How the 2022 has gone by for these sectors and what does the industry say about the coming year and expectations from it
Leon Foong, Head of APAC, Binance
“Web3 and crypto, while still in their nascent stage, have taken the world by storm and investors across the globe are realizing the multitude of opportunities it offers. 2022 has been a big year for the Web3 and crypto space, with new projects and protocols launched while existing ones continue to grow and evolve. The Ethereum upgrade was one of the major developments in the crypto industry, making the blockchain more scalable, secure, and sustainable paving the way for more efficient decentralized applications to be built. Transparency in this industry has become a big area of focus and blockchain technologies such as merkle-sum trees and ZK-SNARKs are being used to build proof of reserves which we hope will bring added trust into the digital asset space.”
“In 2023, we expect to see the continued development of Web3 infrastructure with continued attention to investor education and awareness. To build a robust Web3 infrastructure, security is very important, and Binance plans to continue with initiatives such as Global Law Enforcement Training Program, disclosing Binance’s hot and cold wallet addresses through Proof of Reserves, and establishing the Industry Recovery Initiative (IRI) to protect consumers and rebuild the industry.”
Pratik Gauri, Co-founder & CEO, 5ire.
“Just like humans have solved many problems with innovation, so will we with sustainable development. The crypto winter of 2022 has kept everyone tamed, but it was also the year when one of the biggest blockchain networks, Ethereum, switched from the Proof of Work consensus algorithm to the Proof of Stake consensus algorithm, cutting their electricity consumption by 99%. Also Web3 made gigantic strides to become an applicable technology of the future. There is enough excitement for 2023 to innovate our way out of the environmental crisis we face.
The sustainability crisis is existential and needs a new type of digital product that is co-owned, co-created, and co-run. This constitutes the third era of the internet and is defined by decentralization, declining trust in institutions, and a new way of looking at value creation and value capture. Blockchain technology will be the defining aspect of Web 3.0.
When empowered with such autonomy, people will partner with the government, enabling citizens and organizations to play a meaningful role in shaping a future where profit and purpose go hand in hand. That is our definition of the 5th industrial revolution where we transform ourselves from profit to purpose.“
Raj Karkara, COO, ZebPay
“In 2022, the crypto industry witnessed landmark events including the Ethereum Merge Upgrade, the launch of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) as well as the Government of India’s new crypto tax policy. While market fluctuations and unfavorable tax implications have affected overall trading volumes and sentiment, investor education has helped in increasing the adoption of crypto and will continue to be a priority. Moreover, for any new asset class in its nascency, a fair amount of volatility is to be expected.
In 2023, it will be the responsibility of all players in the crypto and Web3 ecosystem to foster a sense of security among its consumers. Putting in the right protocols and practices in place to avoid the impact of black swan events will be crucial to success. Those businesses that operate with transparency, strong ethics and values, while protecting consumer interests will succeed. The year will weed out businesses with weaker models and practices. Sustainability and financial inclusion will be strong themes, promoting mass adoption of the asset class.
One key item on the wish list of all Web3 and blockchain players this year would be a favourable regulatory framework that will protect investors while encouraging innovation to create newer avenues to transform business across the spectrum, for all stakeholders in the industry to thrive. We hope India’s G20 Presidency will help in establishing an innovative regulatory framework based on new technologies and will assist in creating a favourable environment for the crypto industry.
Ranjan R Reddy, Founder & CEO 0f Bureau
“2022 was filled with news about crypto meltdowns, synthetic ID fraud, phishing, fraud rings, UPI fraud, money laundering, collusion, OTP theft, and referral abuse, to name a few. Online fraud has exploded as attackers constantly evolve their techniques for maximum benefit, leading to financial and reputation loss for businesses across industries.
In 2023, businesses must look beyond traditional approaches and opt for digital-first technologies that combine AI, machine learning, behavioural biometrics and device intelligence. It will also be crucial for all stakeholders to collaborate and create a pro-privacy data infrastructure. In the wake of rising data leaks and alarming identity theft incidents, the key focus for organisations across sectors will be to ensure trust and security by creating an underlying risk infrastructure that will help protect user data, simplifying the user journey by creating a secure, transparent and frictionless experience across sectors. This will further pave the way for innovation and scalability.”
