India among other APAC countries is least prepared for automation.
Khevna.P.Shah, INN/Bangalore
@Shahkhevna1, @Infodeaofficial
The APAC countries like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are most at risk but are least prepared for the coming wave of automation which is triggered by Covid.
Among the 12 of the Asia Pacific nations, India ranks fifth for the risk of automation and ninth for preparedness, according to the study conducted by Deloitte and a global software firm Autodesk. And due to the larger employment shares in agriculture, manufacturing and construction, India has a greater likelihood of being impacted from automation. And industries like education, public administration and finance are considered to be at lower risk of automation, which comprises only 7% of India’s total employment rate.
India’s preparedness score, which measures the ability of a country to capitalise on automation and provide help to the disadvantaged workers, stood at 44% when compared to the APAC average of 55%. Meanwhile Australia received the highest score of 72% and on the other hand Pakistan was at the lowest at 40%. And India scored 47% in its ability to capitalise on automation when compared to advanced tech adopters in APAC like Singapore that scored 71%.
As the construction sector in India goes through a wave of digitization post pandemic, it is also the fifth most vulnerable in terms of automation ahead of Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines and Myanmar. And similarly in the agriculture sector, countries like India, Philippines and Indonesia have a higher likelihood of automation, and Pakistan’s agri-sector was at the highest risk of impact from automation. After Bangladesh, the mining sector in India has the second highest risk of impact from automation.
The pandemic increased adoption of automation across the world, close to almost half of all the businesses in APAC intend to increase their adoption of robotic process automation over the next year, according to the reports.
The regional director of India and SAARC, Autodesk, Rajeev Mittal said, “Automation creates opportunities for new, more meaningful types of work as it replaces mundane or repetitive manual tasks, but the state of preparedness of countries and industries will determine whether they benefit from these advances. Improving digital literacy, supporting disadvantaged workers, and putting in place the right infrastructure and skills will help create new roles that workers can transition into”.
The study also analysed the labour markets across 12 APAC countries which includes India, Bangladesh, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippians, Thailand and Vietnam.
