There is an explosion of job opportunities, both at home and abroad. Thanks to the Infotech revolution. India must take full advantage of it. It has the brains. What India lacks is the organising skills.
Happily, the Infotech industry is growing fast. In another ten years or so, it will be a Rs 200 billion industry. It was given the maximum impulse by the BJP government. A great deal remains to be done. More so because others are trying to catch up with India.
From data to information and from information to knowledge, it is not a short journey. Each stage is important. Today the progress to knowledge takes slightly different route. For example, one gathers rainfall figures from different parts of India. This is data. It is tabulated to find the average. This is information. One infers from this that the country will have a good crop or that prices will remain stable. This is knowledge.
Take, for example, the computer-aided maintenance system of a car. Today it is so sophisticated that one need not go through thousands of pages of manuals.
When we can build knowledge into all products, it will be a big jump. Thus today a refrigerator knows when to defrost, an airconditioner knows when to switch off?these have knowledge built into them.
In short, the Infotech revolution is changing the face of the earth. India has a high stake in it. About 90 per cent of the data is in the English language. India can take the maximum advantage out of this. India has the third largest English-speaking population?about 50-60 million or so.
What is more, India has aptitude and special abilities. Which is why Indians are in demand all over the world. But, this time, they need not pick up jobs rejected by the natives.
Remote processing is a new field, thanks to technical advance. Satellite Infotech, high speed telephones have made this possible. One can sit at home and do the job for a client abroad. All that one needs is a graduate degree, familiarity with different accents, typing skill, a reasonable command over English. And if the work is in highly specialised fields, like medicine, familiarity with medical terms.
Apart from opportunities in medical transcriptions, health diagnosis, education, insurance claims, etc. there are a whole lot of opportunities opening up in office work such as accounting, legal work, finance, marketing, claims, etc.
Of course, outsourcing has run into controversies, more so in America. It is said that India is robbing jobs. This is not true. The fact is: The USA does not have the qualified men for the jobs even after paying fabulous salaries.
The industry is one of the most dynamic. It is already branching out into voice recognition, automation, customisa-tion, collaboration across distances and e-commerce.
Throughout the West, the aging population is on the rise. Both our tourist industry and health care institutions must gear themselves to exploit this opportunity. An OECD estimate put it that it will need 50 million nurses to look after the disabled among the elderly alone. Nursing homes could be set up all along the Himalayas for foreigners.
India must take robotics more seriously. Robotics developed at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre cost half to one-third of the cost of imported systems. We have cost advantages in many fields. These must be identified.
Only with the growth of the Indian MNCs can we raise job opportunities for Indians abroad. This is because to grow into an MNC is not an easy job. It needs not only capital. Above all, it needs the diplomatic backing of the country. This is what Japan offered its MNCs, which explains why the Japanese occupy dominant position today. The Manmohan Singh government cannot lack knowledge. What it lacks is the will.
