With 5G connectivity as the next digital revolution for the global world, it is imperative to think about the positive impacts as 5G arrives in India as early as 2020. The service will introduce higher internet speeds and access for millions of Indian users. Here are five benefits of 5G in India involving its economy, retail, education, health care and agriculture.

5 Benefits of 5G in India

1. A Boosted Economy: With the second-largest population in the world at 1.3 billion in 2019, India’s digital customer base is just as numerically significant because it constitutes a great amount of the country’s GDP at 8 percent. For example, in 2018, there were 560 million Indian internet subscribers and 1.2 billion mobile subscriptions. Out of the $200 billion revenue from the country’s entire digital economy, digital communication and telecommunication account for $45 billion while mobile handsets account for $10 million. The introduction of 5G in India will allow for increased internet and broadband, and revenue will continue to trend upwards. For example, with the introduction of 5G in India, the country’s GDP could reach $1 trillion by 2035.

2. Advanced Retail: India’s retail sector accounts for a significant 10 percent of the nation’s GDP or $1.8 billion in 2017 through brick and mortar as well as online retailers. By 2020, the retail sector should rise to $3.6 billion. Thanks to 5G in India, higher internet speeds offer retailers and sellers a better connection due to faster website access. This instantaneous connection presents the potential for better sales. Additionally, store and inventory management software could aid retailers in their organization to offer better customer service. Digital payments such as United Payments Interface, the interbank money transfer service and Paytm can provide better data on revenue and increase the customer base. Digitization with 5G in India will provide better connections, increased sales, data collection and increased productivity causing the GDP to inevitably trend upwards.

3. Enhanced Education: 5G technologies will benefit students with increased communication, virtual and augmented reality, increased cloud data and smart learning for differently-abled students. For instance, 5G enables increased connection with 100 times faster speeds, thus enabling more opportunities for distance learning for individuals in remote areas. Virtual and augmented reality provide engaging and easily understood content, thus improving the quality of education. With faster connections, cloud data becomes more accessible, allowing students to resume work at their own pace. Personalized education for differently-abled students will vastly increase with cloud-based robots which act as assistants to aid children more in need of teacher assistance. Such progress is tremendous given that estimates determine that each additional year of schooling should result in about 8 percent higher wages.

4. Better Managed Agriculture: The Indian agricultural sector faces current challenges with a lack of data collection and analysis, fluctuating prices, unavailability of agri-logistics, poor farm returns and lack of information on consumer interest. 5G technology can amend such challenges with increased soil and crop monitoring, precision farming, smart irrigation and climate change alignment, livestock monitoring and agricultural drones. For example, in terms of soil and crop monitoring, 5G implemented sensors can provide information on soil data of moisture, nutrients and spoilage. These sensors are a huge accomplishment for food security because crop diseases are a challenge to Indian farmers serving an ever-growing population.

5. Increased Health Care: 5G forms a comprehensive digital network in health care with The Massive Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) and Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB). With 5G, IoMT and eMBB will operate at faster speeds to effectively provide more personalized patient care. Technologies such as smart glucose monitoring and automated insulin delivery enhance proactive care with early detection methods resulting in more lives saved. With 5G, rural areas lacking health care facilities will have support from local centers made operable by new technology. These individuals can thus receive faster treatment, which was once only attainable at a distance.

With the second-largest population in the world and second-largest internet consumer base, 5G in India is sure to benefit the nation with better connectivity and higher speeds in urban and remote areas. Aside from its technological benefits, other great benefits exist as well with poverty reduction. In alignment with the forecasted GDP of $1 trillion by 2035 thanks to many aspects including digitization mentioned in this article, by 2027, the country expects to reach upper-middle-income status.

– Elizabeth Yusuff
Photo: Flickr