Connect with us

Editor's Desk

Bringing in FY22, while still in the shadow of COVID-19

As the nation progressed and the coronavirus vaccine was rolled out, it seemed that we would finally come out of this catastrophe, that had over the entire last fiscal, dislocated the economics of the entire world. And then, the pandemic roared back, this time even deadlier. The COVID-19 case numbers started to explode, threatening to upend economic activity again.

With lockdowns imminent, companies started revisiting their growth forecast for the current year, as did professional forecasters. While some economists believe that the economy will not suffer as much as last year, many brokerages started downgrading growth projections to as low as 10 per cent, with the recent tightening of restrictions disrupting overall demand and supply, and threatening the fragile recovery.

The last fiscal had been transformational, with Indian CEOs willing to invest more in digital transformation in nearly all the sectors: manufacturing, retail and consumer, financial services, education, and healthcare. Cyber-risk has become boardroom agenda, it having been factored into their strategic risk management, alongside speed of technological change, availability of key skills, and changing consumer behaviour.  According to them, focusing on productivity, automation, and technology will be key to sustain business growth in the new post-COVID world. Accelerated digitization is visible not  only at the enterprises, but has led to a massive surge in several online applications like online education and telemedicine. The government’s commitment to the Digital India initiative has also gained momentum, with a growing need to enhance rural connectivity and build digital inclusion across India.

FY22 promises to be the tipping point of such initiatives, since networks have already started showing signs of congestion, which could throttle the progress achieved so far. Network providers in India will need to focus on faster connectivity even as 5G deployments are around the corner. The telecom operators are utilizing the existing investments, to make networks that are increasingly becoming software-centric, faster. With 5G and new technologies on the horizon, the year 2021, to say the least, promises to be a disruptive one!

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Copyright © 2024 Communications Today

error: Content is protected !!