The IT Advantage – will it stay -incomplete

The IT Advantage – will it stay

It was the year 1974. I was in Mussoorie in the IAS training Academy as a freshly recruited probationer. Our daily routine, syllabus and schedule of examinations made it clear that it would be a tough training with lot of new subjects to study. Among them were some interesting courses such as one on computers. That was perhaps the era of data-entry through punch cards and I remember that the sarkari company for data entry and computerization in Govt namely CMC which was located in Pune did use punch-cards till as late as 1988. Those were times when computers would do minimal initial work, the users had to write the program, for data inputting and another program to direct the computer for processing.

However, with the advent of 8086 chips sometimes around the year 1985, followed by 80286, 80386, 80586 etc. the computing and processing speed of computers went on increasing. This made it possible to divide the work of programming into 2 parts one containing many standard instructions (operating system) and other part requiring a small amount of programing to be done by the user. As the chip capacity improved, the operating system could be made bigger and need of user to have any programing skills continuously decreased. A common man could use computers more easily which also means that the volume of work handled on computers also increased many folds.

This increase in volume was quickly captured by Indians who started venturing in IT industries. They had the advantage of a large number of computer courses made available by different institutions and colleges. In terms of capturing the business outsourced by USA-Europe based computer companies, India had the advantage of huge ttained population – an advantage which was not with any other Asian country (either, as the country was small, or their developments in computer training was lesser). The computer business depended on proficiency in programing as well as in English and India had enough manpower trained in both to capture that business. The twenty years from !985 to 2005 saw a phenomenal rise in our IT industries, and as a consequence, in our growth rate and GDP too. It allowed us to absorb the shock when there was JAGATIK MANDI.

There was a consequence in yet another diirection. Our policy makers now firmly believed that English was the key. One after another every policy on education fell into this trap. English was made compulsory from Std 1 even though the State language itself never enjoyed this exaulted status. I remember one advertiseement promoted by the HR ministry where the illiterate parents of Roshani visit her school and the teacher happilly tells them IN ENLISH that Roshani is making good progress. Even the Knowledge Commission of India, in total disregard to the views and pleadings of Shri Kakodkar- our best Nuclear Scientist, recommended that English must be made compulsory in all schools from Std 1. they were all ignorant and oblivious to a new technological transition that was and is still happening in the world of computors.