India Is As Big A Player In tech Innovation As China Or The U.S, Said Verizon’s CEO

According to Ronan Dunne, Verizon’s CEO and executive vice president, India is as strong a player in tech innovation as the U.S or China. He said that it was widely believed the current tech scene is a two-player race, which is far from the truth.

He stated that India was a big force, especially in telecommunications, just like China or the U.S. Verizon came to the country a decade ago, and it is also the first U.S Company to deploy 5G in Minneapolis and Chicago in April.

In the past few years, India has made a name for itself as a strong marketplace for technology innovation. The country’s government has also laid down laws to help India become a strong global competitor.

Back in 2016, the Atal Innovation Mission was launched to encourage start-ups in all sectors. In 2018, the India-Israel Innovation Fund was introduced to aid with the development and research projects.

In just three years, from 2016 to 2019, India made it to the 52^nd in the Global Innovation Index of Cornell University from the previous position of 81^st. This year, the country was announced as the most innovative economy in Central and Southern Asia.

Dunne said that he had spent the whole summer visiting India’s telecoms carriers to see the way they were developing their networks and innovating.

He said that most of these carriers were providing service to hundreds of millions of users. Many of them were making handheld devices at the price of $15 that were able to support TV on a screen measuring two-inch by two-inch. India is the world’s largest market, besides China, with a population of 1.3 billion.

Dunne stated that the Indian market was having a fast pace of development as its middle class was widening, as well as its education and connectivity. So he thinks that the assumption of innovation can only be found in the Western world was not true.