Metaverse impact on India’s economy could be $79-148 billion by 2035: Deloitte

With over half of its population under the age of 30, the country produces the highest number of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) graduates globally and is demographically well-positioned to contribute digital labour to the metaverse.

The report, ‘The Metaverse in Asia -Strategies for Accelerating Economic Impact’, estimates that the impact of the metaverse to GDP in Asia could be between $0.8 trillion and $1.4 trillion per year by 2035, which is roughly 1.3 to 2.4 percent of overall GDP.

“Beyond its obvious demographic advantage, attitudes of its population towards the metaverse are more optimistic than the rest of the world. The metaverse could open up exciting opportunities for tech talent in India,” said Jehil Thakkar, Partner, Media and Entertainment sector leader, Deloitte India.

The metaverse is envisioned to create a new market along with business, and employment opportunities while improving the way people work, consume technology and collaborate. For the four billion people living in Asia, these developments will be transformational if scaled up fully.

Each region in Asia has a different metaverse strategy depending on its strengths, ranging from the electronics and semiconductor supply chain to tech talent and creating a regulatory framework.

The report highlights digital payments, and gaming and entertainment as the two key sectors where the metaverse would have an impact in India. “Digital payments will be a crucial component of the metaverse to trade digital assets. India could feature strongly in this development, as she has the highest rates of real-time digital payments in the world,” according to the report.

India being the world’s largest mobile gaming market in terms of app downloads is a promising development as games are a vital entry point into the metaverse.

The study found that awareness of the metaverse in Asia is high, and early metaverse platforms are already being used by millions of people in the region for gaming, socialising, creating digital twins, attending concerts, and purchasing items. However, a fully immersive metaverse with smooth real-time rendering of visually rich worlds for millions of simultaneous users is still years away.