A surprising highlight of the recently published Technology and Innovation Report 2021 of UNCTAD is that despite many low and middle-income economies are far behind the new technological wave sweeping across the world, there are some developing economies that are punching above their weight. These countries including India and a few African countries have performed far better than their per capita GDPs would suggest.
During the last two decades, Proliferation of Technology and digitized devices and services have changed drastically the scale and pace of Human development. It has brought rapid economic growth and prosperity and at the same time, rising inequalities. The pace is rapidly gaining further momentum through frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things, big data, block chain, 5G, 3D printing, robotics, drones, gene editing, nanotechnology and solar photovoltaic.
The global index rates 158 countries on their readiness for frontier technologies based on five building blocks: information and communication technologies (ICT) deployment, skills, research and development (R&D), industry activity and access to finance.
According to the UNCTAD’s Technology and Innovation Report 2021, economies in North America and Europe are the most ready for frontier technologies while those least ready are in sub-Saharan Africa. Among the over performers from the developing world, the star performer is India, followed by the Philippines. India’s actual index ranking was 43, while the estimated one based on per capita income was 108, thus leaping over 65 ranking positions. India is rated as the top "over-performer" in terms of readiness in using, adopting and adapting frontier technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, block chain and robotics, as per the Unctad global index.
The index also spotlights some countries in Africa that perform better on frontier technologies than their per capita GDPs would suggest. Six of the African countries figure in the list of 10 over performers. These are South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia ranking at 29, Kenya at 28, Togo at 23 and Ghana at 20.
The social and economic advancement of Africa can be achieved only through creating jobs, reducing inequality, modernising production processes, etc. Leaders across the continent collectively agree on the urgency for a digital revolution to accomplish these aspirations .Apart from Conventional digital platforms, sophisticated technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, block chain, drones, the internet of things, Big Data, and software-enabled industrial platforms — have the scale and speed to transform traditional socio-economic sectors. To forge ahead, Africa has to adopt frontier technologies while continuing to diversify their production bases by mastering many existing technologies, and strengthening their innovation systems.
Some of the pillars of the Digital transformation strategy developed by AU include creation of Digital Market by 2030, Digital trade, digital legal identity, innovative financing models, e- healthcare, e-education etc.
India can be a critical and experienced partner to support the Continent in its quest to build digital capacity, Digital trade, offer IT applications for up gradation of manufacturing processes, health, Education, Agriculture and the list goes on. This was rightly focussed in a recent webinar organised by Electronic and software Promotion Council of India on the side-lines of their flagship event ‘IndiaSoft’. www.trendsnafrica and Africa 4 u were invited to give a perspective on the unfolding potential for indo-African collaboration in the IT sector.
Some of the leading Indian players like TATA consultancy, TechMahindra, Infosys, Wipro have already established their presence in Africa. The new thrust for digitalisation opens door for many more Indian Technology companies both large and small to participate in Africa’s endeavour.
