 | | | Technology and Society:
the human touch R Gopalakrishnan
Executive Director, Tata Sons, Bombay House, 24, Homi Mody Street, Mumbai 400 001. India
E-mail: gopal.gopalakrishnan@tata.com
R Gopalakrishnan (called Gopal) worked for his first 31 years in India’s most Indian multinational, Hindustan Unilever. Since then, he has worked for India’s most multinational Indian company – Tata.
Currently, he is the executive director of Tata Sons. He is also the chairman of Tata AutoComp Systems, Rallis India and Advinus Therapeutics, vice chairman of Tata Chemicals, and a director of Tata Power and Tata Technologies.
He also serves as an independent director on the boards of the Indian subsidiaries of Akzo Nobel and BP Castrol.
Gopal studied physics at Calcutta University and engineering at IIT. From 1967, he served Hindustan Unilever for over three decades in various capacities. The appointments held by Gopal from 1990 onwards were: chairman of Unilever Arabia (based in Jeddah), followed by managing director of Brooke Bond Lipton India (based in Bangalore), followed by vice chairman of Hindustan Lever.
He joined Tata Sons in September 1998 as executive director.
Gopal is involved with education through his board memberships of a school and two management institutes. He is a past president of All India Management Association. He has delivered guest lectures in India and abroad. His articles have been published in management journals and financial newspapers.
In 2007, he authored his first book, The Case of the Bonsai Manager, published by Penguin India. In 2010, his second book entitled When the penny drops: Learning what is not taught has been published by Penguin India.
It is a great pleasure to address such distinguished members of a young profession, which has played a key role in repositioning India into global prominence. Your profession will continue to play an even more important role going forward. It is my privilege to speak at this inaugural session of the 45th Annual Convention of Computer Society of India (CSI) with the very relevant theme of “Technologies for the Next Decade”.
Over forty years ago, I began my career at Hindustan lever as a computer trainee. Over the next five years after joining, I resisted my seniors’ suggestion to move into the mainstream marketing of consumer goods. I was quite infatuated with the mysteries of mainframes, Cobol and Fortran languages, and the wonders that computers could accomplish for my company, mankind and society. But the slow acceptance of mainframe computers, the national shortage of foreign exchange to import machines and the stiff resistance from labour unions took their toll. I took leave of computers as a profession in 1972 and succumbed to the seduction of FMCG marketing.
Thirty years later, I addressed students at IIT Bombay on the subject of “Leadership and Foresight.” I said all the predictable things about foresight, hopefully in an inspiring way, until one curious student asked, “What you say about foresight is so true, but I have a question. Since you must have been endowed with foresight, did you not see that to leave the computer field would be a mistake?” I had great difficulty in explaining the difference between talking about foresight and exercising foresight!
Technology has played a central role in human history for centuries: first, by inventing useful things, and later, by diffusing the benefits of technology to transform society. Technology will play an even more significant role in the years to come. As a former ‘techie’ myself, I found that when one is close to a subject, one just might miss the larger social consequences of the technology one practices. I wish to quote two examples of social transformation from history as that will enable us to think about the transformational effects of ICT.
First, before Gutenberg invented the printing press, the church was the only interpreter of the Bible. People did not even possess a copy of the Bible to read it for themselves. As Gutenberg unknowingly gave the world the gift of being able to possess a personal copy of the Bible, people felt empowered and curious. This impacted society intimately over a few hundred years and led to the European Age of Enlightenment and Reason.
Second, our ancestors were all farmers. That is why the GDP of nations was approximately in the proportion of their population. Until 1800, as Angus Madison has demonstrated, China was about 30% of world GDP and India was roughly 20%. China’s economy was always bigger than that of India’s. I am puzzled to note the flood of books and papers on whether or not India will catch up with China. How does it matter when it has not been bigger for 5000 years?
The industrial revolution changed the relationship between farming and wealth. I am sure that I need not dwell on explaining it. But a less recognized effect of the industrial revolution was the way it changed a very hierarchical European society: no more did common people have to be beholden to the Lords, Dukes and Barons. Money earned through industrial methods could be earned by anybody, and that ‘anybody’ could sit at the same table with a ‘somebody’.
Globalization, socialization and adaptation are three circles and technology sits in the space that is common among these. What do these words mean in simple terms? Think of the idea of foreigner or pardesi, for example.
