Panchatantra Version 2021

Context: India’s ability to globally drive five sunrise sectors holds the key to its sustained growth.

Opportunities in Five sunrise sector of growth

• Mobility:
  • Low share of vehicles per capita: 20 cars per 1,000 people compared to 900 cars in the US.
  • Fall in battery prices: The average price of a lithium battery was over $1,000 in 2010 has fallen to a mere $137 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
  • Two-three wheeler segment: Two-wheelers constitute over 70% of India’s total vehicle population, has a huge opportunity to become the lowest-cost global manufacturer.
  • Steps taken for promotion: A lower GST, tax deduction on interest for loans, and procurement support through Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles 2
• Advance cell chemistries:
  • Huge market potential for EV batteries: According to NITI Aayog, it could be $300 billion by 2030.
  • Interventions by government: Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme.
• Artificial intelligence (AI): 8 of the top 10 companies are tech and digital companies; it has the potential to boost India’s annual growth by 1.3 percentage points by 2035.
  • India has one of the lowest data costs in the world and over 650 million internet users.
• 5G Technology: Backbone of Industrial Revolution 4.0
  • 5G’s user experienced data rate rise ten times, the spectrum efficiency will be three times higher, the latency in milliseconds ten times better, and will connect 10 lakh devices per sq km
• Genomics: Genomic history, declining costs and analysis can transform public health delivery.
  • IndiGen project - under which full genomes of over 1,000 individuals are sequenced.

Way forward

• Focus on green hydrogen: for long-distance transportation;
  • New-age technologies, such as polymer membrane-based electrolyzers and advanced fuel cells such as solid oxide fuel cells, are pushing the envelope of the hydrogen economy.
  • Utilize renewable energy to produce green hydrogen (since renewable energy prices have fallen; solar at Rs 1.99/kWh (2.7 cents))
• Move from being data-rich to data-intelligent: by -
  • Making available clean, structured and annotated data, and work with AI researchers to find solutions to tuberculosis, cancer and agricultural productivity.
  • Need to reorient academic institutions into centres of excellence, producing world-class talent for data science and UI/UX (user interface/user experience) design, and AI scientists.
• Create an indigenous end-to-end 5G ecosystem: to ensure that Indian companies get access to background intellectual property rights (IPR) (plugging the security gaps).
• Create a national genomics platform: necessary to reduce the incidences of diseases.