Dubai’s big digital leap and how Indian companies are helping shape it in 2023

Dubai: If Dubai has been a world leader in adopting modern technologies across industries as part of its ‘game changing’ digital transformation initiatives, then a lot of it is down to the crucial role Indian companies are continuing to play in 2023, according to leading entrepreneurs and industry leaders doing business in the emirates.

Using modern tools of AI, Cloud technology, Web3 and Metaverse, rapid strides are made in improving areas such as healthcare, fintech startups, tourism, and food security in Dubai, which is today home to more than a million Indians.

“The impact of robust bilateral relations was limited to trade and geopolitics. Today, the impact extends to entrepreneurship and talent flows as well,” says Atul Hegde, founder of YAAP, a new-age specialised content company that brings together technology and data to deliver creative campaigns like the one involving Shahrukh Khan for Visit Dubai. “Innovation happens at intersections, and both nations can exemplify it at a scale not attempted ever before. At a time when geopolitical cracks are widening globally, transnational entrepreneurship will be of great consequence to both parties.”

When the Dubai government introduced a single electronic medical record for all patients, Indian-owned Zulekha Hospital claimed to be the first private operator to get onboard. When the group established in 1992, its owner Zulekha Daud of Nagpur was the first lady medical entrepreneur from India to operate in the UAE. They have made efforts towards enhancing operational excellence and healthcare outcomes. The unified healthcare system has further enabled to improve patient engagements and clinical collaborations for medical tourists. According to Taher Shams, Managing Director of Zulekha Group, “technical advancements enforce confidence in the quality of service hospitals provide to residents.”

Other big hospital groups such as Aster Healthcare and Thumbay are also joint with Zulekha Group in accessing the NABIDH data to personalize it internally and collaborate with other providers for a better experience.

“Cultural kinship is conducive to further synergistic efforts, transnational talent mobility, and the exchange of best-in-class modalities,” says Abhay Pandey, CEO of Dubai-based IT managing consultancy MAST. “Thus far, talent mobility has been mostly Indian entrepreneurs venturing into the UAE; not the other way around.” The city’s world class infrastructure provides the right platform for investors, startups, to converge, collaborate, and conduct business.

According to Alisha Moopen, Aster’s Deputy Managing Director, her company is partners with Intel and CARPL, India’s first end-to-end development company in medical imaging, to introduce a new system for health tech solutions while protecting data. Through a tie-up with 3M, they have adopted a speech and AI-powered technology to enable physicians to conversationally create, review, edit and sign clinical notes digitally.

Many daily tasks are becoming seamless with the onset of Metaverse. Using digital imaging and providing virtual access into the Metaverse has given a boost to medical tourism for both India and Dubai nationals.

Mega on Metaverse

Dr Thumbay Moideen, Founder President of Thumbay group – one of UAE’s leading Indian conglomerates, reveals they are embarking “on a transformative programme with the launch of a hospital on the Metaverse. People intending to visit from anywhere in the world can have a feel of what to expect while patients can interact with doctors through their avatars.”

The global platform is welcome news for ecommerce and B2B players too from India. Rajiv Nath, Managing Director of HMD, is working on the expansion of a portal for medical supplies, Medikabazaar, with Dubai as a regional base. “The online and physical collaborative model helps in optimal inventory management and reduce working capital expenses for end buyers. Lowering cost is the objective,” says Nath whose company has been supplying medical equipment to Dubai and rest of the region for over two decades now.

Meanwhile, Indian health-tech startup ShopDoc is also looking at Metaverse to explore the demand for a virtual healthcare ecosystem by the Gen Z population. “That's the age group where awareness, preventive healthcare and healthy habits need to be instilled,” says Shihab Makaniyil, Co-Founder of the Dubai-based startup, which claims to leverage a network of over 200 hospitals and 3,000 medical practitioners in India. “Within the next 10 years, more than 50% of the population is expected to access digital healthcare services through the Metaverse.”

Startups on a roll

Where there is future trade, venture capitalists and accelerators cannot be far behind to act as a bridge. “The golden visa initiative (residency of 5 to 10 years) of the UAE government has accelerated such movement,” says Swethal Kumar, founder of Startupscale360 on the back of the 11^th season of the Step Conference, the region’s biggest tech festival for emerging markets held earlier this week in Dubai. “There is an influx of many Indian entrepreneurs to Dubai mainly because of ease of setting up business, zero personal tax, 100% company ownership and friendly policies. Some venture capitalists also shuttle between Dubai and India, setting up SPV (special project vehicles) to raise capital from Middle East while part of the capital is earmarked for investment in startups from the MENA region.”

The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) has also acted as a catalyst to the bilateral trade since being formalized in May 2022. “At the government level, further to the CEPA agreement, an India-UAE Startup Bridge was launched last year to bring synergies between the two ecosystems,” says Siby Sudhakaran, founder of Startup Middle East. “Ever since we are seeing an influx … As a platform, we organize a monthly market exposure cohort of over 30 startups each, mainly from India. The support extended by both governments is overwhelming and encouraging.”

India is the UAE’s second-largest trade partner, accounting for nine percent of the UAE’s total foreign trade and 13 percent of non-oil exports. In the eight months since the CEPA signing, where UAE has duties waived off for almost 90 percent of Exports from India

On the sidelines of another event around CEPA, Mohammad Ali bin Rashed Lootah, President and CEO of Dubai Chambers, said: “More than 30 per cent of the startups in Dubai come from India and over 1 million jobs have been created by Indian firms and NRI-owned entities in the UAE.” More than 83,000 companies have registered with Dubai Chambers as of December 2022.

He added: “India was among the top 3 countries in Agrotech investment in2020. The CEPA is a useful exercise to explore the synergies between UAE food security initiatives and India in the tech ecosystem.”

The two-way annual trade between the two countries across various sectors could touch US$100 billion – up from US$60 billion – in the next five years. Whether it is healthcare, fintech and startups, IT or food security, digital intervention is making the reforms seamless in the hyperactive corridors across sectors.