Phagun: 1958: ‘Phagun’ is the tale of a forbidden love between a Zamindar’s son Bijan (Bharat Bhushan) and gypsy chieftain’s daughter Banani (Madhubala), who defy all social conventions. Pardesi = Someone from another village
Raja Hindustani: 1996: Aarti (Karishma Kapoor) goes for a vacation to a small hill station named Palankhet. Once there, she meets Raja Hindustani (Aamir Khan), and after a short period of time, both fall in love with each other. Pardesi = Someone from another city
Dev D: 2009 : London educated Dev (Abhay Deol) is in love with Chanda (Kalki Koechlin) who is also a part foreigner. Also seen is in the clip is Dev’s first girlfriend from Punjab. Pardesi = someone from another country.
Through the depiction of Pardesi, the changing perception of globalization can be sensed.
Socialization too has evolved: a new urban Indian has emerged and so have attitudes to native place, marriage, language and food!
It is difficult to find youngsters today with clear answer to ‘where are you from?’ They may be native to one place, may move around when they are growing up, may take a job somewhere else and decide to settle down at yet another place. A new Indian has emerged who perhaps denotes a little bit of all the places and people that he has touched along the way.
During my growing years, it was thought to be inappropriate for a middle class person to get married outside his or her caste. Today it has almost become routine to have international son-in-laws and daughter-in-laws!
Children from parents from different linguistic backgrounds speak in a common language which is often, English! So we have a South Indian father and a Punjabi mother communicating with each other and their kids in English! View this against the curious fact that Punjabi is set to become the fourth most widely-spoken language in Canada by 2011, after English, French and Chinese! Strange are the ways of globalization and socialization!
The same is true of food. Tandoori Chicken and Mutter Paneer came to define the Indian cuisine in overseas countries. Nowadays, Indian food in India is influenced by overseas cuisines. This slide exemplifies my point of how globalization has truly arrived if we look at internationalization of various cuisines.
People and technology adapt to each other with consummate ease. Think of the numerous ways in which this fact is visible from the black phone to sleek cell phones, from box cameras to digital cameras and pictures, from face to face meetings to virtual meetings.
Technology Diffusion in the Future
In general technology has been an urban and transformational tool to enhance productivity, convenience and performance. Products are now so ingrained that advent of videogames, playlists and movies are seen as threat to declining attention span and the death of reading habit. Last week’s examples:
Madhuri Sule was an IIT Kanpur student, who was found hanging in her room on 17th November this year, because her academic performance had declined. Authorities traced the reason to excessive use of internet and less sleep. The attempt to restrict internet access to students has caused unrest on the Kanpur campus. (Indian Express, 22nd Nov, 2010)
In the USA, researchers state that computers, cell phones and the constant stream of stimuli that they provide pose a profound challenge to focus and learning. Michael Rich, a professor at Harvard Medical School, says, “Their brains are rewarded not for staying on the task but for jumping to the next thing…the worry is that we are raising a generation of kids whose brains are wired differently….downtime is to the brain what sleep is to the body….but the new generation kids are in a constant state of stimulation.” (International Herald Tribune, 22nd Nov, 2010)
There is a raging debate between techno-holics and techno-critics on whether or not attention spans are being shrunk because of MTV, the Internet and the Web.
Of the 6.5 billion on this planet, over 4 billion are somewhat less influenced by technology developments; they seem to be concerned with three endemic difficulties:
Poverty Alleviation (through education, health and employment)
Information Asymmetries (through inadequate data access)
Bad Governance (through corruption and leakages)
For long, Bharat and India have been divided by education and prosperity. This divide can be, and is about to be, bridged in the next 15 years through technology, much as the Industrial Revolution bridged the social divides in Europe. What cell phones did through mobile communication in the last fifteen years between 1995 to 2010, wireless broadband is about to do in India in an even more dramatic and inclusive way.
To this audience, I need hardly offer reasons for this assertion. A report by global advisory and consulting firm, Ovum, says countries like India and China with a huge population of mobile users will play the most aggressive role in growth of mobile broadband in the world. The firm notes that the advent of 3G in markets such as China and India, the sheer number of mobile users and poor fixed line penetration in these markets means broadband access to a very large number of people will be based on mobile access, including handsets. However, I enumerate five reasons for the imminent and dramatic impact of broadband:
For sure, there is a correlation between adoption rate of a technology and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As per this report, a 10 percentage increase in broadband penetration accounted for highest percentage increase in per capita GDP growth in developing economies as you can see from the right-most bar.
Low broadband penetration in India as per the red line (under 1% compared with tele-density of 52%) represents a huge scope and opportunity both for the Government and private players to serve people who would be ready to pay for the immense value that broadband can create in their lives.
