 1.3 percentage points by 2035.
In the Global Innovation Index for 2021, India was ranked 46th. India was ranked 50th in innovation in the Bloomberg Innovation Index for 2021. India is the only country in South Asia depicted on the index. India is ranked tenth in the International Telecommunication Union’s Global Cybersecurity Index 2020.
Through science investigation, the government has supported significant investment and growth in various areas such as agriculture, healthcare, space research, and nuclear power. In nuclear technology, for example, India is gradually becoming self-sufficient.
