A recent visitor to Shanghai came back impressed with the spanking new glass and steel visage of modernity. He also noticed the extent of computerisation and how IT was being used to improve efficiencies in the day to day functioning. Being a regular visitor to the country, he also noticed that most of the IT solutions continued to be in the local language, although English was creeping up too. The attempt is not to compare the IT industries of India and China, for such a comparison is hardly flattering. Except in software exports, where we have a reputation, in the rest of the areas that comprise IT – hardware, domestic software, telecommunications infrastructure, among others, we are pygmies. I am merely trying to re-emphasise the importance of using IT to improve efficiencies on the domestic front. IT is the most efficient tool to improve efficiencies, be it governance or corporate management. A report by the Centre for Media Studies, for example, had shown through statistics that computerisation in various government departments, wherever it happened, had led to a substantial decline in corruption levels. For functions such as land record, electricity, municipal corporations, urban development, transport, civil supplies, hospitals, water supply and railways, to name a few, where it is possible to virtually avoid human interface if computers can take over, it would make life so much simpler for the common man. Not only would it save him from the clutches of the corrupt, but it would improve the speed of delivery too. But how does one achieve this? It certainly cannot be done when a country of over a billion people adds no more than 3 million computers in a year. It cannot be done if the sole emphasis of policy makers remains software exports. And most importantly, it is virtually impossible if in a country as diverse as ours with multiple languages, the only language in which computers work is English! Not that the government is not aware of this. Tomes have been prepared by ministries ranging from HRD to IT, about writing software in Indian languages. Seminars and workshops have been conducted to discuss the issue. However, since it is not as sexy as exports, nor do dollars come tumbling in, it remains no more than lip service. The big daddies of the IT industry too are never seen espousing the cause of software in local languages. Their reasons could be commercial, after all they are responsible to their shareholders and must look after their company’s bottom line. But this is where the government’s push is required. As long as the emphasis is on English language, as it currently is, our sole concern is exports, not domestic use. To put it rather crudely, all that some of our brightest are doing so far is to make the Americans, and others, work more efficiently. The skills that are talked about with envy the world over have made not an iota of difference to the lives of people in India.
