A new McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) report identifies a dozen technologies, ranging from the mobile Internet to cloud computing to advanced genomics, which could have a combined economic impact of $550 billion to $1 trillion a year in 2025. For India, they used additional criteria to identify the technologies that would have a direct impact on the country’s economic and social challenges in the coming decade. As a result, they include technologies such as electronic payments, which are well established in other parts of the world but not well developed in India. By 2025, however, electronic payments could help 300 million Indians join the country’s financial system. MGI groups the 12 technologies into three areas: digitizing life and work, smart physical systems, and energy technologies:

Digitizing life and work - the mobile Internet, the cloud, the automation of knowledge work, digital payments, and verifiable digital identity

Smart physical systems - the Internet of Things, intelligent transportation and distribution systems, advanced geographic information systems (GIS), and next-generation genomics

Energy - unconventional oil and gas (horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing), renewable energy, and advanced energy storage

Each of these technologies has the potential for rapid adoption in India between now and 2025.

The total impact of the sized applications could amount to $240 billion to $500 billion a year by 2025. Given the contributions of these sectors to India’s GDP, we estimate that across the entire economy, the 12 technologies could have a combined economic impact of $550 billion to $1 trillion by 2025.