Technologies like 3G/BWA become more accessible because they do not depend on laborious physical infrastructure.
Success of broadband depends on three critical factors: connectivity, content and customer premises equipment (CPE). The cell phone is the most economical CPE and would ride on the wave of 3G to provide value added information and services.
Broadband now finds itself in the similar sweet spot as telecom. Similar focus both by the Government and private players will ensure that wireless broadband undergoes an explosive growth:
Two questions arise with respect to the oncoming broadband revolution:
How will broadband manifest itself?
What does it take to happen?
How will broadband manifest itself?
Modern Agriculture:
An energizing future can only be created if we empower the most important stakeholder in the entire agri-chain, the ‘Indian Farmer’. There is a need to help farmers to reach out; they must feel empowered through a broader understanding of their attitude, mindset, requirements and needs. Famers must earn more and become self-reliant by adopting the latest agronomic practices and technologies.
Various models and initiatives have been rolled out by Government to reach out to farmers, but they have met limited success because of the certain inefficiencies:
Need to use local language for delivery of personalized services.
These models have not been holistic and have instead focused on specific parts in the value chain.
Most of these initiatives could not scale up and impact millions of other farmers.
Broadband technologies can deliver personalized and integrated services to millions of farmers.
Companies like TCS, have come up with proprietary models of using mobile as a tool to provide critical information to famers. Such tools integrate technologies such as Wireless Sensors, Camera phone and script technology; to deliver advisory services through a mobile phone. It ensures business benefits to the stakeholders by enabling to connect them to farmers directly. Recent developments would suggest that connecting millions of farmers to give them personalized and integrated services, is no pipe dream. India has emerged as the outsourcing and off-shoring destination of choice for western companies. Our call centers and software companies have been giving outstanding services to customers outside India. Surely we have the capability and now the technology (through wireless broadband) to repeat the same feat, for our own farmers this time!
Better Governance:
Broadband will play an important role in automating governance processes and reduce any administrative delays. E-Governance is increasingly being viewed as the route for governments to strengthen good governance, for it not only improves efficiency, accountability and transparency of government processes, but it can also be a tool to empower citizens by enabling them to participate in the decision-making processes of governments
Broadband will provide last mile connectivity for Services provided through the various e- Government initiatives assist governments in reaching the yet ‘unreached’ and thereby contribute to poverty reduction in rural and remote areas by increasing access to critical information and opportunities. At the same time, this process also enables involvement and empowerment of marginalized groups through their participation in the government process.
The government also intends to further strengthen e-governance initiatives through broadband technology. For instance, Government of India has approved the scheme of establishing Common Service Centres (CSCs) across the country. The CSC scheme envisages the establishment of 100,000 broadband Internet - enabled kiosks in rural areas, which would deliver government and private services at the doorstep of the citizens.
We have enough instances of how technology has empowered people and given them greater access to information: Availability of land records online, applying and tracking passport online, getting railway tickets booked from the comfort of your house, filing IT returns online without the need to go through an agent, the list is endless. Greater automation of processes and access to broadband will further spread the benefits and empower people.
Reduced Corruption
Broadband connectivity will ensure that anybody sitting even in remote part of the country can raise a query to ensure that his works get done. It will ensure that fundamental rights of citizens are not compromised and will give voice to all citizens that cannot be ignored. It will actually redistribute power and ensure that it goes to where it should ideally belong, to citizens of India. Let me share with you an instance in my personal knowledge.
What does it take to happen?
Technologists can do a lot and so can government policies help a lot. But we also need some barefoot professionals, who can connect socially with the target audience. This is where my initial techie insights merge with my subsequent marketing background. We need to enlist the help of anthropologists and story tellers, intuitive and experiential professionals, right brained people rather than only left brained people. I was interested to read about a 40 year old British-born, Shanghai based researcher called Jan Chipchase (FORTUNE Asia Pacific, 6th Dec 2010).
Chipchase works for Frog Design and travels the world, trying to understand why the planet’s poor people would want to use the technologist’s products and devices. He is a part anthropologist, part designer, part explorer and part entrepreneur, according to reports. Bill Maurer, Professor of anthropology at UC Irvine says that Jan Chipchase was the first to write about the use of airtime as a form of currency. His employers and clients pay to get his insights into how to reach those billions of difficult-to-reach customers for technology.
Can CSI and NASSCOM conspire to strengthen this capability? It is worth the effort.
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