In the last two decades or so, the
industrial sector was on the cusp
of transmogrification. The changes were fueled by
dual processes of explosive growth and irreversible decline. The last
two decades saw scarce economic resources and
entrepreneurial energy sucked out of traditional industries and funneled into
`red-hot' new-age industries. These new-age industries became a
strong driver of innovation and growth. The magnitude of growth
and innovation in the new-age industry helped create a perception on
the ground about its strong competitiveness. During the
1980s, policy interventions were put in place to give impetus to
high-growth industries. By the turn of 1990s, high-growth
industries pupated into high-tech industries. The 1990s also witnessed
the emergence of what analysts, economic think-tanks
and entrepreneurs euphemistically termed as the `New Economy'.
The new economy was nothing but an economic restructuring
process powered by convergence of software and communications
equipment, and driven by tremendous strides made in the usage and quality
of these equipments. For their part, the vanilla-based traditional
economies re-energized itself to find its relevance in the context
of information and knowledge era.
The world economy which was always powered by machineries
is now being driven by people and the extent of knowledge they
had amassed. No wonder, this new economy has acquired a
sobriquet called knowledge economy. Knowledge economy is one in
which generation and exploitation of knowledge holds the key for
real wealth creation. In a typical industrial period, machines
were brought in as a better replacement for human beings by
companies that had over-arching commercial interests. But knowledge
economy has become synonymous with high-technology industries like
telecom, IT, biotech and financial services. In the distant past,
automated machines and computers made a workers job superfluous.
Today, the machines and computers are very much in place. But you need
some one to start, repair, maintain and run these machines and
computers. Otherwise they remain as costly junk pieces. A worker should
have the flair for and aptitude to work with these computers and
other high-end stuffthis is central to the knowledge economy
today. Technical skills such as these along with basic skills like
general awareness, reading, writing, mathematics and science
are considered to be a pièce de
résistance for today's workers. |
