Economic Outlook for Southeast Asia report for China and India has been released by OECD development centre.

What are the findings of the report?

• The report indicates that ICT (information and communication technology) services embodied in manufacturing and services.
• It account for a considerable share of the value of exports from China, India and other Asian nations.
• Government embracing ICT in its operations and services are enabling India to play a significant role in the digital economy.
• Report has found out that digital payment services have provided flexibility and transparencyand digital learning platforms have augmented literacy.
• Though India pioneered offshore IT services to contribute to exports worth $150 billion, it is this wave of digitisation that has brought ICT services to the domestic market at large.

What is the relevance of Digitisation and economy?

• Various data shows that cross-border goods, services and financial flows contribute to about $30 trillion and about 40 per cent of world GDP.
• There is increasing trend in knowledge intensive data flows compared to capital and labour intensive flows.
• These flows typically have high research and development (R&D) component and intellectual property, and enable exchange of ideas, thoughts and expressions, facilitated by the digital platforms.

What Policy measures needs to be taken?

• The use of digital technologies requires higher-order cognitive, socio-emotional, and technical skills that help respond to fast-changing technologies and their adoption at scale.
• India’s technical and management institutes revamp their curriculum to integrate all the above features instead of promoting rote learning.
• Movement of information across borders is crucial to the operation of the digital economy, and thus to the producers of goods and services that rely on it.
• Stricter data protection laws that govern such cross border digital flows is needed.
• Since the digital economy is heavily based on intellectual property, strict protection to patents and copyrighted work, whether produced in India or elsewhere is also need to be implemented.
• It is time governments took notice of services and programmes for digital inclusion of the society at large.