Winston Churchill famously remarked "The empires of future would be empires of mind". He had the foresight to envision and predict the role of technology in times ahead even when the whole world was struggling with the hysteria of two world wars.
Technology benefited the growth process of western nations. They had sufficient capital earned from the loot of colonization which was channelized in right spheres. The capital along with the risk taking spirit of westerners to explore the unknown led to innovation and inventions. This spiraled the process of development.
However, the third world has not witnessed similar developmental trajectory. Here the technology-economy-demography fit is yet to occur. The magic wand of technology has produced mixed results.
On one hand, technology has made life easier for us. Take health for instance. Our mortality rate has come down from sixteen to approximately seven, life expectancy has increased from thirty three to sixty five since independence. Today a large number of jobs are created in IT sector which is at the forefront of technological revolution. New kind of jobs like computer reservation centers, cyber cafe and the sophisticated call center jobs are the direct result of technology.
However, there is a flip side as well. Technology has created churn in the job market. So on one hand we witness creation of new job profiles, but on the other hand we see a large number of jobs turning obsolete. For example, introduction of phone led to large employment opportunity at PCO booths. However, within a decade, the PCO became an artifact of past and people working as PCO operator became an extinct species.
The same is going to happen with mobile recharge or ticket reservation counters. Today a large segment of population is moving to next generation of technology i.e. smart phone. This has led to culture of apps where every single need or workflow is captured through mobile based software. The software eliminates the human element and automate the whole process. As a result, I can recharge my phone without having to go to nearest mobile recharge shop. Similarly, I can order my vegetables or book my movie tickets or wash my cloths just by a click of button.
In the age of technology, it is not about education or no education. Rather it is the individuals ability to learn unlearn and relearn which decides ones employability.
In this context, technology has unfolded in very curious manner. Every economy thrives on the interplay of four factors of production namely land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship.
Strangely, technology was never given the space in the factors of production.
In Indian context, land is limited and per capita land availability is nearly 30 times lesser than USA. So land is not our strength.
For capital, we are already in the process of liberalizing the economy. Our PM is visiting country after country, selling the ideas of Make in India, First develop India, Incredible India, Stand up India, Skilled India to investors and Indian diaspora abroad. So we are left with two other factors. One is labour and other is entrepreneurship. The foundation of technological spring board needs to be put on these two pillars. This would in-turn decide nature of India based enterprises and how they set out to achieve demography-technology-economy fit.
From labor perspective, our workforce needs to mentally prepare themselves for this churning. Given the abundance of labour, we need to thrive of labour intensive technology instead of labour displacing technology. So while technology can help us in feeling real shopping experience through online simulation tool, It should create parallel job opportunity for large number of delivery boys who could deliver things at home in line with Japanese principle of Just-in-time management. Secondly, labors should be mentally prepared for the churn. Thirdly, there is no replacement of a skill based job. Skill provides the ultimate hedge against any kind of vulnerability of the economy. Fourthly, labour workforce should compensate the land factor. For example, We do not have space for parking in some areas in Karol Bagh so technology should enable a solution where I could find a valet parking guy whenever I need and I could get my car at the desired spot within stipulated time.
From enterprise perspective, we need people who have the moderate risk taking ability and possess out of box thinking. India does not need monopoly organizations like USA. This wont fit here. Instead we need multiple local players each catering to their own territory. For example, Nandini brand dominating Karnataka. Amul dominating Gujrat and Mother Dairy dominating Delhi. Thus, we need state level or city level entrepreneurs. Secondly, we need social entrepreneur. This is the least tapped domain. Whoever is able to crack and monetize this could make huge social-economic impact. This would be definitely low profit margin business but one could realize decent turnover in scale. The underlying point is we need employers who believe that technology is not for displacing people. Instead technology along with people could make better, easier and comfortable.
'Richard Branson' had said In future we'll have just two types of jobs, one is entertainment and other is technology. India is poor on land front and dependent on foreign investors for capital. Therefore, our focus should be on utilising labour and enterprising spirit in the individual to create right kind of technology enabled ecosystem where general profit oriented ruthless
approach could be subdued.
