Nearly two-fifths or 41 per cent of Indian businesses believe that investing in technology and innovation has to be a top priority as they prepare for uncertainties over the next five years, revealed findings from HSBC’s latest Navigator report.

“This was the highest across all markets covered under the survey and significantly higher than the overall average of 28 per cent,” said the report ‘Building Back Better’.

The report surveyed more than 2,600 companies across 14 countries, including 200 firms from India.

“The survey points towards the impact of technology and how businesses can leverage technology and innovation to enhance and improve the way they work and do business. As a critical element to build resilience, the role of technology has come into sharper focus during the pandemic. It has necessitated a mind-set change as the advantages of adopting digitisation are becoming increasingly evident,” said Rajat Verma, Head of Commercial Banking, HSBC India.

The survey found that Indian businesses have been steadily investing in technology. Over the past two years, around 77 per cent of Indian businesses have invested in technology and innovation as against the overall average across all markets of 65 per cent and second only to mainland China at 79 per cent.

It also revealed that due to the current environment, maintaining sufficient cash flow and gaining access to advanced technology were identified as key barriers to building resilience over the next six months by the surveyed Indian firms.

Gaining access to advanced technology was chosen by 38 per cent of Indian firms, the highest across all markets surveyed while maintaining sufficient cash flow was voted by 41 per cent Indian firms, marginally behind Malaysia at 42 per cent, the survey revealed.