Needed — a ‘new deal’

EVERY morning, one scans the headlines of national newspapers, scrolls through the cellphone, even glances at the TV… all in search of some encouraging news, but to no avail. The world is moving at a fast pace as the dawn of the AI age breaks. Nations, companies, institutions, individuals at the cutting edge in the US, China, Taiwan, South Korea, etc. are talking about exciting new technologies, of quantum computing, robotics, clean energy, of AI becoming sentient and developing consciousness. Elon Musk and his company speak of reaching Mars, of space travel, of data centres in orbit…human potential and imagination are being unleashed as I write this essay.

But here at home, what do we see, what is the national debate? News regarding political and religious strife, headlines about edicts issued by religious authorities which cut into the political arena. There is news about investigations into the collection of funds at important places of worship. Then there are the thousands of deras of various religious hues being run by local godmen — here, too, there are enormous funds at stake. Gradually, the line separating politics from religion has been obliterated and today they move in tandem.

In this mayhem, one searches for some logic, some facts, some direction… something which advances the national interest. One searches for well-enunciated political or economic views — they may be rightist, centrist, leftist, socialist or communist. All in vain, only the multi-coloured hues of religion are overlaid on everything.

“Here is no water but only rock/ Rock and no water and the sandy road…” TS Eliot’s famous poem The Waste Land comes to mind as I go through the morning ritual of reading the papers. Where does the common man fit in, in whose name all this is done? He is the ‘sacrificial goat’, but what does the ‘sacrificial goat’ really want? Does he want to walk in these dark alleys — no, he wants employment, two square meals for his family, shelter from the elements, education and health facilities for his children, and he wants the state to guarantee security of life and property.

The opening up of the Indian economy in the 1990s helped unleash trapped potential and we saw this in the development of our IT sector. The foundation laid by IITs, IIMs and regional engineering colleges of the time gave a standard of education which enabled this development. Individual effort coordinated with government encouragement facilitated it, and over time India became a powerhouse in the IT services sector. The ecosystem generated a vast pool of talent which developed IT companies such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL. India also exported its talent globally. Even today, many of the top names in the world of technology are of people of Indian origin who had their humble beginnings in the corridors of our IITs and regional engineering colleges. Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, Shantanu Narayen etc. are all a case in point. The million-dollar question is that as this sector is threatened, what will be its replacement. Thousands of jobs are being lost and threatened as AI disruptions play havoc.

In the 1990s, India came back from the brink, but do we have to reach the brink again to discover ourselves? There is a playbook India can refer to which led to the previous success. This includes the formation of organisations such as NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies), STPIs (software technology parks of India), SEZs (special economic zones) and their associated tax breaks and infrastructure, and of course all the liberalisation reforms of the period.

The IT industry was nurtured; it was given much leeway, and the government, for the most part, played a supportive role and kept the formidable ‘Red Tape’ out of the way. IT caught the imagination of the nation, and the average citizen saw it as a way out of poverty and the low-income bracket. To sum it up, it gave opportunity and respectability to our educated law-abiding citizens, and it propelled the nation into becoming a major global services provider.

Today, India’s economy is many times larger than what it was in the 1990s, but with this scale and growth comes an antithesis — a recession can be far more damaging. People who have attained a certain standard of living and who have invested in the IT dream have far more to lose today. Not only the directly employed but also entire economies which have been built around the IT hubs in the country. So, what is the replacement? We need to find our niche again. The government must once again be a facilitator more than a regulator. Maybe the niche is in AI-augmented services and data centres, maybe it is in the vast EV and clean energy transition which is ongoing. The move away from fossil fuels is here to stay as our energy needs grow and the reality of climate change becomes more apparent.

Or perhaps it is encouraging and facilitating something far more basic: Indian corporates are said to be sitting on a record cash reserve of over $200 billion and much of it was built over the last four years. Why are they not investing within India when there is so much ground to be covered? Surely, sectors such as pharma where most of our APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) are still imported from China are not only vulnerable to a foreign country’s whims but also need to cover this basic shortcoming with significant investments.

Surely, energy in all its forms is still a vast mountain to be climbed. Education: vast amounts are spent by parents on foreign education; why can’t we give quality options here? Health: our teeming millions need much more infrastructure. I have just named some of the top fields which come to mind. I am sure the experts would be able to contribute much more. Our private sector, if given the proper environment, is more than capable of being globally competitive and a world leader. We just need to enable and facilitate it.

India needs an initiative like the ‘Manhattan Project’, where we put together our best minds from the fields of science, technology, research, finance and administration — all under one roof. The results would be quick in coming and a game-changer.