Challenge Lies In Creating Inclusive, Relevant Technology For India: Debjani Ghosh, MD (Sales & Marketing), Intel South Asia

How has been the journey so far since you picked up the MD rank at Intel, South Asia?
My 18 years (and counting) with Intel has been a wonderful journey. I joined Intel when I was pretty much fresh out of college and the company has taught me everything I know about the business and also made me the person I am today. To me, Intel is like a magical garden with opportunities hidden in every corner. You just need to be hungry enough to look for those and be confident enough to open the door when you find it. The myriad roles I have done at Intel, especially in the first few years, gave me a 360 degree understanding of the business and taught me the importance of collaboration and teamwork, both of which have served me very well. And along the way, I have met some of the smartest and most wonderful people who have helped me grow as an individual and a professional.

It was always a dream to get the opportunity to build the India business. So when I was told in 2011 that I needed to come back to India, there was absolutely no looking back for me. India is one the most challenging and exciting markets ever and the opportunity to make a difference with technology is much bigger than anywhere else in the world. If India has to make real progress, inclusive growth is a must. For inclusive growth, you have to ensure that every citizen has access to quality education and basic services – be it healthcare or government services. And it is impossible to enable that without technology. Technology, if used right, can empower every citizen to be more successful, productive and contribute greatly to their families, communities and domestic economies. That’s where I see Intel playing a key role in this country. That’s where we want to make a real difference.

I know everyone asks you this, but how is the Intel India business doing? And what we can expect in the coming months on the PC and laptop front from Intel?
When I think India, I think opportunity. As a country, we are significantly lagging in the use of technology for development and growth. Somewhere, we lost focus and got over-obsessed with devices and hardware. The focus in India needs to be on what we do with the devices and the impact it has on individuals. In that way, we have not even scratched the tip of the iceberg. In fact, I believe that we haven’t even located the iceberg as yet.

The focus in India needs to be on driving real and meaningful usage starting at the grassroots – be it building job skills or finding employment opportunities or finding new markets for small traders or providing preventive healthcare to the masses. Technology is meaningful and useful only when it enables us to be more productive and it makes our lives easier. We have a long way to go to enable that India. What we need is a holistic approach to technology that addresses last-mile access, localised content, digital literacy and, of course, choice of devices to meet different consumer needs. If we get it right, the sum total of the strategy will have more value for the consumers and the industry than the singular focus on hardware or devices that we see in the country.

Regarding devices, the world is moving from the era of personal computers to the era of personal computing. It’s what we do with the technology that becomes much more important than form factors. My belief is – we will see Indian consumers move towards a multi-device lifestyle. The PC, which Andy Grove called the ultimate Darwinian device, will continue to evolve and adapt to changing consumer needs just as it has done all these years. It will get thinner, lighter and capable of doing much more, and the lines between form factors is going to blur. With the innovation we are driving at the CPU level, our partners will have the increased ability to innovate much more around the look and feel and we will see very exciting form factors coming out, based on how consumers are using technology and emerging needs.

A great example is the announcement of 2-in-1 computing. With the launch of the 4th Generation Intel® Core™ processor family, which will drive an unparalleled amount of innovation in the personal computing space, we will see the start of a new era of 2-in-1 computing. A 2-in-1 device works as a PC when you need it and a tablet when you want that, and you’ll soon start seeing a lot of these products in the market. The new Core family delivers the most significant increase in battery life in Intel history with an additional 50% improvement in battery life in active workloads over the previous generation. The 4th generation Intel Core processors, with Intel Iris Graphics, boast up to two times the performance over today’s fastest Intel HD Graphics, thus bringing mobile computing devices to life with built-in, eye-popping visual experiences. All of this is to meet the needs of today’s mobile and multi-tasking consumers.

