Automation – Indian IT May Profit at the Cost of Jobs, Upskilling May Deter Job Loss

In 2012, the Indian IT players were busy playing on the post-downturn reinstated burgeoning outsourcing market, and adopting business models of regional diversification. Whereas, at the same time, there were a few companies that were busy creating avenues to encroach on the IT opportunities through their technology platforms. While software players were betting on engineering freshers for profitable outsourcing projects, the other set of game changers was wagering on robots and humanoids. In fact, Frost & Sullivan predicted the automation market to grow to $2,000 Million by 2016. Three years down the line, the realization has dawned. Cost structure and change of geographical targets can no more be a special USP to augment business, instead the new model zeroes on automation and upskilling of the work force. Technology is changing fast, and with the emergence of automation of the redundant processes, the $150 billion Indian IT industry faces a daunting task of creating new USPs, wherein revenues are earned based on volumes than on FTE hours.

Once Automation took a firm root as a business model, outsourcing projects began to dwindle and top IT firms have begun witnessing single digit growths. The threat was imminent, as through robotics and humanoids, companies can deliver the IT projects at a cost that is less than one-fourth the billing rates of engineers from top IT firms. Moreover, by building robotic capabilities onshore, the need for outsourcing lost the luster. Currently, the Indian IT industry is fervently looking to automate their processes within the next five years.

Operation-Level Automation – A Key Threat to Job
at all Levels

According to the report - "Process Automation & Instrumentation Market by Instrument (Pressure, Temperature, Level and Humidity Transmitter), Solutions (PLC, DCS, SCADA, HMI, APC, MES and Safety Automation), Application, and Geography - Global Trend and Forecast to 2020" - the process automation and instrumentation market is expected to reach $81.69 Billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 4.68% between 2015 and 2020. In fact, within the next four years, as per NASSCOM’s Chairman, machines will replace one-fourth of the jobs within the Indian IT industry. New roles will emerge for man to manage the machines, but the number of machines replacing human will exceed the number of man managing machines.

Various levels of automation have found their place within the IT industry. Robotic process automation (RPA) is expected to impact 30-40% of total business process management (BPM) spend. RPA reduces 35-65% cost for onshore process operations with an investment recovery period of only six to nine months. RPA has been playing a key role in automating banking and financial services (BFS) projects and the benefit of that is its applicability without any concerns for scalability. While RPA helps the IT industry maintain the equilibrium in revenue-profit ratio, the bottom level of the pyramid will have concerns, as 20-25% of the employees currently placed within the IT services and BPO industry are employed in entry-level jobs without any analytical scope. Hence, with RPA in place, the need for the low-skilled workforce will turn obsolete.

Cognitive computing, autonomics and artificial intelligence are other models, which are increasingly adopted within the industry. For instance, IBM’s Watson will be useful in a healthcare setting. It will aggregate information, such as a patient’s history, articles or journals published, and information on various tools and best practices surrounding a particular condition, and will further analyze the vast information to deduce a remedy. However, at the same time, it will reduce the need of subject experts required for similar data aggregation. While the primary concern is the freeze or slowdown in hiring of freshers, the current scenario will influence the job market across all levels. According to NASSCOM, the IT industry needed almost 50% less engineers to generate every additional $1 billion of export revenue in 2015-16, compared to that of 2009-10.With the decline in human intervention, the mid-level managerial role too will lose its significance.

The Next Phase – Workforce Upskilling

Emily Dickinson’s thought -“Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door” – rightly portrays the current need of the workforce in the industry. The looming uncertainty does not clearly determine the fate of the workforce. As per a McKinsey study, people management and development has only 9% automation potential; at the same time, decision making or planning roles have just 18% automation potential. To keep up with the changing models, skill enhancement is key. One must be open to garner new skill sets and open every door of opportunity.While robots function to fulfill mundane requirements, human intervention will be more crucial to infer new possibilities and manage the automated environment. Through domain knowledge and relevant technological skills, employees will be aware of the technological usage impacts and aptly determine the appropriate application of the technologies within the processes for business benefits.

