Rapid Tech Adoption and Talents Make India a Key Player in Global Web3 Market: Study

A series of enabling factors places India at the forefront of global Web3 transformation, said a report by Nasscom, a no-profit apex body of the $227-billion Indian tech industry.

It identifies the rapid adoption of new technologies, vast talent pool, and robust startup ecosystem as the key drivers of the nation’s push for a key role in the global Web3 market. 

India Web3 Landscape

Launched in Bengaluru last week, the report – The India Web3 Startup Landscape: An Emerging Technology Leadership Frontier – has been prepared jointly by Nasscom and a Web3 venture capital firm, Hashed Emergent. 

It says India has 450 Web3 startups, and four of them are unicorns. Also, these entities received $1.3 billion of venture funding in two years, from 2020 to 2022.

Although 60% are registered outside India, at least 30% have come up in the past year. And many of them have Defi, NFT, and Gaming projects. Defi activities were particularly high, with $88 billion worth of value received on-chain in 2021, the Nasscom report reveals.  

“India’s rapid adoption of new-age technologies, its growing start-up ecosystem, and large-scale digitally skilled talent potential is cementing the country’s position in the global Web3 landscape,” Debjani, President, Nasscom, said while releasing the report in Bengaluru.

The report throws a spotlight on India’s vast Web3 and blockchain talent pool by saying it accounts for 11% of the global market, making it the third largest. 

“India’s Web3 talent pool is growing at the fastest rate worldwide, at around 120 percent likely in the next 1-2 years,” the report says. 

Globally, crypto and Web3 firms received $30.5 billion of venture capital in 2021. The user base, currently 320 million, is expected to reach 1 billion by 2030.

Policy Dichotomy 

The Nasscom report underscores the disconnect between the surging Web3 ecosystem and the lack of policy framework to support and drive the growth in the crypto and Web3 sectors. While government policies encourage blockchain technologies, it’s not the same for crypto.

Recently, district police in India launched a Polygon-based complaint filing portal to avoid manipulation by police officials. At the other end of the spectrum, crypto trading has been saddled with several taxes.    

“The lack of policy clarity around Virtual Digital Assets (VDAs), leading to a lack of confidence in founders and innovators, thereby forcing them to move their base to other countries, is not only taking the market away but also the critical talent and expertise needed in this area,” it points out.