15.4 billion: The number of games downloaded in India this year, the second highest globally, only after China. But it’s not been all smooth sailing. The government hit real money gaming (RMG) companies with tax liabilities of upto Rs 50,000 crore, resulting in the RMG segment, which holds nearly 60 per cent of the market, staring at a funding freeze and potential job losses. But the sector as a whole saw a healthy growth, especially in esports, casual, hyper casual and mid-core games. According to a Lumikai report, there are 568 million gamers in India, including 25 per cent paying users; the average revenue per user was $19.2.
80 crore: The number of Indian citizens whose personal identifiable information was leaked after a security breach at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) two months ago. However, this wasn’t an isolated incident; there were several other cyberattacks, including on organisations like the Taj Hotels, state-owned telecom operator BSNL, etc. According to a survey of 300 IT companies, nearly 73% were hit by ransomware attacks this year, up from 57% in 2022. Of those who were attacked, nearly 10% ended up paying the ransom.
467 million: The number of social media users in India in January 2023, equating to 32.8% of the population. The country is a significant market for social media companies and is among the largest user bases for many of them. Instagram was the most downloaded app globally in Q3 2023, with India accounting for 51% of first-time downloads in the same period. The Meta-owned app also launched its X-like offering, Threads, which surpassed the 150 million user mark globally within 10 days of its launch, buoyed by downloads from India.
1.5 million: The number of ecommerce purchases in the month of November 2023 on Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The government-backed network is aiming for up to eight million monthly transactions by end-2024 and has already seen a peak of over 95,000 retail orders in a day. With ONDC, the government hopes to increase e-commerce penetration in the country to 25% in the next two years and reach a gross merchandise value of $48 billion. Currently, the network has more than 40,000 sellers who are live in more than 200 cities and towns.
138.08 crore: The number of people covered by Aadhar, comprising 99% of India’s population. Recently, the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), a report prepared by the World Bank, stated that the “implementation of DPIs such as Aadhaar, along with the Jan Dhan bank accounts and mobile phones, is considered to have played a critical role in moving ownership of transaction accounts from approximately one-fourth of adults in 2008 to over 80% now — a journey that it is estimated could have taken up to 47 years without DPIs”.
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16,454: The reduction in headcount at Infosys in the second quarter of FY24 as compared to the corresponding period last year. And Infosys was not alone; Wipro also reported a 14,472 drop, Tech Mahindra lost 13,308 employees, while TCS saw its headcount go down by 7,186. This was a year when the Indian IT sector came crashing down from its post-pandemic investment high. Clients pulled back or paused projects indefinitely, resulting in the great resignation coming to a grinding halt. In addition, the industry also had to deal with a massive top-level churn involving the exits of several senior leaders and CEOs.$49.7 million: This is how much drone startups mopped up in investments across 20 rounds in FY2022-23, compared to $25 million received in FY2021-22 across 23 rounds. In fact, the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation has introduced the Drone (Amendment) Rules, 2023, signalling a significant shift in the country’s approach to drone regulations. The initiative seeks to propel India to the forefront of the global drone sector by 2030. One of the changes brought about is the relaxation of the previously stringent requirements for obtaining a Remote Pilot Certificate. Now, aspiring drone pilots can use government-issued proof of identity and proof of address, such as a voter ID, ration card or driver’s licence to apply for the certificate instead of the earlier mandated passport.
34.06 million: The number of accounts linked to account aggregators (AA) as of December 2023, with the cumulative count of consent requests till the same period touching 36.15 million. AA is an RBI-regulated entity (with an NBFC-AA license) that helps an individual securely access and share information from one financial institution to another. There can be many AAs an individual can choose from, and it replaces the long terms and conditions form of ‘blank cheque’ acceptance with a step-by-step permission and control for each use of your data.
51.11 crore: The total number of accounts created under the Jan Dhan Scheme, which was announced by the government in August 2014. A total deposit of Rs 2.08 lakh crore has been made in these accounts until December this year, an increase of over 300% compared to people who had bank accounts before 2014. Further, 34.71 crore Rupay debit cards have also been issued so far as of December 2023.
3: The number of big global companies that have invested in India’s semiconductor fabrication ecosystem, just two years after India embarked on an ambitious plan to set up the ecosystem from scratch. The big three are Micron, Lam Research and Texas Instruments. But apart from them, there are also talks of homegrown tech giant HCLTech, the Tata Group, and others being interested in setting up various key components to be used in the semiconductor fabrication ecosystem.
1,600: The number of global capability centres (GCCs) in India. As many as 21 GCCs came up in Q3 FY23, including prominent names like Blackberry, MetLife, Warner Bros Discovery and Fidelity International. The GCC workforce in India stands at 1.66 million, and there is expected to be an addition of 1.8 lakh to 2 lakh key roles.
Rs 6,000-7,000 crore: This is how much Japan’s TDK is expected to invest in India to establish a state-of-the-art plant in Haryana. The company, which is a major supplier of lithium-ion cells to Apple, represents one of the many suppliers that Apple is looking to bring to India as it looks to diversify its supply chain from China. Apple’s gorilla glass manufacturer Corning too is setting up a Rs 1,000-crore plant in Tamil Nadu, just as the Cupertino-based company looks at onboarding more Indian suppliers.
