The governments of the day in any part of the world must have the will to use technology in driving growth in areas that need it the most

Technology’s role in changing things for South Asia — An executive at a stall shows a low-cost drone to visitors on the inaugural day of the flagship 22nd edition of the Bangalore Tech Summit 2019, in Bangalore on November 18, 2019 AFP

Technology’s primary function in our lives is not only to make it easier, but also to better prepare us for any eventuality, including predicting the macro trends, the oncoming weather, to store our digital data in the cloud or to educate hundreds simultaneously.

Technology also supports the manufacturing hubs, abets the flow of information, and helps the governments in creating jobs, helping leapfrog the economy.

As clichéd it may sound, technology is ubiquitous, and its progress cannot be wished away.

While it cannot be contested whether technology as a sector has been successful, it can, however, be debated if it has been instrumental in changing the lives of those who are the hardest to reach, the bottom billion, as Paul Collier, a famous economist, would say.

The geographic area termed South Asia consists of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka.

According to the World Bank, South Asia is one of the fastest growing regions globally, with a vast human capital potential.

It is predicted that by 2030, this consortium of countries will contribute up to 25% of the world’s working adult population.

Growth potential

The governments of the day in any part of the world must have the will to use technology in driving growth in areas that need it the most.

For example, in agriculture, which 7% of the South Asian population is engaged with, technology can be used for irrigation, for identifying the highest possible prices for the produce, to connect with the buyers, and to transport goods from manufacturing sites to possible markets.

In South Asia, the technology firms or the governments have not entirely been able to create public private partnerships (PPPs) to exploit this opportunity.

The irony remains that several global technology companies are led by South Asian immigrants.

The largest number of tech startups in 2021 was founded by those who left South Asia in search of better opportunities.

India alone produces the largest number of computer science graduates globally, with about 215,000 graduates every year.

The challenge, however, is to match their expertise with jobs that utilize them for collective growth of the society.

Perhaps this educated group can be tapped into to bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

As we ponder over the use of technology to better the lives in this region, we must remember that South Asia also boasts of the largest number of people without internet access – almost a billion in the 3.2 billion population.

This digital divide is what the policy makers tend to forget when they herald the digital revolution, going paperless, or predict a digital future.

The ongoing pandemic has exacerbated this divide; while private school students were provided with digital devices to continue their education from home, their brethren in the public schools across South Asia were stranded at home, putting them at least two years behind in their learning curve.

Even with the existing digital divide, people in South Asia use technology more than any other region globally, except in China.

Whether it is the adoption of cellular technology or the apps that are downloaded every day, these numbers are very enticing for any tech giant.

This is one of the primary reasons why BigTech firms like Google, Amazon, or Facebook have set up shop in South Asia and are actively collaborating with the host governments and the private sector.

This aspect of partnership or the numbers was never under a cloud and has been repeated several times.

What we need is the adoption and understanding by those in power, who can help shake things up for whose lives need to change.

What we also know from experience is that change will not happen overnight, as attempted by India in announcing its demonetization initiative.

The attempt was to transition the second most populous country in the world to a digital economy.

After 5 years, we know the attempt was a disaster.

You must lay the grounds for such a major upheaval and prepare the citizens for this change.

In this case, the mere scale becomes a roadblock, and so does the will of the government in power.

Any wide-scale use of technology with a policy prediction should be aided by economic intelligence, as it can impact millions simultaneously.

The World Bank’s “The Converging Technology Revolution” report, released in September 2021, identifies four channels of interaction between technology and human capital:

· Technologies deployed in health, education, and social protection

· This can improve service delivery

· Technology applications in sectors such as agriculture, energy, water, and sanitation

· These apps can improve child nutrition and reduce transmission of disease, thereby improving human capital

The availability of skilled labor affects the use of technology in the workplace.

It alters the demand for skills and the requirements placed on the education and training system.

Highly specialized human capital such as scientists, engineers, and professionals helps drive the innovation system.

This in turn creates and adapts converging technologies for local use.

The report helps to imagine a future where the displaced populations in Bangladesh can swiftly be moved into 3D printed homes, aid and medical assistance promptly made available to them and kept safe from infectious diseases using the mapping technologies.

This is a scenario which might present itself sooner than we know.

But this will require political vision and will, to allow for the participation of experts and the populations who are regularly affected by such disasters.

We have often heard of single window clearances announced by the governments in South Asia, while foreign direct investments keep dwindling and multinationals are often seen packing their bags from the region.

Rhetoric needs to match the realities on the ground, so the countries can march forward to compete on the global stage.

This is not to say that no progress has been achieved.

Renewable energy is a sector which has the potential to change lives on a very wide scale. It is a sustained effort, but just for comparison’s sake in the Asia Pacific region, China leads the pack with 7.79 exajoules, followed by India which uses 1.43 exajoules, while countries like Pakistan use .04 and Sri Lanka use only .01 exajoules of renewable energy.

We are aware how big a problem access to electricity is, and the governments, perhaps as a consortium, should come together to achieve their needs, and to transform the lives of millions, who directly or indirectly depend on fossil fuels.

Ruling through surveillance

Almost every Big Tech firm has invested billions in gathering data from its users, in the garb of enabling improved targeting and serving the customers better.

This raises questions about privacy and the role of artificial intelligence in influencing our lives.

The historian Yuval Noah Harari conjectures that "in the future, the state will know more about us than we ourselves will."

Harari goes on to speculate that the police-state of the future will use data to harass and intimidate its citizens.

We must focus on how technology has been exploited to discriminate against those at the margins of the South Asian communities, whether in Bangladesh, India, or Myanmar, where the proliferation of technology has only meant increased polarities and divisions in the society, propelled by those in power.

Whether it is the Rohingya crisis, which was aided by the omnipresence of technology (Facebook, in this case), or the rumors spread on WhatsApp by right wing groups in India leading to the alleged mob lynching of several Muslim citizens, technology can be used in extremely devastating ways.

The larger issue remains surveillance or the invasion of citizens’ privacy spearheaded by the governments, through a national identification system.

Enforcing the citizens to give up their privacy rights, the governments collect their intimate details, if they want to avail of the sundry services.

Shoshana Zuboff, a noted author, says “We’re dealing with subliminal cues, psychological micro targeting, real time rewards and punishments, algorithmic recommendation tools and engineered social comparison dynamics.”

Airtel, a leading mobile network in South Asia with 265 million users in the region, says it “may collect, store, process following types of sensitive personal information such as genetic data, biometric data, racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, religious & philosophical belief, trade union membership, data concerning health, data concerning natural personal's sex life or sexual orientation, password, financial information (details of bank account, credit card, debit card, or other payment instrument details).”

As alarming as it sounds, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Yet another function of technology, especially in South Asia, is the creation and sustenance of jobs.

The biggest promise of technology since the first outsourced jobs began to show up in countries like India and the manufacturing hubs of Bangladesh.

It has been effective in delivering on that promise, but we must consider that not one of the top 20 technology companies is owned by South Asians.

If the industrial age propelled countries like Britain and the United States to surge ahead of others, it's time for the South Asian countries (Saarc, anyone?) took the lead in expanding on the opportunities they collectively offer.

The author is a former chief of communications with UNICEF in New York, where he worked for more than a decade. Views are personal

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Technology’s role in changing things for South Asia