Tag: Technology

Opinion: Workers will simply try to survive, rather than prosper, as tech takes over the economy

Opinion: Workers will simply try to survive, rather than prosper, as tech takes over the economy

For most people, a secure, well-paid job is the difference between a reasonable life and penury. Today, changes in the structure of the work force driven by globalization and technology make this objective increasingly elusive.

Technology has exacerbated declines in employment and incomes by eliminating tasks and “de-skilling” many jobs.

Robotics and complex computerized equipment has successfully replaced skilled labor. Computer software is now replacing journalists, synthesizing news items electronically by crawling the internet. Even traders in financial markets are being replaced by automated algorithms.In the late-20th century, global supply chains allowed lower-paid workers to displace expensive counterparts in more developed […]

IT sector’s transformation comes when India is struggling to create jobs: Is it in a downward spiral?

IT sector's transformation comes when India is struggling to create jobs: Is it in a downward spiral?

There has been some worrying news on the side of the economy which has remained confined to the business newspapers. It concerns India’s large information technology and software industry and companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro. These firms, which were expanding quickly for the last two decades, have all slowed down.

They are now growing at single digits annually and even that is a struggle. This has caused speculation that the industry is in a death spiral in India. One reason for this slowing down is that automation is replacing human capital. This affects the services being offered by these […]

Automation to cause huge job loss in IT sector

There has been some worrying news on the side of the economy which has remained confined to the business newspapers. It concerns India’s large information technology and software industry and companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro. These firms, which were expanding quickly for the last two decades, have all slowed down.

They are now growing at single digits annually and even that is a struggle. This has caused speculation that the industry is in a death spiral in India. One reason for this slowing down is that automation is replacing human capital. This affects the services being offered by these […]

Automation to cause huge job loss in IT sector

Automation to cause huge job loss in IT sector

There has been some worrying news on the side of the economy which has remained confined to the business newspapers. It concerns India’s large information technology and software industry and companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro. These firms, which were expanding quickly for the last two decades, have all slowed down.

They are now growing at single digits annually and even that is a struggle. This has caused speculation that the industry is in a death spiral in India. One reason for this slowing down is that automation is replacing human capital. This affects the services being offered by these […]

Automation, the hitch in Trump and Clinton’s plans to bring back manufacturing?

Automation, the hitch in Trump and Clinton's plans to bring back manufacturing?

American manufacturing jobs are unlikely to be as numerous as in the 1970s because automation has replaced the need for many workers. Here, Rick Ring (left) and Corinne Schmitt-Bries attach a panel at John Deere Dubuque Works in Dubuque, Iowa, last year. (Jessica Reilly/Telegraph Herald via AP) In the 1960s, Lehigh Valley high school graduates had a lot of options.

Manufacturers such as Air Products, Ingersoll Rand and Bethlehem Steel offered well-paying jobs that promised a route to the middle class.

"You would expect to go get a job, get married, have kids, get a pension one day and everyone would […]

India’s IT industry & automation angst

India’s IT industry & automation angst

Aakar Patel Automation is coming upon us more rapidly than most of us imagine… Even if India’s IT companies are able to retain their market share of software work, it is going to be automated, meaning requiring less employees. There has been some worrying news on the side of the economy which has remained confined to the business newspapers. It concerns India’s large information technology and software industry and companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro. These firms, which were expanding quickly for the last two decades, have all slowed down.

They are now growing at single digits annually and even […]

Robotics technology for picking farm produce

Robotics technology for picking farm produce

Farm workers in India. Picture by Vinoth Chandar By Nandini Kranti

The use of robotics technology in industrial systems is quite common, but in the agricultural sector, robotics and automation technology still retains a novelty and fascination, and is still to make a widespread impact on labor-intensive tasks.

The discussion on man versus machine has come too far. Artificial intelligence was the key addition that tipped scales in favor of the latter. Precise and iterative line functions in industrial processes are handled by well-programmed robots.Material handling is seldom an issue in this setup since a great deal of […]

Alarming speculations

Alarming speculations

The writer is the editor and translator of Why I write: Essays by Saadat Hasan Manto, published by Westland in 2014. His book, India, Low Trust Society, will be published by Random House. He is Executive Director of Amnesty International India. The views expressed here are his own. aakar.patel@tribune.com.pk There has been some worrying news on the side of the economy which has remained confined to the business newspapers. It concerns India’s large information technology and software industry and companies like Infosys, TCS and Wipro. These firms, which were expanding quickly for the last two decades, have all slowed […]

Robots Could Push ‘Fight For 15’ Backers Out Of Work

Robots Could Push 'Fight For 15' Backers Out Of Work

(Chelsea Cody) Someday C-3PO and R2-D2 could be taking your fast-food restaurant order and cooking your burger and fries instead of saving the galaxy in "Star Wars."

Before you say, "I have a bad feeling about this," consider the current business and technology trends.

The political push to raise the minimum wage nationwide to $15 an hour has motivated many restaurants and other businesses with low-skilled workers to think about replacing some human staff with automation and robots.At the same time, such technology is improving by leaps and bounds and costs are coming down. IBD’S TAKE: There always are some good […]

Technology & Automation: Only Humans Need Apply

Technology & Automation: Only Humans Need Apply

Most experts nowadays fear technology. The rapid automation happening in the industrial sector has become a cause for concern for many policy planners because of the huge unemployment that automation creates when it displaces the workers. As a technologist, I certainly want technology to continue progressing. Productive use of technology happens when machines are used to ease the lives of human beings by means of automation. The role of technological progress should be to ease the lives of human beings through automation of strenuous and repetitive operations. However, as a macroeconomist, I am equally concerned about ensuring full-employment in […]