Impact of ICT on various sectors & possible alternatives.

The on going development in the area of Information Communication Technology, in an unprecedented level in its history, is casting its, devastating as well as regenerating, impact on all other sectors, from agriculture to governance and entertainment to science & technology, side by side with transforming itself into unrecognisable proportions. Society has completed a full circle in its evolution, in the field of communication, from the time when its members could not communicate effectively with its immediate relation nearby to a time when every one of its members can communicate effectively to any other member, any where. In this process the society has traversed through many stages of development, each of which being a great leap forward like, speech, symbols, script, language, computing, printing, posts, Telegraph, Telephone, Telex, radio, TV and finally, the integration of all these into the modern computer, which is basically a communication equipment, with digital signals being communicated internally from its component to component and externally from one computer to any number of others. In this process, every means of communication, sound, script (letters, digits and signs) and images were converged into their digital form. This convergence puts its print on each and every area where information is generated, used, transferred or consumed. All the possibilities and ill effects being thrown up by this advancement is still not revealed, despite alarming changes that have already manifested. Hidden uses and effects are yet to be invented and felt.

This, exactly, is what we witness around us today, in every field. Let it be various areas of economic activity like agriculture, manufacturing, marketing, banking, insurance, education, health care or governance or the social sectors like art, literature, cultural etc, all are experiencing the devastating as well as regenerating effects of the changes in communication technology. The effects, whether devastating or regenerating, depends heavily on who and for what purpose, the tools are being used. Here, in the present capitalist society, it is being used by capitalists to increase their profit, by reducing labour component by optimizing various processes in which labour and other resource utilization is involved like raw material procurement and storage, production, transportation and storage of goods etc. Productivity is increased, production is optimized reducing redundancy, wastage etc, storage space is saved, transportation requirement is optimized, all achieved through the effective utilization of capabilities of modern ICT. The result is that devastating effects are being experienced by the old generation banks, insurance companies, telecommunication and other service providers, manufacturing industries, Governmental organisations etc who are still depending on the conventional ICT, mostly paper based systems and though using computers, stand alone systems, fragmented networks etc. On the other hand, we see a host of up coming new generation telecommunication service providers, banks, insurance companies, education institutions (not the unaided ones, but the multinational ones which is only trying to enter our market), hospital complexes (yet again not the private hospitals here but multinational concerns who are sitting on the fence), retail business chains, the IT firms and consultants who cater to the needs of the government (recollect the system restructuring proposals for various Governmental Organisations, Industries and other Commercial and service establishments , like the MGP – Modernisation in Govt Program of ADB for Kerala) and other organisations. With the appearance of new generation outfits, the existing concerns are forced to compete with them for survival. The new outfits are viewed by many as the ones that represent the regeneration trend of technology. In fact, it is not so. They too represent the destructive effect since it aims at increasing the profit of capital and not the welfare of the society. Who wins in this competition, whether the old generation ones or the new generation ones does not matter much in so far as the ill effects brought down on the common people, as both perform the same task, defined by the capital, of looting the people. But there is vast difference when we consider the possibilities of using the public sector as a tool in our fight against the hegemony of trans national finance capital, as the new generation ones are the outfits of transnational finance capital.

The issue of survival of public sector has to be addressed, not only by the PSU workers and management, but also by the Govt and the people, who all, naturally, have the interest to withstand the onslaught of global finance capital. But, for the presence, none including the workers, but for, an advanced section of the working class, do not address the issue earnestly. In the larger interest of the workers, the people, the National Govt, PSUs, though have all the problems arising out of its legacy of old and obsolete information system they use, must survive and continue to exist. For their survival, they have to compete. Success in the competition, in the given situation, depends on the adoption of the concepts and market trends set by the new generation business outfits. This transformation of PSUs to cope up with the new market trends is going to be a difficult affair. But, that has to take place, failing which the workers concerned, along with the PSUs are destined to exit from the scenario.

If we analyse the ground realities making the re-engineering of management system of PSUs difficult, we find the attitude of the management and the workers and the class interest represented by the Govt responsible. Attitude is not a permanent feature. It is bound to change with the changing environment. Some are pointing out the workers opposition to computerisation as the cause for the present scenario faced by the PSUs. Workers only opposed the, then, use of computers against their interest. Any use of any technology in their interest will be welcomed by them. These days, no instance of anti-computerisation struggle is, even, heard. But, what is the position of adaptation of technology in the different PSUs. Every where the ICT monopolies are being welcomed, monopoly of proprietory software platforms as well as monopoly of service providers. In case of banks, the trend, in addition, is of dismantling even the meager build up of internal ICT capabilities to surrender to the ICT Corporates. In every sector, whether Telecom, Energy or other Govt departments this conflict is going on. In case of BSNL, the largest organisation owning the widest ICT infrastructure is yet to put in place a system for on the spot service delivery. Even the available networks are fragmented and stand alone. Management is still entangled with the age old file system. Whatever efforts are on going is only to convert the paper file system to an electronic file system. The modern concept of IT, nor its capabilities are applied for modernising the management functions. Though the BSNL corporate office has identified the ICT services as its target areas as early as 2000, not even the advanced territorial unit of Kerala, where PSU services are hotly sought for, is giving a serious thought of entering into the ICT market.

The possible alternatives are clear from the above discussion. Every PSU shall modernise its system of production, operations, marketing, management and administration by acquiring internal ICT capabilities with the help of PSUs in the respective sectors. ICT service providing PSUs have to modernise its own concepts, diversify its products, services and operations, marketing, management and administration and shall start using state of the art ICT tools for the same. Deficiencies in Technical know how has to be made up through tie-ups with other PSUs or social organisations. Avoid the use of proprietory SW platforms in preference to GPL to increase value addition within the organisation and the nation and to avoid take over by IT monopolies. The sustenance of PSUs and the development of the fighting movement for the same will strengthen the forces for changing the Policies of the Govt and to use the technologies for tapping its regenerating effects.