Dilip Modi, Founder of Spice Money
“India has come a long way in its digital journey with over 70% of the total population residing in rural areas now getting access to banking and financial services with the help of more than 30 lakh rural banking outlets across the country. 2022 has seen some successful and noteworthy initiatives undertaken by the government including 123 Pay, and launch of 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) in 75 districts. These initiatives are addressing the under-penetration of banking and financial services, dearth of financial literacy & awareness as well as employment opportunities prevailing in Bharat. Other initiatives like ONDC are democratising e-commerce in India and shaping future of global ecommerce.
2023 is going to be a game changing year for the rural fintech ecosystem. For the Indian economy to grow, the rural segment has to grow and with the pool of opportunities presented by technology and internet penetration, it will also take India towards the dream of a $5 trillion economy size by the turn of this decade or sooner. As we step into 2023, rural fintech is bound to grow by leaps and bounds, some features that will continue to be important for the rural population are customisation, sachetization, and assisted journey of banking & payment services. 2023 will pave the way for a rural fintech revolution that will focus on cashless transactions, embedded finance, and open banking for hyper-personalization, leading to increased digital adoption thereby driving financial inclusion for the last mile”.
Rajnish Gupta, India and Sub-Continent Lead, Zebra Technologies
“In the past year Indian enterprises have continued to strategically invest in digitalization of supply chain. Their focus has been to address first/last mile visibility and accuracy, optimizing shipping costs via better delivery route planning and fleet management, and improving customer satisfaction for better fill rates and a more efficient returns management process.
As customers return to a more physical retail environment, true omni-channel will be a priority making workflow automation a focus for enterprises in 2023. Workflow automation solutions are critical in augmenting the workforce that includes identifying and assigning tasks, tracking status, and even prompt action when deadlines are approaching. With the right automation technology like barcode and RFID, enterprises will be further enabled with greater visibility over their inventory.
Government initiatives like the ‘Make in India’ program has already set the course to make India a global manufacturing hub and boost the Indian economy. To accomplish this vision, automation in supply-chain, warehouse operations will be key to counter disruptions and make industries more agile and future ready”.
Ashish Tandon, CEO & Founder, of Indusface
“The year 2022 has been pivotal in that attackers have started moving away from brute-force techniques to sophisticated ransomware. DDoS is among the biggest threats that we have identified this year. Just in the last 30-days we saw a 2TB attack on a SaaS application and an attack that targeted 20+ applications at a healthcare major. There was a 50% jump in DDoS attacks as a % of total attacks from Q3 to Q4. In 2023, security teams not only need to work on holistic vulnerability detection and patching programs but also deploy sophisticated AI driven solutions to tackle the problem of DDoS and bot attacks.”
Sourabh Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO, Skit.ai
“In 2022, we have witnessed a drastic acceleration in the adoption rate of voice automation across industries. Voice automation has taken center stage for customer engagement, especially with the rise in the volume of queries and customers expecting quick responses and real-time updates.
Earlier, the adoption of Voice AI was relatively low among sectors, but we have recorded tremendous adoption in the past years, with various use cases across enterprises. For decades contact centers and support agents faced incredible cost and performance pressures. This is changing owing to the benefits offered by Voice AI. The technology is a revolution that empowers the triad – customers, contact centers, and support agents – with 24/7 wait-less support, lower costs, easier management, and better work life.
We have seen industries such as banking, financial services, insurance, travel and hospitality, consumer electronics, e-commerce and retail, among others, actively adopt Voice AI to revamp their CX strategies.”
Tarusha Mittal, COO and Cofounder of Dapps and UniFarm
“The FTX collapse is good on the macro level for the industry, as users will yet again realize that web3 is all about decentralization. The companies that don’t have a strong foundation and have strong investments will be flushed out. Only real business models will thrive. FTX collapse is a good reminder that crypto is all about removing centralized bodies. The main key factors which would have an impact on the web3 space i.e., socio-economic, geo-political factors, the trust built by builders solving real problems with robust solutions. Although the tax part has been addressed, Web3, crypto assets, NFTs and the metaverse require a separate Bill for other regulatory matters.
Overall, I am very hopeful that things will look up, in the latter part of the year.”
