Tech Innovations that Shaped India

In 2022, Indian tech industry witnessed a massive growth and resulted in a total revenue of $227 billion. The country is currently home to an impressive 108 unicorns in total and recently declared January 16 as the ‘National Startup Day’. Furthermore, the Indian startup ecosystem recorded a total of 240 merger and acquisition deals, reaching an all-time high of $148 billion before September. 

Among several factors driving Industrial Revolution 4.0,  Artificial Intelligence is considered to be the most potent. According to AIMResearch’s report titled, The State of AI in India in 2022, AI generated a total revenue of $12.3 billion in the year and is projected to grow to $71 billion by 2027.

Let’s look at some notable tech events that shaped India’s tech ecosystem in 2022, which were also some of the first in the making. 

India to Head the Global Partnership on AI

India is taking over the chair for the Global Partnership on AI for 2022–23. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, will take the chair from France and head the GPAI. India will be more involved in the tech innovation partnership and policy making about AI in the 25 member countries.

AI & Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK)

In March, Nation’s first artificial intelligence and robotics park was launched in Bengaluru. With a seed capital of INR 230 crore from the Central and State governments, it is promoted by a not-for-profit foundation started by Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru. ARTPARK with AI Foundry launched a $100 million venture fund for pushing innovations in AI and robotics from India. 

AI on-edge Drone

Exhibited at Bharat Drone Mahotsav, India’s biggest drone festival, Enord is a startup that is building drones with AI pilots. The drone is called INSPECTOR and is designed for inspection of assets, transmission lines, telco-towers, and thermal lines for creating ease in daily operations. The drone performs in small spaces without the need for GPS and human pilots. The startup is supported by the Aviation Ministry of India. 

First Private Space Mission

Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace launched India’s first private space mission with Prarambh in a partnership with ISRO from the Satish Dhawan Launch Centre. Launched in November, the Vikram-S rocket carried three payloads and has paved the way for several other space startups in India. 

Launch of ONDC

The first of its kind initiative, The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) started in April and has been promoted as the United Payments Interface (UPI) in India's ecommerce space. The beta testing started in September in Bengaluru and is also live in Meerut. ONDC is expected to generate 3 billion orders per month, and enable 15 billion neighbourhood shops to be available online. 

The Birth of Digital Currency

In February, Nirmal Sitharaman announced the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) project. This led on to the commencement of CBDC pilot in November, and saw the first India digital rupee for retail segment in December.  

Launch of 5G

In October, 5G services were officially launched in India with Bharti Airtel becoming the first telecom company to roll out their service in eight different cities. India’s first ever 5G spectrum auction ended in August with 40 rounds of bidding in seven days with players like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Adani Group making the biggest bids.