Unlocking India’s Tech Potential with Rohit Kapoor
How can India remain at the Forefront of AI and Accelerated Computing Innovation?
With the growing convergence of AI and accelerated computing, India is at the cusp of leading a new global tech revolution. But what does this mean for the country's future in the digital economy? In this episode, Rohit Kapoor, CEO of EXL, joins Govindraj Ethiraj to discuss India's critical role in shaping the global tech landscape. How are accelerated computing and AI transforming industries like banking and insurance? How can India, with its massive tech talent base, stay ahead in this rapidly evolving space? Kapoor sheds light on these questions, emphasizing the importance of data management, domain expertise, and innovation. Tune in to hear how India can maintain its competitive edge in the world of tech.
TRANSCRIPT
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Govindraj Ethiraj: Welcome to Nasscom Conversations, I'm your host, Govindraj Ethiraj. In today’s episode, we’ll delve into India's expanding role in the global tech order, featuring insights from Rohit Kapoor - CEO of global analytics and digital solutions company EXL.
From becoming a global research powerhouse to ranking in the top five for technological innovation, India's influence in shaping the future of tech is undeniable.
As artificial intelligence solutions are increasingly adopted by enterprises large and small, this is also a good time to ask how and where AI is really making a difference.
And second, how accelerated computing, AI integration, and India's digital infrastructure are transforming not just the country but the global tech ecosystem. What does this mean for the future of technology, and how is India helping to shape it?
Rohit Kapoor: India has played a pivotal role in enabling change in the global tech landscape. However, Govin, from my perspective, there are two seismic shifts currently unfolding, and these are likely to evolve over the next five to ten years. First, accelerated computing is becoming all-pervasive, which has significant implications, especially for India. Second, every company—whether public, commercial, private, global, national, or local—is going to integrate AI into its workflow. AI will be embedded into every process that touches people and products. This represents another major shift in the making.
Govindraj Ethiraj: With the recent advancements in cloud infrastructure, including Oracle and Nvidia’s collaboration to provide zettascale AI computing platforms, how do you see accelerated computing shaping business models in India? Specifically, how do you define accelerated computing in the context of India's established strengths in outsourcing and IT investments, and what are customers demanding in terms of AI-driven business outcomes?
Rohit Kapoor: So obviously, there's been an explosion of, you know, the large language models. The large language models necessarily need to use accelerated computing in order to be effective, because today you need the ability to compute in a distributed environment, and that needs to be done real time. If every single laptop, every mobile device, every device that's going to be connected is going to have the power of accelerated computing, then what you can do in this particular ecosystem is going to be enormous. The real issue in terms of the use of accelerated computing is that there's a huge amount of wastage that takes place if it's not orchestrated and engineered correctly. India has, you know, 60% of the global technology workforce. India's relevance will be in the next five and 10 years, and that's exciting, because India can play a pivotal role in this change.
Govindraj Ethiraj: How would this acceleration come in the banking or insurance sector? The Indian banking sector has been pushing AI-powered solutions for better fraud detection and customer service. The sector is increasingly using generative AI to improve fraud detection, streamline compliance tasks, and enhance customer service through natural language processing (NLP) tools. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been pushing for greater adoption of AI and machine learning in banking to improve operational efficiency, fraud detection, and personalized customer experiences.
if you take banking or you take insurance or you take health. Care. So far, what we've been able to do is basically apply computing and apply AI largely to structured data sets. And we all know that structured data sets are only 10% of the total magnitude and volume of data. 90% of the data is unstructured. therefore you need accelerated computing, and therefore you need AI to be embedded into the workflow. Now, take a bank, for example, if there is a, you know, a loan that's been made and that's been made, you know, five years ago, the relevance of that loan today may be very different, because the needs of that particular individual consumer would have changed. In the past, we never had the ability to be able to take a look at a 360 degree view of that consumer. We only saw what they know, took it as a product line and then just followed it linearly to be able to provide the best experience. But if you can actually have a 360 degree view of the customer, then you can actually point to much richer solutions, much more appropriate and targeted for that individual, and make it much more relevant.
Govindraj Ethiraj: In this scenario, we’re referring to two key components. The first is the data itself, whether it's being pulled from existing sources or gathered afresh by the bank or insurance company. The second aspect is the computing power required to process, synthesize, and generate actionable insights from that data, which can then be used by the company to provide relevant options to customers for future engagement.
