- By Dr Srikanth Sundararajan
All of us in our standard day jobs are used to interacting with other people, be it consumers, startups, partners, technologists, and solution & market professionals. In standard occasions, this would entail traveling and meeting people today, attending networking events, seminars, and other informal meetups. Well, the pandemic has place an finish to all of this. No travel, no face-to-face meetups without having any accompanying security measures. I ought to confess, the initially two-3 months have been challenging, dealing with people today on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, WebEx conference calls, WhatsApp groups, e mail comply with-ups, and one-on-one chats, and so on. Kind of surreal! Then it dawned upon us that the pandemic was right here to keep for considerably longer and these modifications in our behaviour with respect to our work as properly as spending more time at dwelling in safer environments have been also right here to keep!
There was a realization that without having the commute to work and the coordination for in-particular person meetings which can potentially trigger delays, there was a considerable improvement in productivity. However, the new work schedules essential frequent breaks, routine household interactions, and a concentrate on mental & physical overall health. Amidst all of these private work challenges and approaches that have been going about, one can only wonder what would be some of the market sectors that would advantage from a technologies and investment standpoint for the duration of the Pre-COVID and Post COVID time. The fintech and insuretech segments have a properly-established use of digital technologies as properly as e-commerce & food–delivery platforms which have shown that they have accomplished exceedingly properly. However, there are particular market sectors that will require to realign with the challenges posed by the pandemic, in terms of the nature of operations, expertise essential, and adoption of technologies. Here are a set of perspectives on how particular sectors will be impacted.
Sectoral Impact: Communication Technology – The Enabler!
The principal region would be the organizations that are into communication technologies, these that allow interactions. The final mile connectivity in India has been historically weak and the pandemic added a massive quantum on it with a majority of people today working from dwelling. Innovative organizations such as Lavelle Networks, Aryaka Networks (specialist in SD-WAN optimization) can assistance provide the essential overall performance to digital organizations as properly as the employee-communication infrastructure.
EdTech
The next region to be impacted is education, a segment that is straight associated and subsequent to telecommunications. Companies such as Zoom and an Indian startup referred to as Airmeet are focused on one-to-quite a few communication in the context of events, such as seminars, lectures, and so on. This could additional provide the vital impetus to on-line education technologies platforms such as Simplilearn, Eruditus, INurture, TalentSprint, and BYJUs, as they can license their platform and concentrate on content & pedagogy. The teachers will also demand a particular level of instruction to be capable to use these platforms and technologies proficiently.
Last Mile Problems
The challenges in the final mile optimization are getting dealt with optimization based on application preferences and deep packet inspection, for the finish-user as properly as the employer. Indian organizations such as Outpost Networks are working in this space. This enables a robust and safe corporate communications network in the Work from Home (WFH) or Work from Anywhere scenarios. With the advent of 5G and the upgrade of the digital infrastructure (towers and optimized network), there will be higher availability of bandwidth. However, the final mile option will require to mature by the SD-WAN optimization players as properly as the final mile bandwidth optimization players.
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Manufacturing and Healthcare
The manufacturing segment has also created a lot of progress in terms of automation and the capability to monitor plans and predict failures of elements properly ahead of time. Startups like Altizon and Infinite Uptime are capable to gather information and leverage the advancements in computing energy by carrying out complicated calculations based on Fast Fourier Transforms. They have the capability to filter tons of information and send it to the cloud to increase their predictive models. Baseline models today sit at the edge thanks to potent edge processors. A Hyderabad based startup, Ecvinox, is focused on constructing specialized CCU processors with the capability to increase compute energy of algorithms usually essential for image recognition and other complicated tasks, all performed at the edge as opposed to round-tripping of inferences to and back from the cloud.
Dozee, a healthcare startup in Bangalore, is focused on constructing options that are based on non-invasive patient monitoring based on vibrations. The collation, filtering, and alignment of information to a model are accomplished at the edge, and suitable interventions are enabled. This is critical to healthcare considering that we are currently faced with an acute shortage of healthcare workers. Companies like eKincare and DocsApp are also creating progress by means of their digital healthcare platforms – enabling on-line medical doctor consults. Sigtuple and Sigmoid are organizations that are applying ML refined models and AI to assistance with complicated diagnoses Sigmoid is capable to improve poor good quality photos from X-rays, and CT scans (low-finish machines) and provide radiologists with markers. Similarly, the manufacturing sector is suffering from a shortage of workforce, exactly where organizations like Infinite Uptime and Altizon are capable of delivering help.
Long Term View
The effects brought on by this pandemic are almost certainly right here to keep and may perhaps trigger modifications to the way people today function. Industries such as education, manufacturing, and healthcare will have to leverage innovations that are aimed at digitization, communication, and automation to be precise. Agritech as a segment will also see related advancement, at a slower pace. Companies like Fasal, Ninjakart, and AIBoni are currently creating moves in this space with technologies as a differentiator.
Then comes a important query, how will the workforce adapt? No shortcuts right here, they will have to be retrained organizations like Orion Edutech are focused on upskilling grey collar workers in newer locations, for instance, working with consoles and enabling information-driven interventions as it applies to manufacturing and healthcare. Orion also performs with organizations like the UrbanCompany by assisting them train the labour pool in locations like plumbing, electrical work, and other locations.
Jobs are also going to morph in the white-collar segments like economic services, manufacturing, healthcare, education – exactly where the capability to monitor information, which would lead to effective selection creating will be basic. Upskilling and studying providers like Upgrad, Simplilearn, Edruditus are currently providing courses by way of employers so that their respective workforces are much better enabled for the future. In conclusion, these are thrilling occasions for technologies providers and the pandemic will make certain that we are forced to adopt these advancements in quite a few unique strategies, each in our work lives and at dwelling!
Dr Srikanth Sundararajan is General Partner at VenturEast. Views expressed are the author’s personal.