Contents - Connect-World

Business Development
Communications and commerce in digital India
by Ramesh Krishnan, Director of Operations, VeriSign Communications Services, India
Today, the urban Indian is a mobile carrying, e-mail savvy consumer who is reaping the
benefits of a global digital revolution. Indias 300 million strong relatively affluent middleclass
has huge buying power. Income levels are up significantly, with Indias emergence as
the worlds back-office and software development super-power. Indias people, educators,
private sector, multinational corporations and government, needs to work together and
harness the countrys energy and transform the worlds largest democracy into the largest
digital economy on the planet.
Mr Ramesh Krishnan is the Director of Operations for VeriSign Communications Services in India. Before
joining VeriSign, Mr Krishnan held senior positions at Lucent Technologies, Quintus Corporation where he
led the Siebel business unit, and Avaya Communication. Mr Krishnan actively participates in various
industry events, and has spoken and chaired sessions at conferences such as NASSCOM, CTI, and
Supercomm. Mr Krishnan received his Masters degree in Economics and Business from the University of
Delaware (Newark/DE, USA), and is an alumnus of Wharton Econometrics (Philadelphia, USA).
There is no denying that communications
has been the single largest
contributor to a shrinking globe,
and continues to shatter boundaries
that were previously considered
unassailable. The digital
divide that was once a yawning gap
between the developed and the notso-developed
economies is slowly
but surely closing.
Paying your utility bills, topping up
your mobile phone or making
reservations for your vacation, need
but a few clicks on your slick handheld
using a simple service called
SMS. Whether its movie tickets, or
dating services, hailing a cab or
ordering pizza, everything is but a
SMS message away.
Sitting in a train during rush hour
is easier when you tune to a melody
coming from a mobile phone—one
that even allows you to capture a
photo. You no longer have to
appreciate your photography skills
alone; you can share your photos
with friends and family or post
them on your website, directly from
your wireless device.
If you think this is San Francisco or
New York or London, or the latest
Mission Impossible, guess again;
it is in todays India, a country with
a young, growing, educated, middle-class
that is larger than the population
of the United States.
Education, access, affordability,
and adoption are the keys to a societys
ability to absorb innovation
and reap the benefits of technology.
Had it not been for the private sector,
specifically companies like
Bharti, Infosys, Satyam, TATA and
Wipro, this digital life in India
would still be out of grasp for the
millions who are currently experiencing
the transformation.
The community as a whole
embraced this new digital lifestyle;
its insatiable desire to keep up with
the times is a catalyst that speeds
up the adoption of new technologies.
In digital India, if you are the
only one in your group without
these digital implements you will be
left behind.
After many years in the US, I had a
pleasant awakening a few years ago
on my first return to India. I was
not prepared for the bustling IT
parks, glassy buildings, manicured
campuses, locally manufactured
autos, coffee shops at every major
locus, pizzerias, and the list goes
on. One could call it a reverse culture
shock of sorts.
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