BENGALURU: At a time when technology is taking over the country, leaving several concerned about their jobs, N Chandrasekaran, chairman, Tata Sons, has taken a different view point – that it will instead amplify jobs – in his book, Bridgital Nation. In fact, this was one of the questions posed by Nandan Nilekani, co-founder & chairman – Infosys and Founding Chairman, UIDAI, who was in conversation with Chandrasekaran at the launch of the book at Taj West End on Monday evening.
“It’s about using technology to create a market and access, which will lead to delivery of services. Right now many jobs are informal which can change with the use of technology,” said Chandrasekaran, giving the instance of drivers appointed at homes versus those appointed by companies, with the latter offering a 15-20 per cent higher compensation.
Chandrasekaran, who has co-authored the book with Roopa Purushothaman, chief economist and head of policy advocacy - Tata Sons, went on to emphasise the importance of looking at people’s problems from a tech point of view. “In the healthcare and education space, adopting technology can demystify the jobs of specialists. For instance, half the work of doctors can be taken care by a bridgital worker,” Chandrasekaran suggested. Agreed Nilekani, for whom the concept of the book resonated with his own philosophy of using technology to provide people access to a service. “Instead of people going to a service, the idea is that the service comes to them,” Nilekani said elaborating on his UIDAI project.
To a question by Nilekani on combining macroe conomics with people’s stories in the book, Chandrasekaran went back to the making of the book. “It was my inability to write,” he said on a light note, adding, “I always worked on it like a project proposal. I suppose it is because of too many years in the technology space. Which is how Roopa came on board, since we also wanted to bring in a human element into this book,” said Chandrasekaran who, as part of the research process, went to do field work, including in hospitals in Meghalaya, to get a first-hand idea of ground reality.