The Indian American chief executive of the global technology services company said innovation should happen alongside a conducive regulation and policy.

Chairman and chief executive officer, IBM, Arvind Krishna said India’s data standards and policies need to be implemented in a way that allows exports of services and software to grow.

The Indian American chief executive of the global technology services company said innovation should happen alongside a conducive regulation and policy.

“Underlying data standards are a hotly debated topic within India and I know the government is paying a lot of attention to it. I mean, certainly not just at the prime minister’s level but when I’ve talked to certain secretaries and ministers is clearly a top topic because you have to enable it in a way that is not just good for the local economy. You have to do it in a way that allows exports of services and software to happen,” said Krishna at NTLF 2021, adding that ‘that is a much more complicated and subtle topic than just doing it for the local economy’.

India’s telecom sector, in the efforts of enabling policies including more quantum of the spectrum, is set to establish new benchmarks in the next-generation network deployments and service delivery.

He added that massive upskilling in the relevant technologies in AI and cloud are going to be important for the next decade.

Krishna said the health related crisis has led to an economic crisis and the world is seeing a resultant alignment of ecosystems. At this juncture, India has the potential to grow as a robust and vibrant IT services industry, but the country needs to choose the role it wants to play.

“We are at a unique moment on the planet. The alignment of global ecosystems is happening right now. This is the moment where you can step that up by an order of magnitude,” he said.

The IBM chief executive reiterated the need for a regulatory environment that helps its innovation ability to grow.

He said it is important to take into account the risk in innovation too. “There is also a risk in innovation. So innovation means only one in three ideas is likely to succeed. Two out of three don’t give an economic return in the near term,” said Krishna, adding that regulations and policy should allow for that failure to happen.https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com