Union Budget of India for year 2019 plans to bring new opportunities and hope for youth, startups, and entrepreneurs. With Reskilling India campaign, the government is looking to train people and enhance their skills on various emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), etc. About 10 million people will be included in skills enhancement training by 2020 at an estimated cost of Rs 12000 crore.

Let us analyse how an emphasis on frontier technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) & Augmented Reality (AR) will impact the industry in India in coming years.

VR & AR are penetrating deep in every walk of life. 3 out of every 4 Forbes World’s Most Valuable Brands have come up with some or other kind of AR/ VR experience for their employees or customers or are in the process of developing one. Market giants like Google, Microsoft, and Apple are consistently bringing in new innovation in this market. In fact, it is expected that almost 14 million VR devices would be sold in 2019.

One of the most important use cases of Virtual Reality is in the manufacturing industry. 43% of manufacturing companies accept that VR will become mainstream in their organization in the next few years.

· VR helps new employees get trained without taking real world risks. By creating a simulated world, they can be trained easily without any hazard, and their performances can be tracked in real time.

· Defect elimination would be easy with AR and VR powered devices and thus reduces the chances of error.

· Prototypes become much less expensive with VR as it allows you to make as many changes until you and your customers are satisfied.

As per Gartner, only 20% of the employees have skills required for the current roles and future requirement. Virtual Reality application in workforce skilling in India could increase this stat. This is imperative for the Make in India campaign and to bring international manufacturing units here.

VR helps in mock-up visualization and thus in selling and buying a property. It also helps in construction, renovation, and customization of any property.

· Customers can take a virtual 3D walk in an apartment and can view each room and interior virtually as if they are standing inside that room.

· Virtual Reality supports foreign investments. Virtual tours of the property help buyers make a better decision and businesses to approach buyers on a global scale.

The real estate sector is expected to reach $180 billion by 2020 in India. Also, the sector is expected to contribute 13% to the country’s GDP by 2025 as reported by the World Economic Forum. Workforce in real state comprises of one of the largest untrained population which could include builder’s sales agents to brokers. VR skilled workforce can provide solutions to this sector and help make a meaningful increase in the GDP.

Healthcare industry is incorporating VR in diagnostics, treatment, medical training, medical marketing, disease awareness, and other difficult surgical procedures. Recently a Cancer Surgeon trained more than 13000 medical students through virtual reality (360-degree video).

· Healthcare professionals are now able to come up with 3D virtual models by combining CAT scans and ultrasounds.

· With Virtual Reality, doctors can have a 360-degree view of even the minute details of any part of the body through CGI reconstruction. It also helps in creating training scenarios for emerging doctors and trainees.

· Virtual Reality assists in viewing the insides of the human body virtually in full detail. This lets students make as many mistakes to finally perfect their surgical capabilities without requiring practicing on cadavers.

The worldwide market for virtual reality in the healthcare sector is expected to reach $3.8 billion by 2020. India has 800,000 actively practicing doctors, 60,000 students join MBBS every year and around 2 million registered nurses. VR based training for all of them could benefit patients and care givers alike.

VR is making its foray in the travel and tourism sector. People can now book hotels from anywhere by visiting the room and hotel virtually. The computer mouse and touch screen can be replaced with VR headsets for booking. Likewise, a travel agency can provide virtual travel experiences and give a compelling experience to potential customers. In fact, 13% of people who experience a VR vacation are more likely to go on to book a trip or contact the hospitality companies.

In India, travel & tourism accounts for 9.3% of the total jobs which includes hotel staff, air crew, ticketing agents, guides etc. who can benefit by better and fast trainings through VR. There is a big gap in the availability and requirements of such trainings and presents a big scope for VR solution providers.

NASA and the US government are also investing in virtual reality. NASA is implementing VR to help engineers get familiar with the devices that will be sent into space. US military uses VR to train their soldiers and prepare them for the chaos of combat.

The Chinese government has also emphasized on AR/VR in its 2016–2020 five year plan. As a result, two bodies “the China Virtual Reality Industry Alliance” and “the VR Application Branch of China’s Culture and Entertainment Industry Association” have been introduced in 2016.

Likewise, Changi Airport in Singapore has recently deployed a technological pilot test with the help of AR/VR. They are also revamping the ground services and ramp handling services with this.

It is evident now that AR and VR are the front runner technologies helping industries and countries train better and build better. Thus up-skilling the people with on them will bring a very positive result in the future of India. 78% of Americans are already familiar with VR. As other developed countries are already using such technologies for their benefits, India also needs to be prepared accordingly. It is not only about up-skilling the people, but also about strengthening the nation in terms of technology, people, and power.

Union Budget 2019’s focus on Reskilling India: Why Virtual Reality Is Crucial was originally published in AR/VR Journey: Augmented & Virtual Reality Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.