Rohit Kapoor: From our perspective, there are three things that are really critical. Number one is the domain and the knowledge of the industry. Number two is the ability to manage, store and use data, and that data part becomes really critical. And number three is, how do you apply AI so that you can fine tune the AI models and get the right kind of outcome associated with that. Obviously you need to deploy this in a manner where the computing capacity that you're using is optimized, and you need to do this with speed, and you need to do it at low cost. Because, remember, innovation fails. If the speed and cost is too high, you can have the best idea, but you cannot scale it up, unless and until speed and costs are also there.
The beauty of innovation is that you've got to try multiple avenues and multiple pathways. And 9095 99% of them will fail. And therefore you've got to be comfortable being able to kind of experiment with a whole host of different options and then zero in on that one option, or the few options which really work, and then scale it up. And those scaling up capabilities require talent. They require an ability to implement and execute. They require a knowledge and understanding of the business data and AI.
Govindraj Ethiraj: During a recent visit to India, Jacky Wright Chief Technology and platform officer at McKinsey & Co said that GenAI would play a critical role in making technology available to India’s vast population, she said, adding that work done on AI in India could serve as a proof-of-concept for the world. India is home to 60% of the world's tech workforce, a significant figure that underscores the country’s pivotal role in advancing technologies like accelerated computing and AI. This tech force is crucial in shaping and implementing these innovations across various sectors, including banking. How do the technological needs and requirements of Indian banks compare to their counterparts abroad? Specifically, are there notable convergences in their demands for AI and accelerated computing solutions?
Rohit Kapoor: Yes. So you know, when you think about lending principles and the way in which credit is determined, who to give credit to, how much to give credit to, how to price credit, I think some of those attributes tend to cut across industries and geographies, but what needs to be done is you need to apply that in the relevant context. And each country has its own set of regulations. Each country has its own set of cultural preferences and things which consumers prefer or don't prefer. So being able to customize this into that relevant context for regulation, for culture, for individual preferences. I think the beauty again, is that AI now allows you to do that, and you can have one single platform, but you can apply that in multiple different models and multiple different ways across the globe.
Govindraj Ethiraj: While India's tech talent pool stands as a significant force, it’s crucial to understand how this talent is organized and distributed to meet the complex demands of modern businesses. consider the scenario of a client based in Europe or North America. These clients are often seeking a unified view of their consumers, aiming to quickly collect disparate data sets, synthesize them effectively, and subsequently develop fresh strategies to retain or attract customers. According to Deloitte, 42% of Indian IT professionals are now focussed on Data Science, ML and AI, and McKinsey Global Institute reported companies in North America and Europe increasingly relying on Indian tech talent to support digital transformation initiatives.
Rohit Kapoor: India has the sky size and scale of talent, which is unparalleled. But I think what gets missed out is India has now got an ecosystem. It's got an ecosystem of being able to train, develop and continue to be able to upskill into newer technologies. Think about it this way, Govind, when a new startup is created in the US today, the very first thing that they do is to make sure that their engineering talent is based in India, because it provides them the ability to rapidly scale that up and do it at low cost.
There's going to be a big pivot and a big change that is going to be necessary, because the amount of talent and the manpower that you need today for software development is likely to come down in a very, very significant and meaningful way, but the amount of talent that is going to be required for embedding AI into the workflow or for enabling accelerated computing to work, that's going to shoot up in a very, very significant and material way. And the big question is, can the talent in India make this pivot, or is that going to be a hurdle and an obstacle for India? And I believe it's going to be something that the talent base in India can make this pivot very easily and very quickly and very credibly. The talent in India has demonstrated this time and time again. And they've done this, you know, when we moved from y 2k when we moved to the cloud, when we moved to mobility, when we moved to robotics, when we are now moving to AI and data.
Govindraj Ethiraj: A survey by the World Economic Forum highlights that while India boasts a substantial tech workforce, there are notable gaps in advanced skills, particularly in areas such as deep learning and quantum computing. Approximately 50% of Indian companies report challenges in finding talent with expertise in these emerging technologies.
Moreover, creativity and intellectual property (IP) development are becoming increasingly crucial in the tech landscape. As development projects often involve creating or advancing IP, the question arises: How is India positioned to address these challenges? What does the future hold for India's role in advancing these critical areas of technology?
