Vice-President Krishan Kant on Thursday called for a multi-pronged approach to investment in technology which must be used in reforming social sectors like education, literacy and infrastructure development. Giving away the national productivity awards in New Delhi, the vice president said no nation could hope to increase productivity and overall prosperity, simply by investing in technology to the exclusion of human resource development.
''A developing economy will have to use its resources thoughtfully and prudently to derive maximum advantage from the computer-based technology to enhance overall productivity, Mr Krishan Kant said. He said that while computers and information technology were emerging as the most productive sectors in the national economies like the USA, replicating their success-story in a developing country, might not be free from its own complexities. ''Mere investment in computers is no guarantee of higher returns.
Today's computers may be fifty times faster than they were twenty years ago, but are not fifty times more productive. Much of the investment into computers is locked up in upgradation and fighting obsolescence,'' he said.
Bureau Report