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Five hot technology trends for India in 2013

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Supriya Rai
New Update

BANGALORE, INDIA: Every new year is looked forward to with renewed hopes and welcomed with a lot of wishes.

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It is optimism that gives confidence to face times lying ahead and 2013 can also be expected to have several positives in different walks of life.

In these times of technological advancements in our country, we can be doubly sure that there would be more giant strides made in the domain.

We shall focus on five big aspects that would leave a positive imprint on our lives, and with that, the growing economy of India.

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IT GIANTS: BETTER TIMES AHEAD

At best, 2012 was moderate for the $100-billion Indian IT industry. Majors, Infosys Limited and Wipro Technologies didn't enjoy best of times, with quarter after disappointing quarter of below-par results. Industry leader Tata Consultancy Services did beat estimates and defied the global outlook, HCL had a decent year and Cognizant Technology Solutions surged ahead to topple Infosys as the second largest software exporter from India, but overall, the industry growth was less than expected.

Industry body, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), hasn't lost hopes yet. It has predicted Indian software exports to grow at 11 per cent this fiscal to $77 billion, despite currency volatility, from $69 billion in 2011-12.

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A FRESH START

As far as Indian start-ups are concerned, there would be fresh winds blowing, reckons renowned business writer Rebecca Fannin.

"India start-ups could finally begin to break through with innovative and market-leading tech products to supplement the country's strong base in services (outsourcing)," she writes in Forbes.

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"Start-ups will consolidate or die in the emerging Asian tech strongholds of China and India as the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker. The result will be more concentration of breakthrough products from fewer players and more pressure on start-ups to scale up quickly with a distinct advantage or get swallowed up."

SOCIAL STORM

Social media gathered steam and volume, and was accessed mainly on mobile devices in 2012, points out Prasanto K. Roy, editorial advisor of Cybermedia, on the growing adoption of the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

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"In fact, it was the primary driver for mobile internet traffic overtaking PC-based internet traffic in India this year, ahead of the world. 2013 will be the turning point in corporate use of social media, with an explosion of companies (or divisions of ad agencies and PR firms etc) offering their services," he asserts.

The past couple of years have seen a significant number of acquisition by major firms, all indicating to the global acceptance of social media as a mainstream channel, a trend which is likely to continue through the next year, feels Sanket Akerkar, managing director, Microsoft Corp India.

BIG DATA & CLOUD GROWTH

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In 2012 itself, there were a lot of talks about big data and cloud. It is just going to get better from now on, says Rajesh Janey, president at EMC India & SAARC.

"CIOs are at the center of value creation with technologies like big data and cloud fueling the evolution. These trends will change the profile and makeup of IT staff along with skills (in 2013) and new roles will emerge to take on this new digital era," he elaborates.

Akerkar observes that 2013 will see the initial excitement around big data/analytics mature and give birth to the business opportunity of 'strategic big data', marking a shift from a focus on individual projects to an influence on enterprises' strategic information.

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In 2013, according to Verizon, there will be a significant shift from VPNs to public, private and hybrid clouds.

JUST BYOD

Indian enterprises are slowly warming up to Bring-Your-Own-Devices concept for their employees, with smart devices, like tablets and phones, are becoming ubiquitous.

"2013 will see further 'consumerization of IT' and with that, a great shift with people bringing their own devices into the workplace... employees, students and consumers are all using their own devices to access managed data and applications within today's enterprise landscape," opines Akerkar.

Also, consumerization of IT would continue to fuel BYOD across the region, says Srinivas Tadigadapa, director, enterprise solution sales, Intel South Asia.

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