Zoo Zoos to Rule Based Economics
The month, which has passed by, recorded many significant developments. I must qualify that statement by mentioning that it is a very subjective view, meaning that what I consider important may be trivial to others. Yet, I gather the confidence to place before you some of my stray thoughts. A few of the girls and boys who made grades in the recent civil service exams (IAS and Allied) had strong to causal IT backgrounds. I believe that the girl who topped had worked in an IT firm before starting preparation for the exam. The other important point is that there are many who had qualified from rural areas and semi-urban centres. I feel that UPSC should conduct a detailed study about the methodology of preparation for the competitive examination.
Without much adieu, let me come to the brass tacks. I am confident that almost all of the candidates who have made the grades and multitudes who did not make it used Internet for the preparation of the examination.
That was perhaps the reason that the interns to the coveted services are increasingly becoming truly representative of our national character. No longer our metros or hallowed institutions, operating out from these centres blessed with strings of libraries and referral facilities, can claim that they churn out maximum number of civil servants. Does it mean that advent of Internet is a leveler? I believe so.
Someone browsing the net can download millions of pieces of information on a subject including that that has happened today. As schools and colleges are vying with each other in implementing computer education even in the remotest areas, I vouch for a paradigm shift in the profile of candidates qualifying for competitive education. That can be true for civil service, IITs, IIMs and the like. That is the power of inclusion of IT and its strength in building strong democratic institutions focusing on, quality, equity and fair play. Does it lead to “massification” of IT culture? My response to it is in the affirmative.
That takes me to the next point. You guessed right- IPL, the last word for cricket. While sixers, fours and hatricks enthrall cricket buffs, it was a non-cricket event that caught up with the imagination of the people-the zoo zoos. That white puny, alien looking little creatures, with a lot of tantrums and impudent looks proved everybody wrong. Many thought Vodafone’s brand ambassadors are mere animations till the media took it to the public that they are human beings made to look like animated creatures from the other world. Some of the TV channels even went to the extent of showing how the film has been shot and how the white attire is being crafted so meticulously. People believed that they are human beings only after the channels shown how the camouflaging has been done using men and women and print media had written front-paged stories.
What that gripped me was the across the board appeal of the ads. I heard talks about the zoo zoos in the cocktail circuits and in serious meetings. I am sure many such ads are likely to hit the scene sooner or later. I tried to go beyond the fact that it was a well-crafted ad. It is a power statement that animation is going to catch up the imagination of the people. I do not know how big the animation industry in the world and even in India. But I am sure its potential is enormous, not because zoo zoos have set the trend but by the great appeal and comic interlude the animations can evoke. I must confess that I still like cartoons and animated illustrations since I feel that there is a lot of simplicity and élan in such caricatures. That makes you to understand the complex issues in a reflective mode. More than anything else, it instructs me that the world is simple, straightforward and less calumnious. Let me be in that virtual world at least for sometime.
I would not have been surprised if anyone thought that I should have started the column with Obama’s recent statement that explicitly and implicitly referred to the US nervousness on outsourcing. I do not know still whether it is a political statement or an economic edict. One thing I am sure of is that, it has sent cold waves across the boardrooms. Initially everybody thought that the ramifications of the new policy initiatives were limited to IT only. The new reports suggest that it can impact other segments like pharma, auto components etc. But I am an incorrigible optimist. I will tell you how. I am not going to refer to my oft-repeated rationale that Indian software industry bases its operations in platforms and software imported from the US. Nor am I going to roll out facts and figures on how the US industry stands to benefit from outsourcing by way of cutting cost. That I believe is revisiting the same arguments over and again. I only underline that the meltdown is a global phenomenon and there cannot be any solution specific to a country or region. We also should not look at knee jerk solutions since they will be short-lived and address the problem from a peripheral perspective.
IT is not the key driver of the India –US economic engagement or for that matter between US and other countries. US export agricultural goods, military equipment, aerospace, nuclear installations and a variety of technologies to other countries. If US looks inward in crafting her policies, the other countries may be forced to act as protectionists either due to economic compulsions or as a quid pro quo in response to public demand to retaliate. That will put the economic recovery into the backburner. Undoubtedly, that is the least sought out paradigm in this difficult times, when multilateral organizations are evolving revival packages that can help a speedy global revival. Unilateral positioning or polices that can satisfy citizens of a particular country should not have any place at this juncture, when global economy is passing through one of its worst trajectories.
Let me narrate a few examples that should merit the attention of the US policy makers. Indian government is evolving a revival package, which focuses on investment in infrastructure sector. Investment in conventional and non-conventional sources of energy is an important plank of the package. In the coming years, India is going to invest heavily in solar, wind and biomass energy. The US will have two direct benefits from this policy thrust. One, it can be the potential source for import of equipment for generating both conventional and non conventional sources of energy and secondly, the carbon credit that India is going to get from generating the green energy can be bought over by US corporations. No longer are we living in an isolated oasis; every economic action is interlinked and create its positive or negative spin offs across the world.
Slight adjustment in one sector can lead to great dividends in other areas.
Let us keep IT from the polemics. Indeed, India has emerged as a key player in IT because of its inherent advantages. The US support and patronage in India bagging that coveted position are commendable. At the same time, India is instrumental in generating millions of jobs across the world in sectors like defense, technology, banking and the list goes on. It is a win-win game and not a zero-sum one. It is a partnership building, where you gain in some and loose in another. That is the quintessence of human existence. Live and let others live. What would be then my punch word? I propose to the government and the associations that represent IT interests in the country to educate the world of the tenets of globalization, preferably through zoo zoos, which I am sure will catch up with the imagination of the people. It is a paradox that IT, which has changed the way in which people think, act, communicate and entertain, cannot speak for itself. It only underlines that somewhere down the line we are missing action. Could we insulate IT from politics and politics from IT? That is the biggest service we can lend to IT.
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