6: That’s how many years it has taken for India to put in place its privacy law, with the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill being ratified in August 2023. The release of the executive rules for the implementation of the bill are expected soon. This year saw the biggest and most decisive policy movements in the information technology space. Among the first was the amendment to the Information Technology Rules of 2021, which included rules and regulations for online gaming.
27: The number of companies granted approvals to set up laptop, servers and other IT hardware manufacturing in the country. These companies are expected to fuel incremental investment of up to Rs 3,000 crore in the electronics manufacturing ecosystem over the next few years with an expected production value of Rs 3.5 lakh crore.
$13.11 billion: This is the amount of electronic goods exports that took place just between April and September 2023, which is a 27.62% jump from last year’s $10.27 billion. Domestic production has increased at a CAGR of 13% from $49 billion in FY17 to $101 billion in FY23, and the country’s electronics export is expected to reach $120 billion by FY26.
$17 trillion to $24 trillion: The credit gap for MSMEs in India. Less than 11 per cent of MSMEs have access to formal credit in the country. The open credit enablement network (OCEN) is solving these problems by creating a framework for short tenor and small ticket loans, allowing remote lenders to operate in distant geographies. It is a framework of APIs for interaction between lenders, loan agents, collection and disbursement partners, derived data providers and account aggregators. In August, OCEN 4.0 protocol to enable cash flow-based lending to MSMEs was unveiled. OCEN has so far been used to give short-tenor loans ranging from Rs 168 to Rs 8 lakh.
1,000+: The number of pre-trained AI models now available on the Bhashini platform. As many as 5,215 inputs of audio, text, etc, have been crowdsourced to enrich Bhashini’s database under the Bhasha Daan programme, which includes 44 hours 22 minutes and 31,390 sentences in translation metrics. The national language translation platform made headlines in May with the launch of the Jugalbandi chatbot in partnership with Microsoft, introducing voice-based payments for NPCI services like Hello! UPI, and enabling real-time translation of speeches at the G20 meet. Recently, it powered real-time translation of PM Modi’s speeches into several Indian languages at two public events. Jugalbandi covers 10 of India’s 22 official languages and 171 of nearly 20,000 government programmes, and around 20 startups are making use of Bhashini for applications.
7 billion: The number of parameters India’s first Hindi large language model (LLM) — Sarvam AI’s OpenHathi — has been trained on. The year started out with India not having any indigenously built foundational models, let alone one built for Indian languages and contexts. But it has ended with several startups and enterprises building LLMS indigenously. These include Krutrim AI’s LLM Krutrim, Kissan AI’s Dhenu 1.0, Corover AI’s BharatGPT and TechMahindra’s Project Indus.
Rs 615 crore: What it cost ISRO to carry out the Chandrayaan-3 mission which got Vikram lander and Pragyan rover to touchdown on the ‘far side’ of the moon. After the success of Chandrayaan-3, Aditya L1 and Gaganyaan TV-D1 unmanned test flight in 2023, the Department of Space has planned six polar satellite launch vehicle missions in 2024. This includes two missions to launch a space science satellite, an Earth observation satellite, two technology demonstration missions and two commercial missions by NewSpace India Limited. The Indian space sector was valued at $9.6 billion in 2020 and contributed 2-3% of the global space economy. It is expected to reach $13 billion by 2025, and by 2030 India aims to capture 10% of the global economy.
1,900+: The number of AI startups present in India, and over 100 of these are now GenAI ones. India saw investors bullish on AI startups. Indic LLM-maker Sarvam AI raised $41 million in a Series A investment, while Ola founder-backed Krutrim AI raised $24 million. The cumulative funding for GenAI startups in the country hit $700 million this year, as per technology industry apex body Nasscom’s estimates. According to investors, major growth can be expected from AI-based software-as-a-service startups going forward, as well as from startups working in AI tooling and infrastructure and GenAI-based content generation.
Rs 50,000+: The money people said they lost owing to AI voice cloning — a new tool for Jamtara-type scammers. A survey of 1,000 people showed that 47% of respondents experienced or know someone who has experienced AI voice scam which is double the global average of 25%. Out of those who were attacked, nearly 83% said they lost money — with 48 per cent losing over Rs 50,000. A separate study showed Indians are exposed to nearly 12 fake messages daily and that a new phishing site is created every 11 seconds. This year also witnessed the emergence of AI-generated deepfakes or synthetic media. This caught the attention of policymakers, with the IT Ministry sending advisories to social media firms as well as building a dedicated reporting portal for victims.
$825 million: That’s how much Micron is investing to set up an assembly, testing, packaging unit in the country. And this is the first of many other big-ticket investments in the country. For the Indian electronic manufacturing ecosystem, 2023 has been a stellar year. Google has followed suit and committed to start the manufacturing of its latest flagship Pixel 8 phones in India. It has already committed to investing $10 billion over the next few years. Cisco has also announced to invest in the country to target up to $1 billion in domestic production and exports from the country.
900 million: The number of smartphone users in the country as of December 2023. In addition to this, India also has 250 million feature phone users. The smartphone user base in India is expected to touch over 1.1 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 22%. According to research firm Statista, the penetration rate of smartphones in India reached 71% in 2023 and was estimated to reach 96% in 2040.
