India cannot afford to be cyber coolies anymore, needs to create intellectual properties around Web3, says expert

According to a NASSCOM report, Web3 investments in India have grown 37-fold from the beginning of 2020 to the first quarter of 2022. Web3's economic value addition to India’s GDP by 2032 is projected to be $1.1 trillion.

The adoption of technology like blockchain has the potential to drive growth in key areas of the Indian economy such as agriculture, healthcare, public distribution systems, and education and so on.

According to Srinath Sridharan, Policy Researcher and Corporate Advisor, India will have to lift the knowledge space and create intellectual properties around Web3.

“Web3 is going to be about personalised internet. And that means the larger policy challenge is, can India really afford digital colonisation by any other western power? So India will have to bring Web3 narrative to mainstream conversation about what is our strategy forward. On the other side is pure economics, all these narratives would ultimately translate into economics in the creative economy that we live in. We may not like the TikTok’s of the world, we may not like the social medias of the world but how do we participate in the global governance of the internet and this is one chance that India has. 30 years ago we are seen as cyber coolies. We were just lifting the heft for outsourced jobs for the western world, but now we cannot afford to be cyber coolies anymore, we will have to lift the knowledge space and create intellectual properties around it. So that is the Web3 narrative,” Sridharan said.

He added that Indian can achieve the $1.1 trillion Web3 economy if it has the right policies. He said if India doesn’t bring in encouragement to Web3 then brain drain from India to western countries like US and UK will continue.

Also watch Baijayant Jay Panda, National VP of BJP discuss how Indian can leverage its G20 Presidency to advance the development of virtual digital assets (VDA) regulatory principles through international cooperation.