siliconindia

Information Technology a Part of Our House Hold

Author: R Subramaniam
VP & Managing Director, Yodlee Infotech
In the early 1980’s when I had just started my career in IT, most of the organizations ran their applications on a 16 bit system that used assembly language. It was used for applications like Payroll, Financial accounting, Inventory management, and other such applications on a batch processing mode. Working in the IT department, then called EDP (Electronic Data Processing) was considered a privilege and the department was out of bounds for many others in the organization.

Later when PC’s, and along with it Windows, came one really wondered why that was needed and what would one do with that. IT and communication became dependent on each other and it started touching the common man. Today we cannot think of being without Windows. A common man today touches technology either directly or indirectly in one way or the other every day. It is difficult to imagine life without Information Technology today.

Computers have become part of the household today and those who do not own one use it in the neighborhood cyber café. Owning a computer is no more a luxury, it is a necessity. What does the common man use this for? Many of us know the answer but still it is really interesting and fascinating to collate it and see what it is used for!

It is interesting to note that people from different age groups use the computer for email, and school children today have email addresses in their own name and use it to exchange questions and answers on their homework with their friends and classmates. A great increase is seen in the use of online banking, or what is normally called net banking. One has the comfort of using the computer in the safety of their house and operate their own bank account and conduct transactions with their bank - including fund transfer, payment of utility bills, opening of fixed deposit, and viewing and checking the statement of account. Railway ticket booking and cancellation, which used to be an ordeal earlier where people had to stand for hours in long queues, can now be done from the computer in your house. You can check the availability of seats in any train, plan your trip, and buy the tickets. So is the case with airlines ticketing – be it domestic or international. All this can be done online from the computer in your house.

Usage of computers at home has been on the rise. Tuitions for school students are conducted online and can be opted for at convenient times. The number of retail investors on the stock exchange has increased due to the availability of online data, real time. People use online trading accounts to buy and sell stocks at current trading price. Technology allows them to set alerts and have them messaged by SMS on their mobile phones.

People having multiple bank accounts, loan accounts, credit cards, and various kinds of investments use technology at home to manage consolidated personal finances. Even the era of capturing photograph using film rolls is slowly fading away. People have switched to digital cameras and store pictures in computerized albums. The utilities of the computer and information technology in the households go on increasing.

Information Technology has also bridged the distance between families. Elderly parents having children in the U.S. now communicate with them using voice chat. Many elderly people who never used or even saw a computer in their early life have become computer savvy today.

The pace at which technology is going forward it would not be surprising if our mobile phone itself becomes our home PC in the near future. Also, social networking through the use of information technology will increase, and maybe this will help in reducing the traffic on the roads especially on the weekends and on holidays. Possibly something to ponder in the wake of the soaring oil prices!
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Reader's comments(7)
1: From: Mrs. Mary David

This mail may be a surprise to you because you did not give me the permission to do so and neither do you know me but before I tell you about myself I want you to please forgive me for sending this mail without your permission. I am writing this letter in confidence believing that if it is the will of God for you to help me and my family, God almighty will bless and reward you abundantly. I need an honest and trust worthy person like you to entrust this huge transfer project unto.

My name is Mrs. Mary David, The Branch Manager of a Financial Institution. I am a Ghanaian married with 3 kids. I am writing to solicit your assistance in the transfer of US$7,500,000.00 Dollars. This fund is the excess of what my branch in which I am the manager made as profit last year (i.e. 2010 financial year). I have already submitted an annual report for that year to my head office in Accra-Ghana as I have watched with keen interest as they will never know of this excess. I have since, placed this amount of US$7,500,000.00 Dollars on an Escrow Coded account without a beneficiary (Anonymous) to avoid trace.

As an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive this money into your bank account on my behalf. I agree that 40% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, and 60% would be for me. I do need to stress that there are practically no risk involved in this. It's going to be a bank-to-bank transfer. All I need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund so that the fund can be transferred to your account.

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All correspondence must be via my private E-mail (dmary4love1@yahoo.fr) for obvious security reasons.

Best regards,
Mrs. Mary David.
Posted by: mary lovely david - Monday 26th, September 2011
2: tataosah@yahoo.com
Hello.
My Name is Tata I was impressed when i saw your profile at ww.siliconindia.com and will like you to email me back to my inbox so that i can send you my picture for you to know who i am.i belive we can establishe a long lasting relation ship with you.In addition,i will like you to reply me through my private e mail box (tataosah@yahoo.com).
This is because i dont know the possibilities of
remainning in forum for a long time.
Thanks,waiting to hear from you soonest.
Tata.
Posted by: tata tatababy os - Friday 30th, October 2009
3: this is nice article
Posted by: sameer kumar pradhan - Tuesday 09th, December 2008
4: wow what a Article..!
Posted by: Varish Dwivedi - Friday 05th, December 2008
5: Nice perspective Subramaniam! It is true that broadband explosion has resulted in internet reaching nearly every middle class home today and has made life so easy. Today, I just can't live without internet, because I pay almost all my utility bills online, hardly write any cheques (thanks to RBI that funds transfer is still free in our country in comparision to other, developed countries!), talk to my relatives in other countries regularly (thanks to chat, mobile and email!). But there are still some unanswered questions:
- Where are we and our next generation (I'm referring to middle class population who use computers and the internet) is heading? With video games, so-called 'social-networking', etc? We should have strict legislations around the use and mis-use of this www.
- Is interenet helping common man? We should have visionaries like one of our previous chief ministers who brought about revolution in land reforms (Bhoomi) which benefited even a villager in the state.
- Health hazards? Overusing/continuous using of it is also resulting in problems elated to vision, chronic back pain, RSI (Repetitive Stain Injuries), stress, etc.

Right now, it looks like every individual who uses these tools has to define his/her own limits!
Posted by: Ravishankar ML - Thursday 11th, September 2008
6: Indeed a boon of science ,we cold reduce lot of time waters ,but computer games is headache for children if addicted and can harn studies, though it may sharpen mind .
Another importan loss is social qaulities ,meetng with people face to face is decreasing due to phone/email/chat and social net wroking site slike orkut/facebook etc.We are loosing relatives friends , who are migrating to distant land for greener pastures .Ponder is it good sig, .Long distant marriage/double income no kid syndrom .Is family concept is dying?extra marital/pre marital.live in cocept is picking up in metro cities .Soon we will have gay and lesbian marriages in our own society with children from surrogate mothers/father to enjoy father hood remaining gay/lesbian.
what is ideal ,where to draw line can be debated.Is it good develoment of science,it and development in general.
Posted by: JAYANT ROY - Wednesday 20th, August 2008
7: Very Satisfying article . I hope if traffic on roads could come down , lots of fascinating brains from all over the world could be attracted to India to research and innovate. Developed India Is possible.
Posted by: vasantha machaiah - Monday 18th, August 2008
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