5G to contribute $450 bn to India’s economy by 2040: Report

The 5G standalone networks can transform enterprise connectivity in India, and the economic impact of 5G could potentially be $450 billion by 2040, thanks to cross-sector contributions for productivity and efficiency gains through 5G use case deployment across industries, Deloitte’s Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) Predictions report for 2023 revealed.

The report said the Indian semiconductor market is expected to reach $55 billion by 2026. Also, the Indian sports market is estimated to touch $100 billion by 2027 from $27 billion in 2020, a CAGR of over 20%, or about twice as fast as the global sports market.

For the telecom sector, the report predicts the growth of 5G Standalone (SA) networks will witness and further accelerate private network deployment. India's push towards advancing its telecom and data centre infrastructure, coupled with the availability of a multitude of approaches for private network deployment, presents a great opportunity for enterprises to utilise edge computing and 5G technology to enhance operations, agility, and competitiveness, says Peeyush Vaish, partner and telecom sector leader, Deloitte India.

"The potential benefits of 5G private networks in sectors, such as manufacturing, retail, agriculture, transportation, and health care cannot be ignored. It is time for Indian enterprises to explore the possibilities and take a leap in their digital transformation journey," he adds.

It says the satellite broadband and communication service market in India is expected to grow and expand with the developing use case horizon and the exponential growth in data consumption.

"Amidst strong global headwinds on the economic front, India is set to emerge as a major player in the 5G revolution, semiconductor and chip technology, live sports, and AVOD with private deployment networks likely to take off in a big way during 2025-2028 period, according to Deloitte’s 2023 TMT (Technology, Media, and Entertainment, Telecom) predictions," says the report.

In its technology sector prediction, the Deloitte report says by 2026, over 60% of India's semiconductor market will be driven by three industries — smartphones and wearables, automotive components, and computing and data storage. The demand is growing and the industry is poised to play an important role in enhancing the global value chain, as it is expected to expand to a market size of $85 billion and generate employability for 600,000 by 2030.

P. N. Sudarshan, partner and TMT industry leader, Deloitte India, says the semiconductor chip shortage over the past two years has amplified the importance of this industry. "Driven by key factors including an increase in semiconductor content, the advent of 5G and IoT, and data storage requirements, the sector will also attract investment, talent, and bi-lateral relations focusing on supply chain, resilience, and localization setting in India," he says.

In the media industry, the live sports market is estimated to attract a CAGR of over 20%, about twice as fast as the global sports market. As per Jehil Thakkar, partner, media and entertainment sector leader, Deloitte India, the Indian sports market is predicted to grow twice as quickly as compared with global markets. “This year’s 2023 TMT predictions also highlight how the Indian entertainment industry has embraced the OTT ecosystem with open arms, leading to a surge in hybrid models."

In its other predictions, the report highlights the satellite broadband industry size will reach $1.9 billion by 2030, a CAGR of 36%. On mergers and acquisitions in software-as-a-service and agri-tech enterprises, this M&A activity will gather steam and ramp up substantially. Notably, the data shows that start-ups in this space raised around $4.6 billion in 230 deals in FY22, from $2.1 billion in FY21, with the total start-up count closing at 1,300 in June 2022.

Additionally, India’s OTT market revenue was about $2.35 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach almost $5.3 billion by 2027.