|
Cynthia Rodrigues
The future of information technology,
says S Ramadorai, CEO and MD, Tata Consultancy Services,
lies in making it affordable and accessible to all —
urban, rural, rich, poor, adult or child
We
live in a world which is in a state of enormous flux.
There are some fundamental drivers that are influencing
this transformation of society. Of these, technology
adoption is perhaps the most important.
The
major change we see in society today vis-à-vis
earlier generations, is in the way children are growing
up with technology from a very early age, using desktop
and laptop computers, mobile phones, iPods with TVs,
and so on. This will make it very natural for the society
of the future to absorb technologies and adapt to change.
The
second crucial factor driving this transformation is
the cost at which technology is made available, or its
affordability. Not so long ago, telephones were a luxury
very few people could afford; now owning a mobile phone
is no longer a privilege of the rich.
This
decreasing cost of technology has important implications
for IT companies: we will have to justify the addition
of every rupee to the product price or we will not survive
as an organisation.
The
third critical factor is the amount of storage capacity
and the size of a device. Just as the world is shrinking
and coming closer, the gadgets we use are also becoming
smaller — and simpler.
A
child from a rural area is no different from a big-city
child. It is the question of affordability that gets
in the way of the penetration of technology, not the
ability to learn to use it. That is why my mantra for
the future is: keep it simple and affordable.
The
power of speech
Speech as an input medium is the technology of the future.
Speech technologies, understanding and decoding of multiple
accents, speed of speaking, etc, are the research areas
in which companies like TCS should — and are —
working.
The
technology can be embedded into a device so you don't
have to key in any text. All you have to do is speak
into the device. At TCS, we have done R&D in these
areas. We may buy the speech technology from somebody
but we need to know how to apply it in our context.
Thanks
to these and other methods, learning is no longer cumbersome.
Self-learning and collaborative learning have enabled
the application of learning to become more ingrained
and natural.
The future is rural
I believe that technology will enhance the future not
only in urban areas but also in rural areas, thanks
to improvements in telecommunications and the telecom
infrastructure.
Most business initiatives
today are no longer focused on the urban population.
More and more people now admit that the bigger opportunity
is in the rural and semi-urban areas, where some 650-670
million of the Indian population lives.
Even if 350 million are
below the poverty line, the balance presents a huge
opportunity that can be optimised through telecommunications
and devices with local language capabilities. Companies
like TCS can address this mass market through business
models that are different from today's traditional ones.
There will be constraints
along the way. We must work within those constraints
and try to influence change within them. For that to
happen, people's mindsets must change fundamentally;
and that will need education.
Observe, involve, innovate
If you are looking at a future
which is rural-based, you must live in that environment
and understand its needs. You must observe the living
conditions, check out the micro-financing opportunities,
talk to rural families, find out what their needs are,
what their children's needs are, and then figure out what
kind of technology is needed and can be provided.
You have to think of innovation
radically differently from the way we do today. Technology
used in urban areas cannot be transplanted as-is into
rural areas. Innovation must be localised. Local people
must be trained in new sets of capabilities, but their
knowledge of core issues must be kept intact.
The farmer understands
soil conditions well. But we can use technology to optimise
the use of water and fertilisers, and to introduce the
usage of distribution logistics. We must build technology
tailor-made for the farmer and his family.
If you desire products
based on their understanding, you must get those people
to design that product. They should be able to say,
"This relates to me and I can innovate beyond this."
To make technology accessible,
we will have to break all kinds of price points. If
a rural child can spend a maximum of Rs X because of
her parents' income, you must think of innovation that
is based on such low purchasing power.
Think ahead
We are now moving towards deregulation and privatisation
of utilities. The utilities themselves will have to
ensure clean power, meet emission standards and provide
efficient services. A lot of research is being done
in these areas.
It is important to look
at the materials we use, materials that are external
to the device and internal to it, including chip manufacturing
and processing technologies, and emission and disposal
issues.
At the Group and company
level, we must be conscious of those aspects that pertain
to our business. We must hire the right competencies
and capabilities. Companies will need people who will
shape the industry because the problems that
are going to confront us in the future are not those
we know from the past.
Another capability we will
have to build lies in the field of interdisciplinary
training. If you plan to develop a banking system today,
you create a team which has someone with banking experience
and someone with the technology know-how.
Tomorrow, if you want to
develop a banking system in the rural areas, you will
probably need to have a social scientist too. You need
to think of the future bank and what terms like financing,
loan disposal and collection mean in the rural environment.
If you plan to build a
hospital, you have to think afresh about the systems
needed. If Rs 5,000 is the maximum you can charge for
a heart surgery, how will you provide the necessary
services at that price? If it involves completely non-invasive
treatment in tomorrow's context, what can TCS provide
in terms of systems and support? We have to think of
all that.
Managing obsolescence
Fears that obsolete technology and waste will be dumped
in rural areas should be laid to rest as there will
be checks and balances to monitor these things. During
the very development of a product, we will have to think
of the responsibility of disposal.
There are other ways of
looking at obsolescence. There is a difference between
obsolescent technology and obsolete technology. One
is on its way out; the other is finished. Instead of
being condemned to oblivion, obsolescent technology
can be given to schools to enable students to use it
for learning purposes. Dismantling technology and re-assembling
it helps to rebuild capabilities; children learn through
deconstructing. While a product may become obsolete
from a corporate perspective, it may not have become
so from the learning, usage and affordability perspective.
It is not easy to define
what the rural market wants today. Yet a hundred experiments
are going on to find out. Which one of them will be
successful? Only time will tell. Could all of them fail?
Possibly. Would some of them succeed? Possibly.
One thing is for sure.
The organisation of the future will not be self-contained.
Collaboration and integration of multiple disciplines
will be the mindset of the future. The production of
the technology of the future will have to be collaborative.
We will have to develop and apply ideas and make ourselves
receptive to others' ideas.
Above all, we must think
of the customer and his needs — therein lies our
future.
Related articles:
Uploaded on August 28, 2006
|