From Blackboards to Interactive Whiteboards - Journey Toward a New Normal

Like a 2MB floppy disc that retired to make way for its advanced successors, such as USBs and micro SDs, the more than a century old chalk and black board learning system too needs to pave the way for its effective new generation of experiential and digital learning environments. The continuous overwork of the black board system is only limiting possibilities within the classroom. It’s a well-known fact that a student’s attention span could at the maximum last for 15 minutes, and a teacher’s lesson plan could only extend to a certain point in the absence of any medium to engage the students. However, the inclusion of interactive white boards and online classes, and an overall digitalization of the pedagogical structure are how the student-teacher gap can be merged.

The ratio bridge

While, on the surface, the 30:1 pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) stands correct within India, a little deep digging of the education sector reveals the disparity that exists within government schools and private ones. In some government schools the ratio is as less as 20:1; however, some of their private counterparts settle the balance by maintaining a ratio that’s disparagingly high at 50:1. This is where technology can make a huge dent in the quality of education. In such a confined learning environment, attracting the attention and recognizing individual needs will be difficult. A teacher could include videos, use an interactive whiteboard or even use syllabus-based interactive learning content to keep the students interested in the class. Students too can participate in online collaborative learning platforms where everyone can share their knowledge and questions to understand the subject better or by accessing practical usage videos to help understand the context in which the subject can be used in the practical world. A win-win for both the parties.

Widening the access

As per an IAMAI-IMRB report, 48% (around 78 million) of the population in rural India uses Internet on a daily basis. Thus, a huge opportunity exists to ensure that everyone has access to the various avenues to educate themselves. The Indian government’s mission to increase enrollment in higher education by 5 percentage points is the point where digitalization will play a key role. Considering 80% of the schools are managed by the government, introduction of digital mediums will magnify the interest as well as will breakdown the limits of the four-wall academic system. For instance, in the rural side of the country a 15-year old child may have the thirst for knowledge, however, being crammed with manual work for a daily wage may not provide him the opportunity to actually be a part of the class. However, if the child has access to the daily lessons and has the flexibility to learn in accordance to his timing, he will definitely use it to learn his lessons.

With the digital classroom market being expected to grow globally at 13% CAGR from 2016-2020, it’s only a matter of time when this learning environment becomes the new normal. 

Poem: Shade of Sleaze

The CEO and the Child

Once upon a time there lived a CEO. The CEO’s childhood wasn’t rosy. A ragged house made of hay, a sick mother, and a drunkard father. And soon a fairy tale came alive when the CEO was chosen by the school to be sent to a top university utilizing the school’s trust. But alas the choice was withdrawn when a rich father donated a huge sum for the school infrastructure manipulating the prestigious offer in favor of his Child. Well that’s how the game of corruption got played with some shiny notes.

But the story doesn’t end here. The Child joined the university on the so-called scholarship to study with other brilliant students, while the CEO took up a labor job in a garment factory.  The CEO worked hard to earn two-meal a day, while the Child partied his college days away with lavish food and drinks on the bay.

Two years went by, and it was time for the Child to say goodbye to the party scene. Graduation arrived and the child donned the graduate cap though the marks were nothing colorful. Unemployed with no real skills, the father comes to the play again. Through the father’s connection, the Child gets the role of an Assistant Garment Inspector of a top cloth line. And that's how the game of favoritism began.

On the other side of the social spectrum was the CEO. His hard work was never noticed, until after a year, when a huge fiasco made the top management of the garment company to visit the manufacturing site. It was a pure corduroy garment manufacturer; however at that point 68% of its produced goods were rejected in the market due to mix of different linen in the material. The management had come to the plant to check the origin of the problem and to find a fix to it.

