Manoj Menon, Partner and Asia Pacific Managing Director at Frost & Sullivan, presented the 2020 Global Mega Trends and their impact on business, society and culture at the GIL 2010: Asia Pacific summit.

Given below is a brief summary of the top Mega Trends:

URBANIZATION:

• Urbanization: Increasing pace of urbanization will lead to integration of core city centres with suburbs and daughter cities resulting in expanding city limits. This will have a massive impact on the future of mobility, working life and societies. Three concepts of urbanization are emerging, namely as megacities, mega regions and mega corridors.

Mega Cities:  Mega cities are formed when the core city integrates with suburbs and houses over 5 million people.

Mega Regions: Integration of two or more mega-cities or expansion of the core city to join with adjoining daughter cities forming Mega Regions housing over 15 million people.

Mega Corridor:  Two or more Mega Cities or Mega Regions converge to form Mega Corridors. These can be 100 km-plus distance and have a population of over 25 million living within the corridor.

• With the advent of technology and infrastructure development, there will be a shift from “GREEN” to “SMART” concept. Some SMART initiatives will find their way into elements of Energy, Technology, Grids, Cars, Buildings, Utilities and Infrastructure. Energy efficiency and zero emissions will be the basic premise of such initiatives. By 2020, more than 40 global cities will emerge as SMART cities leading to convergence of competition across Energy, Infrastructure, Building Automation and Technology players.

E-MOBILITY:

• E-Mobility:

Over 40 million electric two wheelers and four wheelers will be sold annually around the globe in 2020. A new eco-system is emerging with the advent of electric vehicles. Government and System Integrators are the key stakeholders of this eco-system. Integrators are expected to create an innovative environment with new business models by establishing partnerships with utilities, other equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and governments. E-Mobility, from electric cars to electric aircrafts, will usher in a new set of players with new business models offering innovative and customized set of infrastructure and technology solutions.

SOCIAL:

• Geo-Socialization:

Generation Y, those born between mid 70s to mid 90s, is the new defining generation with different values, beliefs, and attitudes compared to previous generations. Out of the projected 7.5 billion population in 2020, around 2.56 billion will be from the age group of 15-34 years, out of which 61 percent will be from Asia. This means that Asian GEN Y – particularly from India and China (together constituting around 37 percent) - will be one of the most influential and significant consumer groups that companies will target. This age group will be the most adaptive to change, most willing to experiment new technologies and products and would prefer information and services real-time and on-demand. Preferred features of GEN Y products are:

1. Ability to Personalize
2. Technically Advanced and Helps Connectivity 24 x 7
3. Eco – Friendly for the Environmental Conscious Gen Y
4. On- demand and fast 

Companies must therefore invest and design products and technologies that have the above-mentioned characteristics.

• Social Networking:

The next platform of social networking will rely on geographic services and capabilities such as geocoding and geotagging. These collaborative web-mapping techniques will result in new trends of networking, digital marketing and innovative ways of socializing furthering the evolution of interaction between individuals and organizations.

TECHNOLOGY:

• SPACE JAM: Future of Satellites: With the launch of GALILEO, and around 900 new satellites by 2020, new navigation and communication technologies will be enabled, leading to multiple innovations in Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, Mobile Satellite Services (MSS), and increase in broadband speeds.

• Virtual World: Digital networking, online communities and computer-simulated environments will govern businesses, healthcare, education, mobility and even personal relationships by 2020. 3D virtual environments and avatars will interact, simulate real-life situations enabling users to experience, and interact in virtual reality.

• RoboSlaves: Robotic Technology combined with Artificial Intelligence will assist humans in manufacturing, space, military, civil security and transportation sectors. Additionally, robotics will soon enter into the realm of personal relationships acting as a slave, companion and even a decision-maker