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BPSC Mains GS-2 Masterclass · Science & Technology

Computers, Software & GlobalisationCode, Networks and a Connected World

India's software industry earns more foreign exchange than any other export and runs everything from rail tickets to Aadhaar. This page explains software and computer languages, how computers run modern communication, where India stands in computing, and how globalisation, helped and tamed by technology, has changed the country.

Economy8%Share of GDP

software industry; 1.2% in 1998.

Exports25%+Of India's exports

the largest forex earner.

Jobs4 millionDirect jobs

plus 12 million indirect.

Women30%Women in IT

of the IT workforce.

History1956TIFRAC

India's first computer.

Languages2012Julia

a language with Indian roots.

Part 1 · What do you mean by software?

Software: Instructions That Make Hardware Work

The programs that tell a computer what to do, divided into application programs and system programs.

Software

Software is a collection of data or computer instructions that tell the computer how to work. It controls the computer hardware parts and makes them operational. The software is generally divided into two kinds of programs.

Application programs

These are programs that permit the computer to be used as a tool for some specific tasks.

System programs

Programs that manage the resources of the computer system and simplify applications programming. They include software such as the operating system, database management systems, networking software, translators, and software utilities.

Example: A word processor or a railway booking app is application software: it does a job for you. Windows, Android or Linux is system software: it runs the machine so that those apps can work at all.

Part 2 · How is the software industry the backbone of the country's economic development?

The Software Industry: India's Economic Backbone

A large share of GDP and exports, millions of middle-class jobs, digital public services, start-ups and global goodwill, but weak in products.

GDP, exports and investment

Today it contributes 8% to the GDP (it was only 1.2% in 1998).
Software Industry is export dominated;
- the industry has generated US$180 billion in revenue and more than US$135 billion in exports.
- It is currently the largest forex earner from exports and accounts for over 25% of the country's total exports.
- According to economic survey 2019-2020: India's services export remains concentrated in software services accounting for almost 40% of total exports.
Increasingly, leaders of more than a thousand global enterprises across the U.S., Europe, and other locations have realized India's potential and have set up their own IT or R&D centers to take advantage of the vibrant Indian software ecosystem.
India is already home to 18 unicorns (start-ups valued in excess of US$1 billion), and another 10 are expected to be added by the end of 2020.
India's liberalization was possible due to its IT industry.

Digital India

The Indian software industry has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies in the country:

e-filing of tax returns, the Goods and Services Tax system, the passport system, the Indian rail reservation system (that books over 200 million tickets annually), the Aadhaar unique identification infrastructure.
It has helped in DBT for subsidies: reduced corruption.
Enabled proper monitoring of the various ongoing projects and expenditure: monitoring public fund utilisation.
Cashless transaction: eliminating the printing cost of money.

Wider gains

Capability development and employment creation

No other industry segment has generated as many jobs for the middle class. The sector directly employs over four million people and indirectly supports an additional 12 million jobs. The industry was also a major trigger for the government to push for an increase in output of engineering colleges to over 700,000 graduates a year.

Training

Companies have also set up processes to hire, train, and engage thousands of employees. In fact, Indian IT services companies spend over US$1.6 billion a year on employee training. Large technology companies have set up campuses exclusively focused on training their employees on skills relevant to their global customers.

Female empowerment

The industry has been supportive of women in the workforce, an aspect where India has traditionally lagged. Some 30% of the IT sector workforce is comprised of women employees.

Start-up ecosystem

The start-up ecosystem in India attracted over US$10 billion in investments from venture capitalists from across the world between 2016 and 2018. It has also given a boost to corporate governance in India, e.g. Paytm, Flipkart, Grofers, Ola, and Swiggy etc.

Productivity

Though less visible than the macro contributions to employment and foreign exchange, this role is a source of productivity improvement for all industries, and can have powerful long-term benefits for India's industrialization and growth.

Infrastructure

Helps in infrastructure projects in various phases from planning, designing, implementing to managing phases.

Global perception

Has positively impacted India's global perception: frequent foreign travelers can attest to the fact that the quality of interaction with local people has improved, leading to more investment in other sectors too.

Cost optimization and quality

India's high quality and relatively lower cost engineering, IT, and BPM talent has helped corporations gain huge cost savings that have allowed them to increase their shareholder returns and invest in growth and transformational initiatives.

The next big opportunity

India has done well in software services and our next big opportunity is in software products. There will be $1 trillion opportunity in the software production by 2025 and India has a great chance to tap it.

Limitations

India is net importer of software products. Currently the global software product market is valued at $438 billion and India's share in this is only $7 billion.
Of India's IT revenue, most of it is services. Software product component is less, it is just USD 7.1 billion.
Not labour intensive sector and need constant improvement in skillset according to changing technologies.
Language barrier. Most of software is dominated by English language.