Days went by but no solution and the company was on a losing proposition. Half of the workers left the premises witnessing the gory chances of being jobless while the CEO stayed. Then once, the CEO after a late shift was leaving for home but saw a little girl carrying a doll wrapped in a silk robe sneaking into the premises. Curiosity gripped the CEO enough to stay back to see what she does. The little girl stealthily moved to the factory garbage dump and left her doll on top of one of the machines. Her hands explored the contents of the dump and soon a smile hits her face. A big slice of bread in her hand, she happily danced toward the exit of the plant's premises while grabbing the doll on the way. Well that's how the CEO realized the true joy of living – being content with what one can get their hands on.

The doll's dress got caught in the iron splinters of the machine and a long silk thread treaded the machine. The little girl with one tug got rid of the silk thread that was slowly unweaving the robe and left the thread dangling on the machine. The CEO lightly caught hold of the girl, and the management was informed of the cause of the linen mixture. But the revelation was done after making a deal with the management securing the little girl's education and life overall. The CEO was rewarded and was promoted to be a part-time Strategic Invigilator of the manufacturing plant, and the part-time Garment Inspector of its cloth line. Stay with a company in its bad days and earn the glory in its good days.

Stepping into the office as a Garment Inspector, the CEO recognizes the Assistant GI — the Child, who bullied the CEO even prior to the university corruption episode. Nodding with a smile the CEO greets and continues with the job demands. And that's when the Child realizes the importance of acceptance. Never take an advantage of the position to bully someone, you never know what the future holds. On the other hand, the CEO understands that a work ambience is a team work. You need to forgive and forget to co-exist together.

Today, the CEO has taken up the role of the CEO of the clothline after completing the necessary educational requirements sponsored by the company, while the Child remains the Assistant Garment Inspector. The father bought the Child's education and a career start but failed to imbibe the importance of knowledge and skills. In short, money can buy a life but not the value of life. It's not money but one's own hands that builds destiny. And the key to be happy is to co-exist and help each other in the journey called life.

It’s been a while

Since we shared a smile,

It’s been a while

Since we walked a mile.

Estranged

Chronicle of a Knotty Life

Is your sleep dreamless?

After a tiring day, we slump on the bed and the eyelids close transporting us to our dreamland — Many of us will describe the slumber period in similar ways. But does everyone reaches their dream world?

A dream could be several events patched into one and it can also be a short lived phenomenon reacting to an outside stimuli like voices or the sound of the TV. For instance, if one is thirsty while asleep and a dream shapes up about drinking water but somehow the parched throat refuses to seek relief to an extent that once the person wakes up the thirst is immediately realized.

 If one takes a notice, dreams change during the different phases of one's life as experts say it helps relieve the conscious mind from dwelling in a disturbing thought through a diversion. Although many might disagree as sometimes dreams are scarier than the real circumstances forcing one to wake up with a troubled mind. Well it is the case when the desires and troubled thoughts in the unconscious mind find their way into awareness through dreams, thus reliving the darkest emotions and fantasies.

That little dream might mean a lot.

Some people may have witnessed that as they grew up there's a gradual decrease of dreams to an extent that their sleep turns dreamless.  Well the answer lies in Sigmund Freud's famous interpretation — "dreams are '...disguised fulfillment of repressed wishes'." While one's young the ambitions and aspirations, how much ever impractical, knows no bound. And since not every one of the wishes can be fulfilled, the ideas slowly shifts to the unconscious mind making each wish a reality in the dreams. As one grows up, with maturity the thought process goes through a change and the wishes turn as practical as possible. So while some act upon their wishes and instincts, some do not; and the frequency of the dreams depends on it.

This brings in the question "Is your sleep dreamless?" If yes, you have understood the priority of your wishes and no more feel the need to dwell in any unfulfilled thoughts as you are content with the ways things have shaped in your life. If no, then you are dreamer even with open eyes. Act upon your wishes and instincts and by the time they turn real, you are creating space for more desires to set in. A life without aspirations might turn dull but don't turn to be a dreamer without any real efforts. After all, a real party can be enjoyed better than a party in your slumber.