5G to boost 2% of India's GDP amounting to $180 bn by 2030: Nasscom

The launch of 5G services will strengthen India's position as an economic and technology powerhouse globally and is expected to boost 2% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), amounting to approximately $180 billion by 2030, according to a new report by industry body Nasscom, in collaboration with consulting firm Arthur D. Little.  

According to a report published last week by American investment banking firm Morgan Stanley, India's GDP is set to double from the current $3.4 trillion to $8.5 trillion over the next decade. 

The report titled, “5G — Unfolding India’s era of digital convergence” was released on the side lines of Nasscom Tech Innovation Conclave (NTIC) 2022, added that “5G is expected to create new value through hyper-connectivity and become a catalyst for digital transformation across industries”.   

Sectors such as healthcare, energy and utilities, manufacturing, and retail are expected to benefit the most from large-scale 5G adoption, it said.  

“For India, 5G provides an opportunity for industries to augment the pace of digitisation at the grassroots level and for consumers to gain with economies of scale,” said Debjani Ghosh, president, Nasscom. However, she said that “achieving this will require effective ecosystem collaboration between telcos, OEMs, infrastructure companies, and the government to increase consumer adoption and market readiness to unlock large-scale benefits of 5G”.  

For example, certain aspects such as adequate infrastructure upgradation and fiberisation for 5G deployment, along with network densification need to be addressed to realise the utmost benefit of the technology across industries, the report noted.  

The government needs to equip the ecosystem by catalysing a skilled workforce through effective academic and industry collaboration, implementing robust policies that involve vocational training in rural areas, providing financial incentives and minimising regulatory overlaps with other ministries for seamless 5G deployment. Cybersecurity infrastructure and privacy protection mechanisms too need to be enhanced to minimise cyber threats and attack vectors.   

Similarly, Nasscom said that steps should be taken to address the power needs of 5G and ensure the adoption of green 5G to enable greater and sustainable adoption of this technology.

India currently has the second-highest number of telecom users in the world, with 1.1 billion users, of which 740 million are 4G customers. However, with the launch of 5G in the country, the shift is expected to offer rapid up-gradation of customer experience.  

Notably, in line with the rollout of 5G services, telecom jobs have shown an encouraging trend with hiring up by 13% as key players launch their digital services in different cities, expand their data centre capabilities, and hire for specialised roles, as per Monster Employment Index published last month. “A renewed focus on creating digital India and government-policies for the development of tier 2 and tier 3 cities have created optimistic sentiments towards job creation,” the survey stated. 

A September report by job portal Indeed also saw telecom and 5G jobs have increased by 33.7% between September 2021 and September 2022. On Indeed’s platform, job roles such as telecommunications engineer have grown by 16% from August to September 2022. 

“With over 500 million 5G users in India by 2030, 5G can be truly transformational for the economy,” Barnik Chitran Maitra, Managing Partner, Arthur D. Little India and South Asia said.   

With public and private 5G networks enabling use cases across multiple sectors such as mobility, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, energy and utilities, 5G can have an impact of over $180 Bn on India’s economy in 2030, he said.