NITI Aayog: Strategic Roadmap to Reimagine Tech Services for AI-Led Growth by 2035
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth | SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
NITI Aayog | Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)
The NITI Aayog report, India’s Technology Services – Reimagination Ahead, outlines a strategic roadmap for India’s technology services industry, emphasizing the need for transformation and innovation to maintain global leadership in the era of artificial intelligence (AI) by 2047.
It notes that the technology services sector must pivot from labour-intensive models to outcome-based engagements to achieve a $750–850 billion revenue target by 2035. Currently contributing 7% to India’s GDP with $265 billion in annual revenue, the industry faces a growth slowdown of 4–5% due to AI-led automation and macroeconomic shifts.
The transformation of India’s technology services industry is structured around five strategic growth plays, supported by critical institutional and workforce pillars. This integrated approach aims to bridge the $300 billion revenue gap and achieve an $850 billion annual revenue target by 2035.
Strategic Growth Plays and Integrated Pillars
Agentic AI & Outcome-Based Engagement: Transitioning from labor-intensive models to Agentic AI Plays involves deploying autonomous hybrid models that deliver 70% efficiency gains. This is supported by the Workforce Transition pillar, which focuses on reskilling 1.5 million professionals into AI-driven development and outcome-based engagement roles.
The Software Play & R&D Excellence: Capturing a dominant share of the global SaaS market in cybersecurity and CRM requires firms to invest 1–2% of revenues in R&D. This is institutionalized through the Frontier Technology pillar, which mandates the creation of dedicated R&D SEZs and Innovation Hubs to capture a $10–15 billion high-value market.
The Infrastructure Play & National Single Window: Establishing India as a global hub for AI data services and infrastructure is enabled by the Ease of Doing Business pillar. A proposed National Tech-Services Single Window will streamline operations and market access for small players into global hotspots like Japan and Germany.
The “India for India” Play & Domestic Resilience: Tailoring AI solutions for local healthcare and BFSI sectors targets a domestic market of $40–60 billion. This growth play is supported by the Localized Delivery pillar, which focuses on creating scalable, exportable models from solutions originally designed for Indian domestic needs.
The Innovation Play & Specialized STEM Talent: Enhancing proprietary capabilities in quantum computing and bioengineering is the core of the Innovation Play. This is underpinned by the STEM Talent Infrastructure pillar, which aims to build a unified AI skilling engine to provide modular certifications in deep domain expertise.
What are “Agentic AI Plays” in Tech Services? Agentic AI Plays refer to the development of hybrid service models where autonomous AI agents perform complex, multi-step tasks traditionally handled by human employees. Unlike basic automation, agentic AI can reason, use tools, and collaborate to deliver specific business outcomes, targeting the vast mid-market segment. For India’s tech sector, this shift is critical because it moves the value proposition from “providing talent” to “providing intelligence-led results,” enabling firms to maintain high-value margins even as traditional back-office roles are compressed by automation.
Policy Relevance
The NITI Aayog roadmap represents a transition from cost-arbitrage leadership to “Intelligence-Led Leadership”, ensuring that the Indian tech industry remains the primary engine for the “Viksit Bharat 2047” vision.
Strategic Impact:
Scaling High-Growth Verticals: Industry focus must shift to hotspots like semiconductors, defense, and cybersecurity, expanding geographical reach into Japan and the Middle East through localized domain expertise.
Institutionalizing R&D Investment: Allocating 1–2% of revenues to R&D for AI-native IP and partnering with the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) is critical for creating defensible service platforms.
Digital Government Enablement: Transitioning the National Single Window System into a fully transactional National Tech-Services Single Window (NTSW) will streamline backend API integration and improve the ease of doing business.
Operationalizing the AI Talent Mission: Establishing a Unified AI Skilling Engine ensures the workforce is ready for roles like prompt designers and LLMOps specialists, reorienting mid-level managers toward orchestration and governance.
Fostering Co-Innovation Corridors: Setting up R&D SEZs and shared testbeds for industries like MedTech and Telecom can position India as a global Center of Excellence (CoE) for advanced engineering.
Follow the full release here: India’s Technology Services – Reimagination Ahead