As we look to the next century, is there some lever which can help India to leapfrog into the next century and emerge as a developed prosperous nation? The answer is yes, and the lever is information technology.
The electronic media has ushered in a revolution of Information Technology (IT) revolution it has shrunk the world to such an extent that it could be called a ‘global village’ No achievement of science has caused about such a transformation as it has.
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It has catapulted the programmes of several nations and even individuals. It has opened up an infinite number of new avenues in the fields of health care, education, entertainment, communication, commerce and agriculture.
The software has acquired a sea change in the latter half of the twentieth century. This is because of the technical advancement of the hardware, which has enhanced memory and storage capacity to the area of application.
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The 1990s saw the advent of the windows operating system. It has been marketed by Bill Gates’ Microsoft Company.
Today, it has become the most widely accepted software in the world at the headquarters of the 8 million oracle corporation at Silicon Valley, US.A. 3,500 Indians software developers are employed.
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The government of Andhra Pradesh has transformed the city of Hyderabad into a ‘hi-tech’ city. With this revolution, the state government would become a transparent one. Any persons could gain access to any information by browsing through the internet sites.
In this ways, the bureaucracy would become accountable to the public. The evil of corruption would be drastically reduced. Hyderabad or ‘Cyberabad’, as it has been nicknamed, has already become a place which all global software giants visit.
Karnataka information Technology Department is working towards the provision of internet connections on home television sets.
The interconnection of computers worldwide, known as the internet is revolutionizing, the concept and the conduct of business. Visual and outside access to offices worldwide through the network has given rise to virtual offices.
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One can have easy access to information via internet with the click of a mouse; a person can browse through the different sites available on the internet. The importance of the internet as an all persuasive medium of the future has been well recognised in India.
A very important indicator is the number of businessmen jumping on to internet related business; internet surfing has become one of the latest passions of the Indian youth. Multimedia has contributed to make it more colourful.
Most of the newspapers have opened their sites on the internet which can be accessed to by a large number of readers. The All India Radio made its news accessible, when it went live on the internet of February 25, 1998.
Advertisements are also inserted on the internet. Electronic Consumers has enabled business houses to conduct business transactions through the internet. Soon, our offices would be ‘Pager less’.
With a government which has a farsighted vision, India could also become a superpower. We need politicians with foresight we have the most intelligent human resources, and all it needs is to show them a direction.
As the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh has put it, “Indians are capable. We can compete with any body in the world, in knowledge, in performance; in vision.
We have to create that opportunity. We have all the resources natural and human if you have a vision, things will automatically happen.” It might take a few years but the vision of making India a “software superpower”1 would be realised.
Information technology is the synthesis of computers and can communications but it is unique in the sense that it is a Meta resource just as electricity can be used for a wide range of purpose.
In fact there is no activity in terms of better speed, better quality of sense, better employment generation and better saving of energy and so on. In other words, the Information Technology offers solutions to a wide range of problems.
No wonder this Technology can be effectively employed to tackle all our national problems provided we have the imagination to use this technology to find effective solutions. Let us begin with education.
Our literacy rate is 52 per cent or 62 per cent depending on the statistics you choose to believe but the fact remains that in the next century which is going to be even more technologically advanced than the 20th century a nation cannot be prosperous and developed unless it has a literate population, our highest priority therefore should be for achieving 100 per cent literacy as quickly as possible.
It is here that the information technology can be of immense use. Technologies for long distances are becoming possible, thanks to I.T.
The computer in the classroom can go a long way in helping the quality of educations. For instance, software developed by Dr. Trimurthy of Vallabh Vidyanagar in Gujrat showed
I that illiterate can learn Gujrati alphabet in 10 per cent of the time it takes to learn from a human teacher.
On the other hand we can use I.T. for ensuring that the best teacher can teach not only the class physically present but also teach a large number of students over long distances through a computer network and technologies like video conferencing.
Books, converted in to multimedia CDs, can bring the world of knowledge to schools in the remotest part of the country at an affordable cost.
There are cynics and critics that the cost is going to be prohibitive if we want to use computer in all schools. Thanks to the operation of Moor’s law, the cost of the computer is all the time coming down and the capacity goes on increasing.
It is fortunate that even our political leader seems to have realised the significance of the information technology.
The Prime Minister says, “It is India’s’ tomorrow”, it is happy development that at last there seems to be healthy competition among the various states like Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujrat, Maharashtra and Karnatka to bring increasingly computers in schools.
Next to education is health. Here again with the emphasis on building a national information network, it is possible to go in for telemedicine by which doctors in districts headquarters can treat patients in the primary health centers located in villages.
It is also possible through the computer networking of all primary health centers to monitor the state of health of people and particularly control diseases which are of endemic and epidemic nature.
The third problem area, of course, is unemployment. Education should be able to create opportunities for employment. For instance medical transcription is an existing growth area. Doctors in the United States examine the patients under the insurance schemes and dictate their findings.
These can be transcribed by intelligent stenographers in India connected through the satellite network. Today in Delhi, Bangalore, Coimbatore nearly 1000 people are employed in the activity.
According to Dr. Viswanathan of Indian National Science Documentation Centre, Bibliographic database is a computer networks related industry which can create three lakhs to 30 lakh jobs in the country.
Perhaps the most dramatic development in information technology is the expressive growth of internet. This in turn has given rise to electronic commerce when television became prominent in 60’s. Prof. Marshall said that the medium has become the message.
In fact, internet which is the medium for communication in today has become the market place if India were to follow an imaginative policy and declare a tax holiday for e-commerce for the next 10 years up to year 2010.
India can become a major player in e-commerce. Apart from the special information technology related business like software where India’s prowess is recognized; applying I T in any industry will help in improving the quality of services and saving energy.
For instance, applying Statistical Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA) is possible to reduce transmission losses in electricity distribution. Every megawatt of powers thus saved in turn will create job opportunities because power is one of the basic infrastructure requirements for economic development.
The last major national problem is infrastructure. IT can help in effective project management so that there are no time and cost overruns in major infrastructure projects like power, energy, petroleum ports etc.
Dr. Vikram Sarabhai used to say that developing countries like India which are latecomers in technology have an advantage over developed countries because they can leapfrog through intermediate stages of growth followed by developed countries.
They can avoid the mistakes committed in the past India’s particular strength and skills in software and powerful recognitions in augurs well for IT emerging as a spring board for India to leapfrog into the next century.