Is IT giving diminishing returns?

 Asoke K. Laha
President & MD,
Interra IT

Tucked in the obscure corners of the Indian dailies, three news items have appeared in the recent days, which would have escaped the attention of even serious readers. One was about the book fair held in Delhi at Pragati Maidan. The news analyzed the reasons behind the drop in attendance at the normally well-visited book fair. Parents held back the children from visiting the fair mostly on account of the focus on digital publishing at the fair. They did not want their children to get exposed excessively to videos and DVDs, etc, which were on display more than the printed books.

The second news item related to the opening up of Internet de-addiction centres in the metros for students who were obsessed with surfing, particularly adult sites. Many parents are secretly admitting the menace of surfing among their wards during their absence or at times when they are alone is increasing. The third related news item was about the government’s stand taken before the Supreme Court that it was impossible to filter the pornographic sites beamed from servers located abroad.

Do these things portend that the IT revolution that swept across the world has started giving diminishing returns? Does it mean that a sort of revulsion is building across the IT landscape? Happily, there are not many takers for this hypothesis.

Similarly, breakthroughs in IT are incremental like a ladder. It moves up to chase newer agenda and purpose. Stifling such quest for knowledge is counterproductive in the sense that it thwarts the creative mind and acts as a stumbling block for achieving the potential. My sense is that apprehensions that IT is encroaching into the values of the orderly society is an alibi for those who cannot stand up to be in the race for human expression that IT provides.

On the other hand, I believe that an IT buff has many things to cheer in India. The indomitable resolution of the government to create a digital infrastructure that can reach every nook and corner of the country, the currently launched initiatives such as IT-enabled financial inclusion programme, digitally linking educational institutions in the country, etc are good auguries. There is a shade of public opinion that these initiatives are not new, they existed even before in one form or the other is a politically loaded area and I do not want to enter into the merits and demerits of such discussions. But one thing has to be taken cognizance that such assertions lend credence to the argument that the IT culture is more closely etched into the Indian psyche than ever before.

Will these initiatives make India an IT superpower in the foreseeable future? An answer in the affirmative, I believe, is an oversimplification of growth dynamics. The creation of an infrastructure of a gigantic size and hue is a necessary condition for India’s emergence as an IT superpower, but not a sufficient one. A lot more has to be done to put that infrastructure and facilities to optimal use. Also, the benefit of these facilities should flow equitably to all, more particularly to the poorest of the poor, who are marginalized for centuries and hold no hope so far to get them bailed out from that abject condition in which they live. Will these happen in India? Let us look at the IT landscape critically and find out our strengths and weaknesses to carve out a roadmap for the future.

I have a feeling that, barring a few who might be using IT applications for higher research or doing scholarly works, the rest in India feels that software development, IT-enabled services, call centres, web designing, e-mail, etc are all about IT. But IT is an unexplored domain, where there can be tectonic discoveries that can rewrite human history. Are our mindsets grooved to this reality? I am afraid it is not.

From sheer acquisition of basic knowledge, IT has to traverse a long and arduous domain to unravel more epoch-making discoveries and innovations. Are we prepared for it? My considered view is that we are ill-prepared to unravel that path. How many of our universities or IT companies are involved in original research? If there are any such institutions, frankly speaking, I am not aware of it. Our universities or even schools of higher learning are embarked on creating IT professionals who can work in corporations and we take great pride while reading that they are offered astronomical sums as salaries during their campus placements. Our erudite President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, has made a statement recently, which should open up our minds and introspect how that is happening. He reminded a distinguished audience that the last time an Indian received Nobel Prize while teaching and researching in an Indian university was 84 years ago. That was Dr C. V. Raman. Today, there are 720 universities, 37,000 degree colleges and 11,000 polytechnics / ITIs. But these huge infrastructure put together could not produce a Nobel laureate from our own environs. Those who got the Nobel or any other higher recognition are those Indians who are researching / working in other countries. Is it not a sad commentary on our educational system? 

The next important thing is making IT a powerful social tool. India is still very low in the pecking order in universalizing IT across the country. Only a fraction of the total population has access to Internet, computers and the like. The percentage of people using modern gadgets like mobile phones or fixed line telephones are still low compared to many countries.

Finally, coming back to our theme: is IT giving diminishing returns in the Indian context? I feel it is a farfetched conundrum when IT has not even etched the peripherals of our Indian psyche. Diminishing returns in the economic sense can operate only when we reach the peak of satisfaction. In the case of IT, we have miles to traverse to reach that level of satisfaction, from where diminishing returns start operating.