India's tech industry revenue to grow 4% to $254 bn in FY24: Deloitte

India's technology sector is expected to yield $254 billion in revenue in FY24, a 3.8% year-on-year (YoY) growth and an increase of over $9 billion compared to the previous year, according to Deloitte India’s Tech Trends report.

The report anticipates India's emergence as a significant player in crucial areas such as spatial computing, the industrial metaverse, cloud computing, and generative AI (GenAI).

"With over 1,600 GCCs, India's GCC market is expected to surpass $100 billion by 2030, employing more than 4.5 million individuals across 2,500 GCCs nationwide," the report adds.

Furthermore, it says India's focus on Engineering Research and Development (ER&D) positions it as a major global tech centre for innovative solutions.

Deepa Seshadri, partner and CIO Program Leader at Deloitte India, says India Inc. is on the brink of transformative change, where embracing emerging technologies has helped us take a leap.

The report highlights that AR and VR technologies are influencing various sectors, from virtual banking services to immersive medical training, thereby shaping the industrial metaverse. India is expected to perform exceptionally well in spatial computing, with an estimated revenue of $2.1 billion in 2024 and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.03% projected until 2030.

India is witnessing a notable increase in the adoption of AI, with AI-driven projects experiencing a 2.7X growth from 2023 to 2024. Over 650,000 employees are scheduled to receive GenAI training, indicating a focused endeavour to get ready for an AI-dominated future, the report adds.

The  Deloitte India report says the Indian GenAI market is expected to achieve a CAGR of over 24.4% from 2023 to 2030, contributing $359–438 billion to the nation's GDP by 2029–2030.

Advancements in recent years have led to the rise of AI systems powered by foundational models, extending beyond natural language processing and making scalable AI feasible for businesses. This presents India with a chance to address a wide range of challenges, from accelerating vaccine creation to predicting climate shifts and improving supply chain efficiency.

Experts say beyond 2024, operational AI models will become standard practice in both public and private sectors. Over the next 4-5 years, tuning domain-specific AI models will become 10 times faster and more cost-effective, leading to their universal accessibility and applicability.

Experts also believe that achieving effective AI governance starts with governing the data AI models are trained on, a principle reflected in India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Bill. They opine it’s crucial to strike a balance between regulation and innovation, with a risk-based approach guiding regulatory efforts.