Rohit Kapoor: So creativity requires a mindset which basically challenges the status quo and thinks about new and different ways of doing things. The best part about India is just by virtue of its size and scale of its talent, if everybody was to think about doing something different, the creativity quotient of India is going to be phenomenal. The second is there is a need for having high ambition. And I think what you find in the talent base in India is that there's a high level of ambition and motivation to make an impact and to make that change. And the third thing for creativity is you necessarily need to be able to learn from others and learn from your own mistakes. And because we have this great ecosystem in India, the ability to be able to see what's happening, what works, what doesn't work, I think that allows for that creativity to come out in a very, very meaningful way.
If you take domain specific LLMs, those are being created. If you take a look at small language models, those are being created. Now, each one of these is a creative, you know, aspect that's being kind of made into reality. And so you're seeing the burgeoning of this kind of take place in a pretty accelerated manner in India
Govindraj Ethiraj: Regarding technological innovation, what kinds of innovations are you currently monitoring or anticipating in the near future? Are these innovations emerging through specific types of partnerships, novel approaches to intellectual property (IP) development, or unique team structures? How are these elements contributing to the progress and realization of these technological advancements?
Rohit Kapoor: Yeah, I think, you know, you spoke about IP, and you know, the technological kind of change that's taking place. I think the ability to use accelerated computing and use it in an optimal way. Again, I think India stands out in that, and that's where I see a large number of these technological innovations taking place. There are a number of accelerators that are going to get created, there are a number of modules or components that would get created, and these would end up being a plug and play. And then finally, the ability to orchestrate a number of these accelerators together, and what's the right combination of that that becomes critical, one fundamental question that gets asked. What we are finding is figuring out which LLM to apply when, in what particular use case, and what combination of LLMs to be used and how to use them. That's becoming a far greater differentiator than just using one single LLM as such.
I would see India's startup ecosystem continuing to drive some of this innovation and some of this change. And today, India is unafraid of investing in technological innovation. It is unafraid of spending capital to get a much greater return over a longer period of time than trying to make money on that particular promise immediately. And I think that you know confidence and that change in mindset that's enormous as well
Govindraj Ethiraj: Recently, geopolitical tensions have been heightened by developments such as the ongoing US-China trade disputes and the evolving dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region. For instance, the strategic competition between the US and China has led to increased scrutiny of global supply chains and technology transfer policies, impacting businesses and technology sectors worldwide. In this scenario, how does India evolve over the next 3-5 years. How will these challenges or opportunities affect India’s position and strategy in the global market?
Rohit Kapoor: Let me talk about the geopolitical challenges. First, I think you know, one of the things, which is becoming pretty obvious, is if you move the data to the cloud, then and you access that data from anywhere in the world, that's getting more and more prominent. So the ability to work on that data, to be able to make that change from India or any location for that matter, I think that's becoming, you know, a lot easier. Now there will be regulation that is needed, and we certainly have seen regulation kick in on that, you know, in the US and Europe and in India. And the only requirement on that is, as long as there is broad alignment on that regulation, I think it will work really well. So I think that geographical geopolitical framework seems to be playing out quite nicely for India.
There is one aspect, which is the fear of some jobs and some work that was being done in the past being eliminated. And, you know, I think India has. To get over that and not be protective of trying to kind of, you know, protect the legacy part of the business. Because if you do that, you really cannot make the pivot and the change to the newer technologies and take that leap forward. So that's something to be very careful of and kind of move away. In fact, I would argue that the faster you can create efficiency, automation and transformation in the legacy parts of the work, the faster you can move forward on the innovation you know, spectrum. Number two is there are a number of new technologies, new software, writing codes, new ways of doing things that are being created, and the ability to learn and the ability to deploy that and to be able to change and make that pivot that becomes very, very crucial. And the third thing is, how do you elevate yourself as a country in terms of not doing, you know, the lower end work only, but actually being able to play in the higher levels of change and the complexity spectrum? And I think that ability to kind of graduate is something which, you know, India needs to learn.
Govindraj Ethiraj: As we close today’s episode of Nasscom Conversations, India’s role in the global tech landscape stands out with fresh developments. The recent launch of India’s first semiconductor manufacturing plant signals a leap in localizing tech production. Meanwhile, new initiatives like the National Mission on Quantum Technology aim to bridge the skills gap in advanced areas like deep learning.
Geopolitically, India’s strategic partnerships and focus on digital sovereignty reflect its proactive approach to global uncertainties. As the country integrates AI and accelerates computing, it is not only scaling its existing strengths but also driving innovation through creative new approaches.
Thank you for joining us. Stay tuned for more insights on how India is shaping the future of technology.
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