India’s new government is putting proactive emphasis on the Digital India Project. The country is a high priority market for smartphone companies with major releases happening almost instantly with an international release. For more than a decade the country has been a tech hub and exports a mammoth number of tech-based workforce all over the world.
But still the country lags behind in terms of inculcation of technology in everyday life. There are various causes for this ranging from red-tapism to lack of understanding of the issues. Some of the major focus arenas are:
Electric Cars
The future of vehicle technology seriously lacks on Indian roads. The most prominent name is the Reva which came at the price of a regular car but doesn’t give acceptable range. India has great technical workforce from automobile engineers to talented designers. If encouraged through the administrative institutions can be a leader in this field. Moreover by subsidizing these cars and incentivizing them, you can have cars that are not just good for your monthly budget, but also for the environment. While its great to know that the present government is focusing attention on Solar energy, pushing for electric vehicles along with solar will be a symbiotic transaction to a clean fuel economy.
Research
For the growth of any civilization, corporation, country, new ideas are absolutely important. There is a lack of funding for research in the country. As mentioned earlier there is no shortage of talented, hardworking individual who can take charge for a change. Currently, India’s share in R&D spending to the total global R&D spending stands at just 2.1 percent while the share of China is 12.5 per cent. For the third biggest economy in the world, that is a puny figure. To bring real change, the government has to aggressively invest in R&D.
Good Internet
An important component of the 21st century economy, the information superhighway, or the internet. It is the economy making force of the 21st century but India is limited by its speed. TRAI classifies the broadband at 512 KBps, which is not an acceptable speed in the first place. AKAMAI’s study showed India lagging behind all Asian and BRICS countries in terms of broadband speeds. With 4K streaming becoming available in most countries, it’s high time India puts its investment in information infrastructure as the world is moving to a knowledge-based economy. An accessible, faster and trustworthy internet would not just bring us closer to the world; it will bring a whole new empowered consumer base for the economy. This should be a priority issue for the government.
Agriculture
India has long touted itself as an agricultural priority country, but its agricultural yield is amongst the lowest in the world. Seed technology also needs to be looked into to prevent ethically immoral MNC’s to dictate terms to Indian farmers. A second green revolution is the need of the hour and the pride of doing it ourselves will help the country raise its sense of self-respect. It is also an important field as people can live without all the gadgets and tech under the sun, but can’t live without food. Apart from raising the number of agricultural research institutions, agricultural knowledge should be effectively disseminated amongst the farmers; the Krishi Darshan on DD just doesn’t cut it anymore. The acute importance of agricultural revolution should also be understood by the general public as they are on the consumption end of the spectrum and it’s always good to know what’s on your plate and how it got there.
There are certainly a lot more areas in need of a technology revolution but none greater than in our educational institutions. We are currently creating a knowledge platform that churns out over 10 lakh engineers every year with a sole goal of earning big pay packages. There is an immediate need for induction of an innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in the minds of the Indian youth. Instead of being cheap labour to international MNC’s, they should instead be able to tie their shoelaces and aim to create the next big thing. Only and only then can this country claim for greatness instead of just brandishing past glories. This country deserves a technology revolution to be an active member of the global decision makers. We got the talent, all we need is leadership.
