Mumbai, October 14th, 2022 – With the market size predicted to reach nearly ~$1.3 trillion by 2030, Metaverse, today is one of the fast-growing technological domains. To discuss the future business opportunities and innovations in the Metaverse ecosystem, eminent industry leaders and stakeholders convened at the first-of-its-kind Metaverse Conclave, organized by Meity - NASSCOM Centre of Excellence, in association with K-Tech.

The event also witnessed the launch of the ‘Metaverse: Entering Into a New Reality’ report, which highlights the development stages of the metaverse ecosystem, its challenges and future business opportunities. The report also elaborates on the current state of the market, important milestones, and players in the Metaverse universe, showcasing key use cases and industry case studies.

Sharing his views, Eske Bo Knudsen Rosenberg, Consul General, Denmark, said, “Metaverse is definitely an area that we are looking into. We are working towards how we connect the interesting things of the Metaverse ecosystem with that of India and together create interesting opportunities for the future.”

Dr Rohini Srivathsa, National Technology Officer, Microsoft India, said, “Through the metaverse, we are igniting a new wave of immersive experiences in our personal lives, redefining how we collaborate at work and generate new ideas faster and more effectively as well as connecting the physical and digital worlds to drive us forward into the world of industries. As we move forward on this journey, startups, large corporations, governments, and industry bodies will need to ensure that the metaverse stays and grows sustainably as a safe, secure and open ecosystem.”

Discussions around the importance of Metaverse adoption across enterprises, industries, start-ups, and sectors, including manufacturing, health, fashion, marketing, and education, among others were some of the key highlights at the conclave. The day-long event further outlined the opportunities and challenges for tech start-ups in the age of Web 3.0 and Metaverse as well as how their adoption can enable India to become a global technology and development hub.

Shankar Venugopal, SVP, Mahindra & Mahindra, said, “The automotive industry is transitioning, from IC-based engines to electric vehicles. What it means is ensuring reskilling at scale, focused collaboration across the globe to accelerate new product development and getting close to the customers involving them to co-create products. In all this, I believe Metaverse has great potential and can actually enable all these three in a smart and effective manner.”

Sanjeev Malhotra, CEO, NASSCOM Centre of Excellence, said, “Metaverse is an emerging technology where so much interest and work is happening across the board. Its use cases are not only limited to training, retail, or education but metaverse is now being adopted across manufacturing and healthcare as well. We are working with the ecosystem to increase awareness, create more applications and bring key technologies like AI, IoT and Metaverse together, to make a bigger impact.”

The event witnessed participation from over 400 delegates and stakeholders of the ecosystem including, large tech and non-tech enterprises, builders, innovators, investors, consultants, and key participants from the academia, to collaborate and exchange ideas for driving and leading the Metaverse revolution in India. Speakers at the event included various Industry leaders like Anil Menon, CIO, Lulu Group; Nirav Parikh, CIO, MFL; Shilpa Shree Nayak, Director – Head Data and Open Innovation, Natixis, Rajesh Mirjankar- Managing Director & CEO, Kiya.AI;  Nirupam Srivastava, SVP, Hero MotoCorp; Surbhi Gupta, Head of Digital, ACC Ltd; Dr. Yasha Pandit, Director, PWC; Karan Singh, Managing Director, ACG ; Amit Doshi, CMO India, Brittania; Avinash Deepak, Senior Vice President, Airtel, among others.

About CoE for IoT & AI

An initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) and K-tech, NASSCOM Centre of Excellence IoT& AI is a platform that aims to accelerate the development of the deep-tech industry, enabling inclusion and adoption of the emerging technologies in the ecosystem. CoE for the last six years has been enhancing the power of Artificial intelligence and the Internet of things to bring unprecedented opportunities for Industry, Startups, and Academia.

About NASSCOM

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM®) is the premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the Tech industry in India and comprises over 3000-member companies. Our membership spans the entire spectrum of the industry from start-ups to multinationals and from products to services, Global Capability Centres to Engineering firms. Guided by India's vision to become a leading digital economy globally, NASSCOM focuses on accelerating the pace of transformation of the industry to emerge as the preferred enabler for global digital transformation. Our strategic imperatives are to reskill and upskill India's IT workforce to ensure that talent is future-ready in terms of new-age skills, strengthen the innovation quotient across industry verticals, create new market opportunities - both international and domestic, drive policy advocacy to advance innovation and ease of doing business, and build the industry narrative with a focus on Talent, Trust, and Innovation. And, in everything we do, we will continue to champion the need for diversity and equal opportunity.