TECHNOLOGICAL INCLUSION

PRESENTED BY KOTA SURYANARAYANA SASTRY BHASKER YOGENDRA

 As teachers, we observe many things which are

cyclical /repetitive every academic year, even though the batches of students are always different. Just as the participants of the marathon who never finish the distance together, these students also, inevitably, seem to lag behind or fall by the way side.

Industrial revolution

# Ever since the industrial revolution, technology has always been the privilege and private pleasure of the upper most strata of the population. #. With passage of time since the day of an innovation, mass production techniques of the industrial revolution ensured that these technologies reached the middle strata of the population. # The world has witnessed an explosion of discoveries and inventions over the past five hundred years but even now, just as then, the bottom of the pyramid continues to be left behind in reaping the benefits of this technological revolution. # , management thinkers such as late C K Prahlad have focused on the bottom of the pyramid and advocated that there is a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. # Modern day marketing strategies of almost all corporate, be it the obvious FMCG companies or the banking and non-banking financial companies [NBFC] or insurance and financial services companies or extremely competitive telecom companies, are being developed with a vigorous focus on rural consumers.

# There is another aspect of technology which needs, in fact demands, certain skills on the part of the consumers.

# There is a technological barrier between computer literate consumers and those who are not so literate, creating a kind of second class citizens out of the latter.

# While the folk who stand in the physical line have to wait till the counters are thrown open to public and then have to patiently await their turn, the tech savvy consumers simply have to just log in and get their reservations made from the comfort of their offices/houses with the aid of a credit card and internet connection.

# And then there several circumstances which involve all of the citizens of the nation, irrespective of their technological orientation, such as the usage of EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) and UIDs (Unique Identity Card ) etc.

Net Banking Technology

It is obvious that the banks are hard-selling their internet banking facilities. If one were to set aside ones fears and doubts about the safety of net banking, how many of the so-called computer literate folk can actually use net banking for their day-to-day banking transactions?

Mobile banking and M commerce

a vast majority of the

cell phone users cannot make full use of the umpteen features built in their hand sets. And yet banks are advertizing mobile banking and many companies in India are pressing ahead with Mcommerce as the next level of e-

Computer Literates
the fact that even

though people are computer literate, they are not skilled enough to react to such a freak situation, nor are they smart enough to understand it.

Knowledge on software usage

how many of us so-called computer literate

folk can put our hands up and say with confidence that we know most, if not all, of the operations of our popular application softwares such as MS Word and Excel ?

Electronic Voting Machines

At a time when many

of the matured democracies of the world are deciding against the use of EVMs [Electronic Voting Machines], the CEC [Central Election Commission] is pushing ahead full steam in its implementation of voting by EVMs.

EVMs are they usefull

The CEC has lent a deaf ear to umpteen

complaints of various political parties and activist groups.

. It dismissed claims that EVMs can be tampered

/ programmed to suit some party of choice.

It discovered that these EVMs cannot be used if

the number of applicants exceeded 64 per constituency.

Computers Vs EVMs
instead of an EVM, if

a computer itself can be placed in every polling booth, there would be no restriction on the number of candidates.

# AADHAR [a 12 digit unique identity number] the mission statement, inter alia, is to fulfill the governments stated goal of achieving inclusive growth.
# The web site of UIDAI will lead us to a discussion paper setting out the agenda for achieving financial inclusion.

# Presently, we are grappling with several pieces of personal identification documents such as PAN [Permanent Account Number] card, driving licence, voter ID card, ration card issued by PDS [Public Distribution System] etc.

# . With the nationwide rollout of UID [Unique Identity] cards, the government hopes to link up all the different IDs being used currently under one data base.

# This would ensure that people cannot get away with multiple identities, the government opines. If a person tries to maintain multiple IDs, he/she would be caught easily and all of his/her IDs would be blocked until it is properly established as to his/her true identity.

# The financial inclusion or inclusive growth which has been the buzz word since the past term of the UPA [United Progressive Alliance] government came to power will become a fulfilled promise.

# Joining hands with this UID scheme are the public sector banks of our country, many of which have already signed MOUs [Memorandum of Understanding] with the UIDAI.