India is a large market with its set of challenges. Any experience you would like to share where Intel India has done fabulously well?
Because of our commitment to long-term market development in India, I don’t see the country as a short-term sales opportunity. In fact, that is the biggest mistake one can make. In the short term, the market is and will continue to be one of the most challenging ones we have worked in. But the moment you balance short-term realities with long-term opportunities, the game changes.

One example is the National Digital Literacy Mission we launched last year. Post my return to the country last year, one of my first observations was that the industry was putting the cart before the horse. We were obsessively focused on just selling what we had, to the audience that was already tech savvy. As a result, it was a market share game for everyone while millions of families were still not connected to the Internet.

There was an urgent need to pull together the industry and focus on creating tomorrow’s users – not just to grow the market but to increase technology usage and impact in the country. NDLM was created with this goal in mind. One of the key reasons why people did not use technology in India was that they did not know what to do with it. The objective of NDLM was to address that and drive digital literacy at the grassroots. Intel’s digital literacy training, Intel® Easy Steps, focuses on integration of technology in our daily lives in very simple ways and this training has received an overwhelming response. Along with our partners, we have worked with over 30 NGOs to train 1.7 million people in India in over a year.

To be successful in India, you have to balance between short-term and long-term priorities, and you have to invest in market creation. These two are my mantras for Intel in India.

Thanks to the new age ultra-books and tablets, the PC market has seen a slow down? Has that affected business?
As I said above, the personal computer is no longer defined by a form factor. Andy Grove once said that the PC is the ultimate Darwinian device – it will adapt to what consumers need. Right now, computing is evolving and the industry is in a period of transition and hyper-innovation. New shapes like tablets, 2-in-1s and new operating systems are blurring the traditional lines. We now have a much greater choice of devices; we typically own more devices and choose the right one for the task at hand.

When you look across the spectrum of device form factors (i.e., desktop, notebook, Ultrabook, tablet and smartphone) and operating systems, personal computing is evolving and growing. Intel is well positioned to take advantage of the range of computing devices – from the lowest power portable devices to the most powerful data centre servers and everywhere in-between.

In developing the 4th generation Core, Intel was successful in bringing down the power significantly to reach 6W SDP to power the Ultrabooks and will usher in a wave of new 2-in-1 designs. Furthermore, ‘Bay Trail-M’ and ‘Bay Trail-D’, the 22nm SoCs with PC feature sets, will be available later this year for value 2-in-1s, clamshell laptops, desktops and all-in-one computers, ultimately offering users a spectrum of computing products at a variety of affordable price points. Over the last decade, Intel has moved from a company that largely serves the PC industry to one that increasingly provides the vital intelligence inside all things computing. The beauty of all this is that – IF YOU GET IT RIGHT, the sum total of the devices will have more value for the consumers and industry than the individual device itself. That is the business model we are working towards.

If I have to take a shot at predicting the future, I will say that it will see a multitude of devices and they will continue to get smarter, more power-efficient and more intuitive. And they will all have to talk to each other and work together. It is our goal to create that future with relentless innovation.

How important is the rural Indian market for Intel? Any new front that Intel is working on here?
As per a report by McKinsey, the number of people on the Internet in India will be around 330 million by 2015, making it the 2nd largest base worldwide. However, even with 330 million people connected, we will still be at an Internet penetration of 28%, far less than the projected global average of 43%. To achieve a penetration of nearly 40% by 2015, which would be similar to China’s Internet penetration at that date, India would need to have notched up more than 500 million Internet users. And that is impossible without the participation of rural India. So no debate on that one.

However, the reality is that we cannot expect rural India to adopt the Internet unless and until they see the real relevance. And there lies the challenge. We have to start thinking differently about the market and what it takes to win, with the focus mostly on the following areas:

- Increasing awareness about what the Internet can do in a way that is relevant to the audience. For instance, how farmers can use the Internet to get relevant information like weather details and mandi process to plan their transactions better and increase their earnings. The ability to increase income and productivity will be the most important drivers of faster adoption in the country.

