THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance Minister Dr T M Thomas Isaac on Thursday called upon engineers and technocrats to ponder over the economic and social aspects of technology and said they had a responsibility to look into the issues related to the ethical use of technology considering its profound impact on humanity.
Inaugurating the International Symposium on Technology and Society (ISTAS-2016) here, Dr Isaac pointed out that technology had become the greatest enabler in today’s world and that modern communication technologies resulted in entirely new sectors like e-commerce and ride-sharing.
According to the Finance Minister, ethical issues relating to the use of modern technologies have now assumed greater importance than ever. Concerns of the society in matters of equity, equality, safety, privacy, and anonymity must be addressed, he added. Michael Lightner, former president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the largest professional organisation of engineers in the world, whose Kerala chapter is organising the Symposium, said the world had witnessed enormous democratisation of technology in the last two decades. However, issues pertaining to the creation, dissemination, use and control of technology.
IEEE Kerala chairman Suresh Nair said it was for the first time that the organisation had organised the International Annual Conference of its Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) in India.
INGCORE director general and international energy consultant V K Damodaran, ISTAS organising chairman Satish Babu, Amarnath Raja and Sasi P M also addressed the gathering.
Over the next two days, global experts, policy makers, technocrats, engineers from several states, social scientists and community representatives would deliberate on various aspects of technology and collaborate as well as share experiences and good practices, including ethics, equity and sustainability on the use of technology.