Technology benefited the growth process of western nations. They had sufficient capital earned from the loot of colonization which was channelized in right spheres. The capital along with the risk taking spirit of westerners to explore the unknown led to innovation and inventions. This spiraled the process of development.
However, the third world has not witnessed similar developmental trajectory. Here the technology-economy-demography fit is yet to occur. The magic wand of technology has produced mixed results.
On one hand, technology has made life easier for us. Take health for instance. Our mortality rate has come down from sixteen to approximately seven, life expectancy has increased from thirty three to sixty five since independence. Today a large number of jobs are created in IT sector which is at the forefront of technological revolution. New kind of jobs like computer reservation centers, cyber cafe and the sophisticated call center jobs are the direct result of technology.
However, there is a flip side as well. Technology has created churn in the job market. So on one hand we witness creation of new job profiles, but on the other hand we see a large number of jobs turning obsolete. For example, introduction of phone led to large employment opportunity at PCO booths. However, within a decade, the PCO became an artifact of past and people working as PCO operator became an extinct species.
The same is going to happen with mobile recharge or ticket reservation counters. Today a large segment of population is moving to next generation of technology i.e. smart phone. This has led to culture of apps where every single need or workflow is captured through mobile based software. The software eliminates the human element and automate the whole process. As a result, I can recharge my phone without having to go to nearest mobile recharge shop. Similarly, I can order my vegetables or book my movie tickets or wash my cloths just by a click of button.
In the age of technology, it is not about education or no education. Rather it is the individuals ability to learn unlearn and relearn which decides ones employability.
In this context, technology has unfolded in very curious manner. Every economy thrives on the interplay of four factors of production namely land, labour, capital and entrepreneurship.
Strangely, technology was never given the space in the factors of production.
In Indian context, land is limited and per capita land availability is nearly 30 times lesser than USA. So land is not our strength.
For capital, we are already in the process of liberalizing the economy. Our PM is visiting country after country, selling the ideas of Make in India, First develop India, Incredible India, Stand up India, Skilled India to investors and Indian diaspora abroad. So we are left with two other factors. One is labour and other is entrepreneurship. The foundation of technological spring board needs to be put on these two pillars. This would in-turn decide nature of India based enterprises and how they set out to achieve demography-technology-economy fit.
From labor perspective, our workforce needs to mentally prepare themselves for this churning. Given the abundance of labour, we need to thrive of labour intensive technology instead of labour displacing technology. So while technology can help us in feeling real shopping experience through online simulation tool, It should create parallel job opportunity for large number of delivery boys who could deliver things at home in line with Japanese principle of Just-in-time management. Secondly, labors should be mentally prepared for the churn. Thirdly, there is no replacement of a skill based job. Skill provides the ultimate hedge against any kind of vulnerability of the economy. Fourthly, labour workforce should compensate the land factor. For example, We do not have space for parking in some areas in Karol Bagh so technology should enable a solution where I could find a valet parking guy whenever I need and I could get my car at the desired spot within stipulated time.
From enterprise perspective, we need people who have the moderate risk taking ability and possess out of box thinking. India does not need monopoly organizations like USA. This wont fit here. Instead we need multiple local players each catering to their own territory. For example, Nandini brand dominating Karnataka. Amul dominating Gujrat and Mother Dairy dominating Delhi. Thus, we need state level or city level entrepreneurs. Secondly, we need social entrepreneur. This is the least tapped domain. Whoever is able to crack and monetize this could make huge social-economic impact. This would be definitely low profit margin business but one could realize decent turnover in scale. The underlying point is we need employers who believe that technology is not for displacing people. Instead technology along with people could make better, easier and comfortable.
'Richard Branson' had said In future we'll have just two types of jobs, one is entertainment and other is technology. India is poor on land front and dependent on foreign investors for capital. Therefore, our focus should be on utilising labour and enterprising spirit in the individual to create right kind of technology enabled ecosystem where general profit oriented ruthless
approach could be subdued.
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