- Innovation at the software and hardware levels is a must to enable solutions that meet the needs of the target audience. As we move beyond the cities, the next wave of users will be largely local language users.

But currently, none of the Indian languages features among the top 10 languages on the Internet. We will need to drive content and application in local languages to cater to the audience. We also need to drive innovations at the interface level to enable more intuitive ways of interacting with technology that simplifies ease of use. For example, the day a farmer can speak to his PC and get the latest weather information in his local language, we will see a real need for technology build up in rural India. The industry will also need to think through ecosystem innovation in areas like alternate power sources as lack of electricity is and will continue to be a key roadblock to Internet adoption and usage.

- Both the government and the industry need to keep striving to bring down the total cost of access. There are several success stories globally where governments have driven special tax incentives or subsidies to accelerate adoption in rural segments, SME and education. These initiatives cannot just be about cheap device as the cost of broadband is the largest piece in the total cost of ownership. Also, given the need to drive inclusive growth, just depending on low-end devices for connectivity is not going to help India.

- Last but not the least, we need to ensure there is last-mile access. While the government lays out the National Fibre Optic Network, there has to be steps taken to work with the industry to drive last-mile access plans.

Currently our focus is more on understanding the rural audience. We are working with select NGO partners to conduct several pilots in rural India to understand how technology can help people. That is the best place to start the thinking.

How do you see the fate of the tablet? It is not doing as well as the smartphone, but is definitely eating into the laptop pie.
I honestly believe that the form factor innovation is just starting and we have seen nothing yet. I think the verdict is out on tablets as they currently exist – they’re here to stay! Today, consumers lead a highly mobile lifestyle and want to be connected at every step. Tablets and smartphones help them do just that.

However, if you look at the usage aspect of ultra-mobile devices, a large part of the usage is for consumption purposes like reading, checking e-mail, social networking, etc., but when it comes to tasks related to creation, users still need something more and that’s where traditional devices like desktops and laptops come in. Still, a tremendous evolution in form factors in these traditional devices is also happening with all-in-one PCs, Ultrabooks and more recently, with the 2-in-1 devices. Intel is at the forefront of enabling the innovation in the personal computing space in all these areas.

When can we see Intel partnering with major mobile brands such as Samsung and Nokia to launch some really powerful smartphones?
It should come as no surprise that Intel is broadening its scope and delivering a range of sleek, new devices. We are accelerating our Android efforts overall and have multiple tablet projects in the works with dozens of customers. ASUS recently announced its Fonepad, a 7 inch handheld device powered by the new Intel® Atom™ Z2420 processor with 3G voice and mobile data for all the features of an Android smartphone and the convenience of a larger tablet display. Additionally, Samsung recently shared that its new Samsung Galaxy 3 tablets will be running on our Intel Atom Z2560 (Clover Trail +) processor platform and will offer the Android operating system. Our newest Atom platform, Bay Trail, is optimised for both Windows and Android. So we expect to see a number of these devices in 2013.

How is the partnership with the XOLO brand going? Can we expect more smartphones coming under the same brand? Can you share some features they will have?
We cannot comment on behalf of Lava on their product roadmap. However, what I can tell you is that the launch of the first Intel processor-based smartphone in the world happened right here in India with the launch of XOLO X900. Today, there are three XOLO phones with Intel processors.

On a personal note, if you had the chance to design a tablet or a smartphone, what features (except the Intel Chipset) would you like to have in it?
Well, the obvious one is that it will have to be an Intel-based device! But if I got a chance to actually design a device, I would like to create a device for the real India, for the millions of people who may not be fluent in English or may not even be literate, but can tremendously benefit from technology if they could use it. My dream device for India is the one that comes with built-in local language speech recognition capabilities, an intuitive interface that can recognise speech and gestures, thus reducing the need to key in words, and with a battery life that can last all day with a few hours of charging to take into account the sporadic access to power in most parts of the country. And yes, it needs to have the flexibility of a tablet and the performance of a laptop built in.