Tech for the marginalized

The big corporations have all the money and resources to use cutting edge technology. The middle class also uses tech well. This has been further accelerated by the Covid crisis. However the next thrust to push technology should be for the benefit of the rural masses, the small industries along with the poor and marginalized.

The biggest roadblock we had when we entered the 2010s was erratic electricity for the top half of the populace and none to miniscule access to power for the lower half. That has been by and large sorted out. We are on course for complete electrification of India in a few years from now.

The second problem was access. The poor and rural masses had limited access to things like bank accounts and government offices which they dreaded. This has been sorted out with the mobile being the ultimate access device. It has achieved deep penetration, something which the desktop and laptop failed to do in the last couple of decades. The mobile can be linked with Aadhaar and serve as an identification device. Things like contact tracing have ensured further integration within the government system.

While the Jan Dhan Yojana (the final inclusion government scheme including banking) has been really successful, online money has brought in even those who did not benefit from it into the fold. The mobile can prove to be the biggest e-governance tool for the marginalized and rural masses. The government can make its entire strategy out of that alone.

After that the biggest area is agritech, which has a huge potential. By some estimates, it can increase by hundredfold in the 2020s which sounds great but also shows you how much it has been underutilized in the first place. The farmer can link his mobile to IoT devices in tractors and pumps to get a local ecosystem which he can monitor regularly. The government can go in for a brand new digital agri-ecosystem which all farmers can be part of. The infrastructure is finally there and all that is required is a comprehensive plan followed by implementation.

Finally the biggest sufferers of the Covid crisis were the small and medium enterprises. They don’t have a solid and reliable business continuity planning but Industry 4.0 is a great counter for that, especially if it can be implemented at an affordable rate. There are enough tools related to automation, the cloud and SaaS offerings that can see them through for both productivity and business continuity.

“Last mile connectivity for Deep Tech” could be a good mantra that would see the most marginalized through the 2020s via a long needed upgrade.