By Vivek Gupta, CTO, CoinDCX
India’s strength in the IT sector is well-known, with industries like IT, Big Data, Cloud, and AI contributing $200 billion to the nation’s GDP and creating millions of jobs. The country’s digital payment system, especially the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), has transformed financial transactions and is paving the way for Web3 adoption. As technology shifts towards Web3, India is in a prime position to lead, thanks to its history of driving tech revolutions, strong Web3 development, and supportive investments.
What is Web3?
Web3, powered by blockchain technology, is decentralising control and ownership, creating a more equitable and transparent ecosystem. This includes innovations like crypto tokens, smart contracts, and Decentralised Finance (DeFi), which are making financial services more accessible by removing intermediaries. With these advancements, India is poised for transformative growth in the Web3 space.
Web3 Beyond Finance – key to revolutionise tech sector
The Web3 industry is maturing, revealing new use cases that address real-world challenges across various sectors. In healthcare, blockchain technology can protect patient data and facilitate secure sharing among authorised parties, enhancing privacy and trust. In supply chain management, blockchain’s transparent, immutable records can reduce fraud and waste, ensuring ethical sourcing and efficient operations. The entertainment and gaming industries benefit from NFTs, which empower artists to monetise their work directly, fostering innovative business models.
Tokenisation of real-world assets, both tangible like real estate and art, and intangible like copyrights and patents, is transforming how these assets are traded and managed. By enabling fractional ownership, tokenisation democratises access to traditionally illiquid assets, allowing broader participation in markets that were once the domain of wealthy individuals or institutions. This could drive the mass adoption of crypto, with the tokenisation of global illiquid assets potentially growing into a $16 trillion industry by 2030, showcasing the practical value of blockchain technology beyond digital currencies
Tapping into India’s tech talent and young population
India stands at the forefront of a blockchain-powered revolution, driven by its young and tech-savvy population. With one of the highest smartphone penetration rates globally, the country is well-positioned to lead the world in Web3 innovation. The young population, with a median age of 28.5 years, is naturally inclined towards new technologies. The increasing awareness, bolstered by the efforts of Indian Web3 companies and influencers, is setting the stage for India to become a global leader in Web3 within the next 5 to 10 years.
India as a global Web3 powerhouse
India is rapidly establishing itself as a key player in the global Web3 landscape, already contributing 11% of the world’s Web3 developer pool, making it the third-largest talent hub in this space. With nearly 75,000 blockchain professionals and a projected 120% growth in this talent pool over the next 1-2 years, India is poised for a Web3 unicorn boom.
India’s need for a supportive ecosystem, similar to the IT Sector
India’s tremendous potential is highlighted by the necessity for a supportive ecosystem, including tax incentives and policies that enable builders to drive the future of Web3. The Indian IT industry serves as a prime example of how the right policies and support for technology adoption can lead to historic achievements. The IT and emerging technologies sectors have created 4 million jobs and indirectly supported an additional 10 million, showcasing the significant impact of well-supported technological advancement.
It’s also crucial to grow the Web3 ecosystem, including educating the youth about Web3, fostering a robust developer community, and creating ample career opportunities in this field. Developing consumer-centric decentralised applications (Dapps) tailored to the Indian market is essential. When companies see tangible growth from joining the Web3 ecosystem, adoption will accelerate. Reaching a large user base who can quickly adopt Web3 products is key.