New technologies such as machine learning, automation and Internet of Things (IoT) can help in accelerating growth for businesses in India if used intelligently and in an assertive manner, said Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, while asking enterprises to focus on providing training to youths in the country on these technologies. While talking to PTI, Murthy said that the biggest challenge at present is training youth for new-age technologies in order to create a larger number of jobs.
“…companies like Infosys will continue to do their job. The question is we want every company to focus on providing such a training. We want our universities to bring in innovation in education, we want to focus on problem-solving, independent thinking,” he said. The Mysore training centre of the company currently has the capacity to train 14,000 people a day.
While refuting that automation can result in loss of jobs, Murthy cited the example of introduction of computers in the UK in late 1960s and early 1970s and said that people opposed a new idea that time too, fearing it would take away many jobs, but it helped banks to expand their presence and created more jobs.
If companies start using these new technologies like automation efficiently, it is only going to help them grow their businesses and bringing in people in areas where they are actually needed and where there is a human touch, instead of providing them jobs that a machine can do, he added.
“Technology has improved transparency, conquered distance and class barriers and has the potential to create a fair society and enhance the accountability of the rich, the powerful and the elite to the poor and disenfranchised in every society,” Murthy noted, while speaking at the 24th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing, or Mobicon, on Tuesday.
In May this year, Willis Towers Watson conducted a survey which showed that Indian companies are expecting the use of automation in the workplace to rise to 27% over the next three years from 14% at present. It also noted that over half the companies think that automation is going to help augment human performance and create new work opportunities, and would not replace it.