Unlocking economies: How investing in India will drive growth for the country and business outcomes

There’s no doubt about it. India is one of the fastest growing economies at an estimated 7.5% rate of growth for the 2019 fiscal year. A booming economy means a growing middle class and an increase in urbanization. It’s estimated that their middle class will grow from 80 million to around 580 million people by 2025. From Punjab to Bihar and Tamil Nadu, India is a country whose diversity of people and robust markets have made it an invaluable contributor to the world economy.

And I’m especially excited to speak to our latest announcement: to invest $500 million in India. The investments will be made over the next five years, supporting our growing market opportunities in India and beyond, as well as Prime Minister Modi’s ambition to grow to a $5 trillion economy by 2024. The investment will support R&D for enterprises across India, to drive and support regional innovation and growth.

Our purpose is to advance the way people live and work and our goal in India is to positively impact our partners’ and customers’ outcomes – regionally and globally. Doing so requires that we are keyed into crucial markets, like health-tech, agri-tech and ed-tech which are rapidly emerging in India and propelling local economies forward.

These are all markets in which we’re working closely with partners to foster in the country. HPE’s investment supports R&D to help enterprises throughout India redefine experiences, drive intelligent operations and extract value from their data. We’ve seen how making technology – especially educational tech – more accessible can empower impoverished communities and provide a resource to further develop valuable job skills. And we are committed to make substantial contributions to that effort, including:

eEducation

I’m proud to say that we’ve signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Agastya International Foundation to help build a Center of Excellence at their campus in Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh. The facility will teach students skills in IoT and computer programming and give them access to advanced IT solutions that are at the leading edge of technology innovation in the agricultural sector. This effort will not only help bridge the digital literacy gap but also help improve crop yield and productivity which is a crucial element in ensuring a sustainable future.

eHealth

With our HPE Living Progress program, we’ve created the HPE eHealth Center solution, which aims to make healthcare more accessible for those in impoverished and underserved areas. Since 2012, we’ve established more than 130 centers and 150 mobile eHCs which have facilitated more than 800,000 patient visits. Now, these centers will offer free diagnostic services to more than 50,000 people as part of the USAID TB pledge to make India TB-free by 2025.

Digital Village

We’ve also committed to help the Indian government launch 100,000 digital villages in the next five years. HPE has already set up one digital village in Telangana and plans to build five more villages this year across India.

We have a first-class team in India that is driving our vision and business outcomes so successfully – and we’re delighted to provide them with additional tools and resources to further improve their efforts. As part of the decision to invest $500 million into the market, we’re building a high-tech extension to our Mahadevapura campus in Bengaluru for employees. The new campus, much like our headquarters in San Jose, will be equipped with the most-cutting-edge, sustainable technology and will empower employees to innovate fearlessly and without limitations. Further, we plan to increase our workforce in India by 20 percent over the next three to five years. Most of these new hires will be engineers with expertise in AI and networking to meet the rising demand.

I believe that these and other HPE investments in India are more than just numbers – they’re also helping to build a culture of innovation, which is one of my key priorities. And a culture of innovation drives business outcomes, benefiting our partners and customers.

I’m looking forward to seeing how our investments positively impact this wonderful country, to see our team grow and to empower them to innovate like never before.