Mahin Gupta, Founder of Liminal, a digital wallet infrastructure platform –
“I strongly believe that Defi is the way forward and all the relevant stakeholders should utilize their collective wisdom to create a strong policy framework to nurture the growth of Defi. Moving towards Defi at the earliest is the key to learning from FTX collapse and the onus lies on industry players to build a safety net around user funds. Self-custody or licensed custodian services should be actively used for storing digital assets which are under the complete control of the user.
Today, India has an estimated 15 million cryptocurrency users. It is also home to 11% of the global Web3.0 talents, employing nearly 75,000 blockchain professionals with 450+ Web3.0 and blockchain start-ups operating out of India. These figures alone signify the budding web3 ecosystem in India. Regulatory support will be crucial in driving the mass adoption of Defi and other crypto-related services.”
Shivam Thakral, CEO of BuyUcoin, India’s second longest running crypto exchange
“In 2023, we can expect favourable macroeconomic conditions as central banks have hinted towards the relaxation of monetary policies and interest rates. Inflation will be a key factor in deciding the fate of financial markets across the globe. The Crypto market will overcome the collapse of crypto giants like FTX and move towards a more mature phase with wiser investors and healthy regulations. We need to create a global consensus around the regulatory framework for digital assets. We cannot have isolated policies for digital assets due to their global nature and need to work towards creating a transparent ecosystem where investors are made aware of the risks involved.
Bitcoin Daily Volumes remained fairly consistent throughout the 2022 even after strong price correction.”
Dhananjay Ganjoo, Managing Director India, and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), F5
“One major security challenge we see arising in 2023 is from the rapid proliferation of APIs, where shadow APIs could potentially lead to unforeseen breaches and ransomware. This problem is stemmed from the fact that many organizations today do not have an accurate inventory of all their APIs, from information on available API endpoints to authentication and authorization information. With that, it is challenging for organizations to properly secure something that they have very little understanding or awareness of. However, the security loophole can be further closed by utilizing a machine learning platform like F5 Distributed Cloud WAAP, to periodically scan and analyze data, ensuring API inventory is as up to date as possible.”
Anil Goel, President – Technology, BYJU’S
“In the last two years, and particularly in 2022, the edtech sector has undergone a significant transformation. By harnessing technology, innovation in education has empowered both students as well as teachers by eliminating access barriers, decentralizing education, bringing about positive systemic changes, and ushering in the next wave of disruption. A prime example of this is hybrid formats of learning that have evolved to co-exist with traditional learning formats in 2022. This blended learning environment not only incorporates digital tools in learning environments but also ensures student interaction and active teacher support, giving students the best of both worlds.
Gamification has also emerged as a key component of the technological foray into learning processes in 2022. Game mechanics have helped transform traditional classroom activities into projects that require creativity, collaboration and play. This not only helps students set clear goals but also creates a safe and engaging learning environment for an enhanced learning experience.
From cognition to immersion, 2022’s edtech trends have constantly progressed the learning continuum. While still in their nascent stage, the use of data, AI, and deep learning has highlighted how learners can immerse themselves in sensory, visual, and true-to-life simulations employing VR, AR, and computer vision for learning and skilling. These personalized guidance modules are tailored to match students’ needs, stages of learning, and preferences.
We have also seen an increase in human-led learning where teachers are more than just facilitators but also coaches, mentors, and leaders. The students look forward to the sessions as it helps them become more comfortable with the subject, build confidence, and participate actively in classrooms.
The year gone by Is a testimony to how learning experiences evolve in tandem with technological advancements. Further advancements in technology will continue to prioritise students’ needs and put them firmly in control of their own learning journey’”
Prakash Krishnamoorthy, Director, India, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
Zero trust and SASE will become more intertwined as hybrid work and IoT device proliferation continues to accelerate
“Organizations must securely, and seamlessly, connect anyone or any connected device (IoT) at edge locations to the cloud, and to applications. A Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) framework is planned to provide safe, efficient, and automated access to cloud applications and workloads through the integration of WAN capabilities. Identity and role-based access control segmentation capabilities isolate users and devices to help meet compliance requirements. SASE and the Zero Trust architectures will therefore be crucial tools for IT leaders in the year 2023 in order to provide comprehensive visibility, control, and enforcement of edge to cloud networking and security policies.”
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