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Employment in India's app economy to double by 2016

A study published by ICRIER and IAMAI estimates direct employment in this industry to range between 151,230 and 159, 010 by 2016. Apps currently account for 75,000 jobs in India

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Employment in India's app economy to double by 2016

Employment in India's app economy to double by 2016

A study published by ICRIER and IAMAI estimates direct employment in this industry to range between 151,230 and 159, 010 by 2016. Apps currently account for 75,000 jobs in India

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | July 15, 2015

Apps-Economy-Report

India's app economy is witnessing exponential growth. A study published by ICRIER and IAMAI (Internet & Mobile Association of India), titled 'An Inquiry Into The Impact Of India's App Economy', estimates direct employment in this industry to range between 151,230 and 159, 010 by 2016. Apps currently account for 75,000 jobs in India.

Accordingly, the increase in direct employment attributable to India's app economy is expected to range between 76,230 and 84,010 jobs from 2014 to 2016. Besides, apps create downstream jobs in sales and marketing and in customer sales management. They also cause income growth that has its own secondary impact on jobs. These indirect and induced effects could result in an increase in total employment by up to eight times during the period 2014 to 2016. At its best, the app economy could generate over 600,000 jobs. The study also uses existing data to estimate the size of India's app economy at Rs 1,964 crore in 2016.

R Chandrasekhar, President, NASSCOM, remarked, “Digitisation of data at source is critical and therefore, mobile is the way forward to speed up the implementation of projects. Mobile apps offer an interesting way of digitisation and save both time and money, but the challenge is to create a conducive ecosystem. Harmonious commercial synergies between app developers and telecom operators have to be created. App development coupled with infrastructure development will lead to the growth of the app economy.”

The report illustrates four scenarios that determine the range of potential employment that can be generated by the app economy in India. These are:

  • Business As Usual (BAU) with no regulatory intervention
  • Mature Industry (IM) with high smartphone penetration and data usage
  • Government Intervention (GI) providing digital infrastructure enabling demand
  • Aggressive Government Intervention (AGI) and Mature Industry (IM) playing pivotal role

According to the report, smartphone penetration in India is estimated at less than 20 per cent. The country experiences 100 million downloads per month, placing it amongst the top five regions for Google Play, the official Android app store. The number of 3G sims in India is also expected to increase from 35 million in 2012 to 272 million by 2017. India also significantly contributes to app development as roughly 10 per cent of apps worldwide are developed by Indians either based abroad or at home.

Rajat Kathuria, Director & Chief Executive, ICRIER, said, “The increase in start-ups coupled with an enhanced ecosystem could create employment opportunities. At present the app economy has created approximately 75,000 direct jobs, and has the potential to reach 600,000 over a period of time, due to indirect and induced impacts of app development.”

Providing insights on the report, Dr Subho Ray, President, IAMAI, said, “India's app economy is at the cusp of exponential growth. With e-commerce companies going mobile only and unprecedented growth in the hyperlocal segment, the industry will not be surprised to witness a faster growth rate than projected in the report.”

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