Steps taken

1st software policy was brought in 1986. Recently, government has brought in new policy, National policy for software product 2019 with the aim to position India as a software production hub and 65 lakh jobs by 2025.
Software park scheme 1991.
Government is planning to create talent pool of 10k committed software leaders.
Integrating software product with GeM. And promoting Indian software product in Government procurement.
Opening colleges with courses designed as per the demand of the industries.

Part 3 · The development of computer languages and India's contribution

From Assembly to Python: How Computer Languages Grew

Seven decades of programming languages, and the languages that came from Indian developers.

Programming languages

Software is written in specific languages called programming languages. Each language's ‘grammar’ is called its syntax.

The development of computer languages

Period	Development
1940s and 50s	In early days, the limited speed and memory capacity forced programmers to write hand-tuned assembly language programs. It was any low-level programming language in which there is a very strong correspondence between the instructions in the language and the architecture's machine code instructions.
Early 1950s	The first functioning programming languages designed to communicate instructions to a computer were written.
1954	FORTRAN was invented at IBM by a team led by John Backus; it was the first widely used high-level general purpose programming language to have a functional implementation, as opposed to just a design on paper.
1958, 1959	Other languages still in use today include LISP (1958) and COBOL (1959).
Late 1960s to late 1970s	A major flowering of programming languages. C, an early systems programming language, and most important development at this time. It was developed by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson at Bell Labs between 1969 and 1973.
1980s	C++ combined object-oriented and systems programming was developed.
Mid-1990s	The rapid growth of the Internet was the next major historic event in programming languages. By opening up a radically new platform for computer systems, the Internet created an opportunity for new languages to be adopted: Javascript, PHP, Java etc.
Currently	Programming language evolution continues, in both industry and research. Various new languages are developing depending on the usage e.g. Python, Red, Crystal etc.

India's contribution in programming language

Julia

Developed by Viral Shah in 2012. Julia is an open-source computer programming language that is gradually becoming a popular alternative to more established languages such as MATLAB and Python.

Kojo

Developed by Lalit Pant in 2010. It is an open-source programming language and an integrated development environment (IDE).

Visual J#

Developed at Microsoft India Development Center in Hyderabad.

Users, not yet inventors

Thus, though India has contributed significantly in overall use of languages but not in inventing new language that is really useful to the world.

Part 4 · The contribution of computers in telecommunication and modern communication

Computers: The Bloodline of Communication

Computers are the nodes, routers and brains of telecom networks, and run business, banking, medicine, education and government.

Computer

A computer is an electronic machine that helps to process data. It is used to solve problems relating to almost all fields such as education, home, medicine, S&T, research, communication etc. The computer performs processes, calculations and operations based on data and instructions provided.

Telecommunications

Telecommunications are the means of electronic transmission of information over distances. It is transmitted through a transmission medium, such as over physical media, for example, over electrical cable, or via electromagnetic radiation through space such as radio or light.

The information may be in the form of voice telephone calls, data, text, images, or video. Some examples of Telecommunications systems are telephone network, the radio broadcasting system, computer networks and the Internet. The nodes in the system are the devices we use to communicate with, such as a telephone or a computer.

Importance of computer in the telecommunication system

The telecommunication networks are run by computers.
Computers constitute the nodes in the telecommunication network.
It works as sending and receiving device that initiates an instruction to transmit and accept data, instructions, or information.
Internet: Computers can process data at approximately 20 million bytes per second so it is easy for them to download and instantly display almost any text email.
Voice-Over-Internet Protocol, or VOIP, replaced the need for landline telephones in many instances.
Social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn allow users to rapidly generate content for people in their network to view.
- These computer tools have taken communication a step further than email due to their ability to instantly communicate life and status updates to an entire network of people who can respond and comment to such notes in real time.
Routing: Routers are types of computers used to direct communication traffic. They are crucial to the efficient and correct distribution of calls, emails or other Internet traffic.
Use by telecommunication companies in planning, implementation and monitoring phases of the projects.
Increasing trend of virtual meeting, online study etc: use of computer.
The other modes of telecommunication like telephone, mobiles, satellites etc also use the computer for their operations.
Even the traditional communications like post, courier etc rely on the use of computer for storing the data and managing their work.
Apart from computers, various other devices are used in telecommunication systems like Tablet PCs, smart phones, portable media players, GPS, cable television lines and telephone lines. However, the computer is definitely the bloodline of the communication system.

Business organizations now have a number of facts and a lot of numbers to be processed. So many businesses have started using the computer, for example to calculate the salary, to identify the goods sold and are still in stock, to issue and send or receive business statements, letters, invoices and more.
The use of computers and office equipment to assist other managers, clerks, and the management of office automation mentioned.

Part 5 · The state of computer technology in India; supercomputers

Where India Stands in Computing

From TIFRAC in 1956 to the world's largest IT exporter and two supercomputers in the global TOP500, yet still a net importer of software products.

