India's green IT, sustainability spend to hit $45B in 2012
India will spend US$45 billion on green IT and sustainability initiatives this year, and hit US$70 billion by 2015, thanks to government policies driving adoption.
In a report Tuesday, market research firm Gartner said green IT and sustainability were key concerns for businesses, investors and technologists across industries and policymakers in India.
Government policies will fuel adoption of green and sustainability technologies among enterprises, according to Ganesh Ramamoorthy, research director at Gartner.
He noted that a chapter on sustainable development and climate change was introduced for the first time in the government's annual Indian Economic Survey 2011-2012, where lower-carbon sustainable growth was proposed as a central element of India's 12th five-year-plan.
"This will set the tone for future policy initiatives and regulatory measures from the Indian government that will drive the implementation of some technologies…necessary to usher in low-carbon sustainable growth" he said. Such efforts would look at advanced metering infrastructure, intelligent transportation systems, solar energy, electronic waste, distributed power generation, and water management, for example.
Awareness of green IT and sustainability issues is generally low among Indian organizations, although a few leading ones have been incorporating green IT and sustainability solutions into their business operations. Yet, this is done through a piecemeal approach that relies more on hype surrounding the technologies, rather than the real benefit the organization can gain, Ramamoorthy said.
"Many Indian organizations still lack the strategic focus that comes with a clear understanding of the core issues and key technologies that bring about real change in the vision for sustainability and green IT in an organization," he said.
Indian enterprises have been using IT to boost productivity and growth, and while the ICT infrastructure has grown rapidly over the last decade, so has its energy consumption and carbon emissions, Gartner pointed out.
It suggested that linking integrated solutions through resource-efficient technologies and operational technologies in urban areas and smaller cities will accelerate the development of sustainable processes and infrastructure in the future.
Other industries, including banking and financial services, hospitality, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals, will also join the green IT and sustainability trend to address energy, carbon, resource efficiency and sustainable economic development, it added.