The ascent of a country from poverty to prosperity, from tradition to modernity is a great and fascinating enterprise. India has recently emerged as a vibrant free-market democracy after the economic reforms in 1991 and it has begun to flex its muscles in the global information economy. But this revolution had eluded India for a long time. About 100 years ago, Karl Marx predicted that industrial revolution would soon dawn upon India. After independence Jawaharlal Nehru attempted to create it through the agency of state. But our inward-looking, export substituted path; inefficient public sector, over-regulation of private enterprise led to a collective failure. Low priority given to education was a final nail in the coffin. As a result, at the dawn of 21st century India was placed at 124th place out of 157 countries in terms of per capita income. In the 1990’s, as the world changed from an industrial to information economy; major reforms were seen in India. Factors like WTO agreements, the throwing open of Indian economy by the Narsimha Rao government and the globalization effect served to provide the necessary impetus to the IT boom that gradually set foot in India.
The success of Indian firms and professionals in the IT arena during the last decade has been spectacular. Entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, and politicians are now advancing views about how India can ride the IT bandwagon and leapfrog into a knowledge-based economy. Isolated instances of villagers sending and receiving email messages or surfing the Internet are being promoted as examples of how India can achieve this transformation, while vanquishing socio-economic challenges such as illiteracy, poverty, and the digital divide along the way. E-governance is being projected as the way of the future as IT has the potential to make existing processes more effective and efficient. The growth of the IT sector in India symbolizes the potential of Indian industry to perform at world-class standards. Led by some visionaries and supported by thousands of employees and entrepreneurs, the IT sector embodies much of what can go right when the spirit of human enterprise is given free rein.
India may be slow to enter into the global market but we are now prepared to take on the myriad social and economic problems faced by us. We are also backed by strong by strong ethical beliefs. This transition will make India a more stable nation and will also avoid the harmful side effects of an unexpected capital society. Today India produces 4 lakh engineers per year. We have 5 crore telephone connections, 23 crore mobile phone connections and 6 crore internet users. Information technology has thus seeped into the minds of millions of Indians, as India takes of on a promising growth ride.
Surely information technology in India has brought about a radical change in the society at one level. Since 1991 we may be earning a lot many more dollars than what we were earning before. Though being a beneficiary of the same boom I do not really agree that the answer to social and economic problems is within IT.
The front-line media has always been biased towards the news originating in cities - in metros. The rich and the elite get maximum coverage. Think of the Global Economic Crisis coverage. It is EVERYWHERE. Now could I please take the liberty to remember the 200000 farmers who have consumed pesticides, used ropes and jumped in canals over last 10 years in our country? Do any of us remember this issue being highlighted even with a tenth intensity as the media is talking about the current crisis? One techie committing suicide in Bangalore creates much more sensation than families after families of farmers dying in Vidarbha. I cited this example to come to the following point - "Reality may be different from the popular sentiment as reflected by the media" and "Concerns of the weak and the downtrodden could be sided off in favour of those of the rich and the powerful".
The growth in GDP and many other metrics over the last two decades clearly indicate that opening the doors to international market did well for us on many grounds. However, as per the very little that I know, all is not really well! By opening our doors to free trade we have exposed our agricultural sector to direct and intense competition and this without first strengthening them and solving their basic problems of power, water, seeds and fertilizers. On one hand we invited vicious multinationals like Monsento to come and plunder the ignorant illiterate farmers by luring them into genetically modified seeds(and thus leading to the destruction of the traditional local seed varieties) and on the other hand we left our farmers to battle the competition from their counterparts in Europe and America who are getting up-to 80% subsidy on their costs. (I could provide Sai Nath's Speech with relevant facts and figures to interested readers). We are widening the divide between the have's and the have not's in our country.
We cannot run a country with 1 alloy where and other three punctured cycle tubes. While the IT Sector prospers and brings to us the much needed cheers we need to understand that the root problems lie elsewhere and the Nation needs to address them as well! Living in the e-illusion could give us a very rude shock with the breaking down of the social order due to the ever growing disparity. Globalisation is required but lets not forget that the biggest self proclaimed front-runner of globalisation - USA - also imposes anti dumping duty on our steel to protect it's own industry. We have opened the gates for all to walk in. So far we have not been guarding them well.
Hoping the next government will have the will power and the convictions to act in the LARGER INTEREST OF THE NATION considering all it's citizens.