The state of computer technology in India

Since its invention in 1948, electronic computers have changed the way world works.
TIFRAC (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Automatic Calculator) was the first computer developed (in 1956) in India, at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai.
In the contemporary world economy India is the largest exporter of IT. Exports dominate the Indian IT industry and constitute about 79% of the industry's total revenue. However, the domestic market is also significant, with robust revenue growth.
India has become the digital capabilities hub of the world with around 75 per cent of global digital talent present in the country.
The list of world's fastest super computers is out. The bi-annual list called TOP500 is dominated by China and the US. There are also two Indian supercomputers in the list, ranked at No. 57 and No. 100.
However, India's share in the global software product market is minuscule and the country remains a net importer of software products.
- Of the total software business of $8.2 billion in the country, India's exports amount to just $2 billion.

Use of super computers

Weather forecasting, Disaster management, quantum mechanics, climate research, oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling, physical simulations etc.
PARAM 8000 was the first super computer in India.
Pratyush and Mihir are the fastest supercomputers in India.

Example: A supercomputer earns its name by doing in a day what a laptop would take years to do. Weather forecasting needs this: the atmosphere is split into millions of boxes, and the equations for every box must be solved again for each few minutes of forecast time.

Part 6 · Globalisation: causes and positive effects

Globalisation and Its Positive Effects on India

Technology, reforms, transport, the WTO, capital and MNCs knit the world into a global village, bringing growth, jobs, choice and new ideas to India.

Globalisation

Globalisation is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. It leads to increasing exchange of people, views, products, ideas and other aspects of culture.

The national boundaries tend to get blurred with increasing trend of such exchanges and the world tends to become a “global village”.

Causes

Technology

Has increased the speed of communication manifolds. The phenomenon of social media in the recent world has made distance insignificant.

LPG reforms

The 1991 reforms in India have led to greater economic liberalisation which has in turn increased India's interaction with the rest of the world. International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank helped them in this endeavour.

Faster transportation

Improved transport, making global travel easier. For example, there has been a rapid growth in air-travel, enabling greater movement of people and goods across the globe.

Rise of WTO

Led to reduction in tariffs and non-tariff barriers across the world.

Improved mobility of capital

A general reduction in capital barriers, making it easier for capital to flow between different economies.

Rise of MNCs

Geographies have led to a diffusion of best practices. MNCs source resources from around the globe and sell their products in global markets leading to greater local interaction.

Better growth: increased revenue for the government which in turn could spend more on social services.
Greater Number of Jobs: The advent of foreign companies and growth in economy has led to job creation.
- However, these jobs are concentrated more in the services sector and this has led to rapid growth of service sector creating problems for individuals with low level of education.
- The last decade came to be known for its jobless growth as job creation was not proportionate to the level of economic growth.
More choice to consumers.
Higher Disposable Incomes:
- People in cities working in high paying jobs have greater income to spend on lifestyle goods.
- There has been an increase in the demand of products like meat, egg, pulses, organic food as a result. It has also led to protein inflation.
- Protein food inflation contributes a large part to the food inflation in India. It is evident from the rising prices of pulses and animal proteins.
The Green Revolution: increased production of grains and India became self sufficient.
Rise of IT industry.

Part 7 · Negative effects of globalisation, and how S&T can reduce them

The Costs of Globalisation, and Technology as a Remedy

Jobless growth, inequality, a shrinking farm sector, consumerism, threats to sovereignty and pollution, and the technologies that can soften them.

Jobless growth
Increasing inequality: Wealth of India's richest 1% more than 4-times of total for 70% poorest
Shrinking Agricultural Sector:
- Agriculture now contributes only about 15% to GDP. The international norms imposed by WTO and other multilateral organizations have reduced government support to agriculture.
- This has increased the vulnerability of Indian farmers. Farmers are also increasingly dependent on seeds and fertilizers sold by the MNCs.
Increasing rural-urban divide.

How science and technology can reduce the negative effects

Jobs

IT industry creating jobs: entrepreneurship.

Data

Collecting data using Internet and sensors: evidence based policy making.

Business

Single window system to increase the ease of doing business.

Awareness

Awareness creating using social media for various issues.

Biotechnology

Biotechnology use in health, environment etc.

Women's safety

CCTV, Trakie app for women safety.

Youth

De-radicalization, and value inculcation among youth through communication technologies.

Dialogue

Webinar, virtual meeting to discuss and communicate various problems.

Farmers

E-technologies to help farmers, Satellite images to approve relief amount to farmers under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

Smart cities

Smart cities envisage to use ICT and IoT for efficient service delivery.

Clean energy

Alternative technologies, renewable energy.

Rural–urban divide

Technology can help bridging the rural urban divide, e.g. common service center, internet access, road connectivity, electricity etc can increase the standard of living.

Both sides

We cannot say that the impact of globalization has been totally positive or totally negative. It has been both. Each impact mentioned above can be seen as both positive as well as negative. Through the increasing use of science and technologies we can minimize the negative impact and further boost the positive impacts.

“Through the increasing use of science and technologies we can minimize the negative impact and further boost the positive impacts.”

— BPSC Mains answer · Globalisation

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