Is so much Emphasis on Information Technology Justified? | UPSC Mains Essay Preparation PDF Download

Is so much Emphasis on Information Technology Justified?

structure

(1) Opening — Information Technology - a means not an end in itself.
(2) Body — People intensive and creates vast employment.

    —    Growth in IT will benefit only the elite.

    —    Usefulness of IT sector.

    —    Masses get no benefit from IT.

    —    IT can not solve our problems.
(3) Closing — Indigenous approach is needed to solve our problems.

Information Technology (IT) is a knowledge based industry. It can be defined as the utilization of hardware, services and infrastructure to create, store, exchange and leverage information in its various forms to accomplish any number of business objective. IT industry embraces production, manipulation, storage and dissemination of information. IT sector has a remarkable potential for accelerating economic growth of the nation. It has the potential to improve the productivity of almost all sectors of economic development. Information technology has made our governance efficient. It enhances access to information, provides access to government services, protects consumers, makes skill development and training more effective, progresses delivery health  services, and promotes transparency. The role of IT industry in enhancing the economic development of the country has been acknowledged by the government of India. 

The economy of a country is no longer measured by the strength of traditional industries  but by  its technological advancement. Information Technology should be looked upon not as an end by itself but as a means for achieving overall development.

The IT sector is perhaps the last opportunity in regaining competitive advantage for the country, to develop rapidly, to improve the standards of living of our people and to grow out of poverty.

Unlike traditional industries, the IT sector is people intensive and creates vast employment opportunities. This implies a very low capital output ratio and an opportunity for all of us to grow quickly. 

India being a highly connected and digital ready economy remains a high potential market worldwide offering multiple opportunities. India presents a large and burgeoning end user market being world’s second largest population in world. India is all set to leapfrog into the digital world with 937 million mobile subscribers, 278 million internet users, an USD 14 billion e-Commerce market. Indian IT industry has grown many manifold since 1980s. The industry has contributed considerably to the economy in terms of GDP, employments and foreign exchange earnings. IT industry is also responsible for increasing the competence and productivity of almost all sectors of the economy like services at banks, post offices, railways, airports etc. e-governance has increased the efficiency of government offices. In this paper we have analyzed different ways in which IT industry has contributed to India’s growth.

Some feel that this kind of growth in IT will benefit only the elite. But this is not true. IT will primarily be responsible for eradicating poverty as well as strengthening democracy. IT will be useful as a tool for every poor citizen to demand and secure his right to information. 

Indian IT industry has achieved phenomenal growth during the post-economic reform period.

The liberalized policy regime, fast technological advancement, declined prices of computer hardware, mushrooming of computer science and Technology education, readiness of a large pool of talent to the industry relatively at lower cost, all together have made significant contribution to the growth of this industry during the last 25 years.

Indian information technology industry has grown manifold during the period 1991-92 to 2015- 16 . The industry has contributed significantly to the economy in terms of GDP, foreign exchange earnings and employments.

Majority of the Fortune 500 and Global 2000 corporations are sourcing IT-ITES from India.

There are around 600 centers set up by Indian IT companies in 78 countries catering to the IT related requirements of people in over 200 cities. They are performing very well and showing remarkable double digit growth in terms of national GDP (NASSCOM analysis reports). In the financial year 2015-16, our revenues have grown from 1.2 per cent to nearly 9.3 per cent. The IT sourcing market of India has grown from 52% in 2012 to about 56% in 2016. By 2020, this sector is expected to reach USD 225 billion target.

India is becoming one of the most preferred destinations for business process outsourcing (BPO) as far as IT enabled services are concerned. These services are boosting Indian economy and this is evident in their contributions to national gross domestic product (GDP).

The rapid growth of IT industry in India has created a large number of jobs thus raising the socio-economic level of a large number of families. The big and small software companies, BPOs, and other related business centers employ a large number of skilled and even unskilled people. The total employment in IT-ITES industry has been rising over the years and reached around 3.688 million in 2015-16. Around 5% of the employees working in IT-BPO industry come from the economically backward sections of the society. Employment to one person per family brings a large difference to their economic status.

The Indian software industry had grown at a compound annual rate of over 50% in the 1990s, the highest for any country during that period. As per current trends, the domain specific solutions focusing on convergence, customization, efficiencies and localization, M2M technology and newer technologies around SMAC are playing a significant role in driving the growth of ER&D and software products. With over 3,100 firms, India is emerging as a hotbed for software products with SMAC (Social media, mobility, analytics and cloud) and a supportive ecosystem creating successful stories.

IT can make land registration simple and easy. People go to sub-registrar offices for registering sale deeds, mortgage deeds, etc. as well as for an encumbrance certificate. This process is extremely cumbersome. To simplify the procedures for citizens, government can initiate computerisation of the department. 

The government can use IT to protect the state's natural environment. The forest department can implement computerised systems to track poaching and other forest offences, improve wildlife management system as well as manage rare species. 

The new technology can be used to effectively eradicate poverty and empower women. The latest technology in eradicating poverty is via self-help groups for women. These women groups can be encouraged to save money. The government can step in with revolving fund as well as bank credit. This method can be the most effective in delivering rural credit as well as eradicating poverty.

It can use e-governance as a tool and deliver a government that is more proactive and responsive to its citizens. It'll play a vital role in coordinating with the government departments as well as undertake a few critical projects that are likely to be used in more than one department.

Since most decisions in our system of democracy are taken at the village and districts levels, IT can provide an exhaustive database at a single point made available to all decision-makers. We can also analyse the data in an intelligent manner and provide a sophisticated decision support system for the use of all decision makers. These are but a few aspects where It can change our lives. 

Growth of IT industry in India requires a large number of knowledgeable and skilled human resources. A number of professional colleges all over India are producing the required workforce and so there is no dearth of skilled employees to work in IT industry and BPOs. They are globally at par with the best human resources available and are available at very reasonable salaries. 

Some people say that the use of IT is confined to the hi-fi log. The masses have no access to it and get no benefit from it. 

To those who harp on IT question is: Can IT plough the fields and provide electricity to farmers? Besides, how do you expect people to make use of IT  in places where there is no power most of the time? It might be a priority with the urban elite but for the common man the priority is still drinking water, health, education and power. Without these, Internet and email make no sense.

Indeed, if IT is as important as it is made out to be, why are they having to resort to manual counting of votes in the US? Where are all their super computers? What good are they? The American presidential election has exposed the tall claims of blind IT devotees.

It is obvious that IT cannot provide solutions to our problems. Take Bihar, for instance. Farmers there have produced more than 90 metric tonnes of paddy this year. But they are not able to sell it in the market because they are getting less than Rs 250 a tonne, which is lower than the cost of cultivation. The Union government is not able to purchase their produce at the minimum support price. Why? Because it has made a commitment to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to purchase a certain amount of agricultural produce from the world market. So our own stuff is rotting unsold. What will be the result? Farmers will stop cultivating their fields and our agriculture will suffer. Does IT have a solution to this problem? It needs common sense, not IT wizardry, to realize the implications of this ruinous policy.

People should know that India is being treated as a huge market. Our shops are being flooded with multinational goods — butter, milk, tomato sauce, you name it. Imagine, even salt might be imported from foreign countries! And all this is being done with the help of the IT-backed electronic media. In the process our dairies and indigenous industry are being harmed. Do you need IT to tell you these simple things?

It can never be our sole thrust area. Too much reliance on IT is an alien approach. A more indigenous approach is needed to solve our problems.