Don't depend on fragile IT advances, Toffler tells India
Monday, 03 March 2003, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: World-renowned futurist and social thinker Alvin Toffler Saturday advised India against banking too heavily on its "fragile" advances in IT. Instead of depending on IT, India should go for a "fusion of IT and biotechnology," he suggested. "After that, a great thrust into space -- that's where human destiny lies," Toffler said in a speech at the India Today Conclave organised by India's leading newsmagazine here on the theme: "India tomorrow: 2003 - Global giant or pigmy?" "It is the wildest, fastest ride into future any past generation has faced. It's a fantastic moment to be alive as the world enters the 21st century," Toffler said. The author of such bestsellers as "Future Shock" and "The Third Wave" that have sold more than 15 million copies worldwide and influenced strategic thinking of leaders from around the world warned that India's success in the IT sector, based on cheap labour, was temporary. "Someone else, like China, is already doing it. And at some point business will flee to Africa. It's not going to stay in Asia. Africa awaits," Toffler said. The writings of Toffler and his wife Heidi, who has co-authored many of his works and was present at the conclave, have influenced contemporary thought about the information revolution, social transformation and the speed of change. Toffler noted that the U.S., the main outsourcer of IT work to India, was already discussing steps to stop transfer of hi-tech jobs to India following forecasts that the country would lose three million IT jobs to India in the next few years. "The comparative advantage India has can vanish if there are no technological advances," he said, adding that the country's "remarkable" performance in the IT sector was fragile. "India must choose being left behind or joining the race for a global player," he added. Toffler called for agility combined with flexible, smart strategy to ride the "third wave revolution" fuelled by knowledge-based industry. Raising the spectre of growing shantytowns in cities across the world and the continuing wave of influx from the rural areas, Toffler said the phenomenon would continue if the world did not accept a multi-directional third wave strategy to transform the rural areas to centres of production and productivity. IT, he said, should be used to tap the brainpower of children in rural areas to replace the emaciated muscle power of their forefathers.
Source: IANS
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