How do you see Technology is changing our Lives
Most effective change is when you don’t even realize it, and technology has done exactly that. Technology is so ingrained in our daily lives that we often take it for granted. Let’s take an example of going to a new place. In the old days, we used to understand the direction or have those huge maps with us to navigate. Now, we don’t even think twice to get a pin location or look up the place on a digital map and off we go. Be it e-commerce (get the stuff at home with a few clicks), fintech (avoiding lines at the bank), and so on, lives have changed for good. The internet being the key driver here, the true impact is realized whenever there is even a slight disruption in it, causing billions of rupees of losses in just a few hours. Change is the only thing permanent, and technology is at the forefront of it.
What is Disruption for you?
For me, disruption is when the most established norms and practices fade away into the past. Most of us know the story of Kodak. I keep reminding myself of the story and the takeaways from it. The key is to keep innovating, find new ways to do things. In short, a combination of Evolution and Revolution (I call it the E&R Technique). You keep improving what you do using several of the well-known techniques out there, and once in a while, start something new altogether. I believe using the E&R Technique, we can not only avoid the fate of Kodak but be a disruptor in the domain we are in.
What should Government take steps to make country digital
There is a lot of debate on turning the economy around and generally a consensus that IT is the way to go. Most countries have a consumption strategy in this volatile market to have the stability baked in, and that’s what our government should also do. While exporting IT is important, to make it effective, some serious steps need to be taken to make the country digital. Not that there are no initiatives; however, the pace is questionable. I believe the Government should start a program around going Paperless with an added KPI of reducing TATs. This, I believe, will trigger the internal market for IT as the scale of Government is always much bigger than all the private sector combined. With the automation of going Paperless, there are offshoots like Cyber Security to harden the environment. Furthermore, with data being digitized, it opens up the arena for applications of AI, be it Data Science/ML use cases or GenAI ones. Since there is a handshake among different departments, there is a clear use case of blockchain technology to make it immutable. The Government can further work with academia for innovative areas that require experimentation and research. With the right will, these steps could go a long way toward making the country DIGITAL.
