The think tank for Digital Transformation, Broadband India Forum (BIF) held a seminar on 3rd July on “The Impact of IoT on Jobs in Rural India”. At the seminar, the positive impact of AI and IoT on job creation in agriculture and healthcare sectors in India was highlighted. BIF also presented the findings of an on-going study that has being done in consultation with the Electronics Skill Council of India, Agriculture Skill Council of India and the Healthcare Sector Skill Council.
The released study states that applications of IoT and AI will transform the rural sectors of India by creating up to 2.8 million jobs over a period of 8 to 10 years and with an annual value of Rs. 60,000 crores (approx. US$ 8.9 billion) in rural India.
At least 2.1 million jobs of this will be created for the agriculture sector and another 0.7 million jobs will be created for the rural healthcare sector.
It was also stated that job creation is likely to further increase post-2021-22 once 5G technology is implemented. The formal report on the study is expected to be released shortly.
Agricultural Sector
Some highlights of the ongoing study were presented by Devendranath, COO, Feedback Consulting (the firm conducting this research jointly along with BIF)
It was stated that the percentage of employment in the Indian agriculture sector has consistently reduced from 52% in 2010 to 42% in 2018. IoT has the potential to reverse this by creating smart farms. The study highlighted that key applications such as Satellite Mapping, Electronic Market Place, Livestock Traceability, Climate Sensing Stations, Product Traceability and Agriculture Drones have the potential to transform the ailing sector.
“Indian agriculture employs 50% of manpower and we’ve been seeing declining levels of employment as people leave the sector for better opportunities. The net contribution to the GDP also remains low. IoT and AI can make a huge contribution to transforming Indian agriculture, specifically with regards to productivity enhancement”, said Dr. Saikrishna Nanduri, CEO, National Skills Sector Council.
The main applications that will generate employment in the agriculture sector are:
| Sl. No. | Applications | Realistic potential for job creation |
| 1 | Satellite Mapping | 255,343 |
| 2 | E-Market | 122,530 |
| 3 | Livestock Tracing | 891,030 |
| 4 | Product Tracing | 13,403 |
| 5 | Climate Sensing | 316,430 |
| 6 | Agriculture Drones | 522,640 |
| Total | 2,121,376 |
| Sl. No. | Job Roles that would be created in Agriculture | Number of Jobs |
| 1 | Field Worker | 1,377,650 |
| 2 | Drone Operator | 520,000 |
| 3 | Data Analysts | 109,451 |
| 4 | Agri Quality Certifiers | 52,500 |
| 5 | Warehouse Managers | 17,500 |
| 6 | Geo-Tagging Technicians | 44,000 |
| 7 | Software / App Developers | 175 |
Healthcare Sector
The study stated that at present around 60% of India’s healthcare professionals serve 30% of the population (residing in urban India). This trend is likely to change as leading healthcare service providers would be opening hospitals in Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns. The government of India’s Ayushman Bharat initiative is also expected to transform the primary healthcare sector in the country and will help introduce IoT based applications to a rural patient ecosystem.
Applications like Remote Medical Assistance & Surgery, Smart Diagnosis, Cloud Based Eye Screening, Pre-Emptive Oncology Diagnosis, Smart Ambulance & Emergency Care, Medical Record Digitization, and Smart Consulting can help bridge the gap between rural healthcare centers and urban hospitals.
“The new generation wants to move out of agriculture because self-esteem is not connected to this field. Digitisation of agriculture can raise its esteem and can retain the agricultural youth to stay in this vocation”, SS Arya, CEO, Agriculture Sector Skill Council.
The key applications that will generate employment in the healthcare sector across rural India are:
| Sl. No. | Applications | Realistic potential for job creation |
| 1 | Remote Medical Assistance & Surgery | 485,000 |
| 2 | Smart Pathology | 153,000 |
| 3 | Cloud based eye screening | 65,650 |
| 4 | Oncology Diagnosis | 75,750 |
| 5 | Smart Ambulance & Emergency Care | 15,150 |
| 6 | Medical Record Digitisation | 300,000 |
| Total | 1,139,550 |
| Sl. No. | Job Role creation in Healthcare | Number of Jobs |
| 1 | Skilled Nurse (upskilling) | 315,000 |
| 2 | Data Entry Experts (new jobs) | 300,000 |
| 3 | Tech Health Workers / Professionals (new jobs) | 290,000 |
| 4 | Ayush Doctors (upskilling) | 150,000 |
| 5 | Data Analysis (new jobs) | 54,550 |
| 6 | PHC Maintenance Staff (new jobs) | 30,000 |
“There is no denying the role that avant-garde technologies such as IoT and AI can play in the agriculture and healthcare sectors – especially in rural areas. India is the Saudi Arabia for the generation of data. It is important to realize that India has the hardware, we have the data scientists, we have the algorithms – what we don’t have is real-time, clearly labeled and relevant data from the field. From a Niti Aayog perspective, our focus is on data and that we get access to real-time data that can impact the creation of policy. We are therefore looking at a huge volume of real-time data being harvested from both the healthcare and agriculture domains and shared with us. ”said Yaduvendra Mathur, Special Secretary, NITI Aayog.
“Given India’s young demographic profile, sustained job creation is the most critical aspect to keep the wheels of the economy running. Rural India, with 50% of the country’s workforce needs to ensure that it garners a significant share of this”, said TV Ramachandran, President, Broadband India Forum.
Courtesy: Dataquest
