What are the main socio-economic implications arising out of the development of IT industries in major cities of India?. UPSC IAS Mains 2021 General Studies (Paper – 1)
Information technology is an example of a general-purpose technology that has the potential to play an important role in economic growth, as well as other dimensions of economic and social development. The IT industry accounted for around 8% of India’s GDP in 2020.
However, IT industries in India are concentrated in a few major cities like Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, etc. This, though boosted the economy around the cities, has imprinted wider socio-economic implications.
Socio-economic implications of development of IT industry:
- Uneven development and Economic Disparity: The major cities with large IT hubs are developing faster than the semi urban and Tier I, II cities. There is also a huge wage gap between IT workers and other workers.
- Accentuating Digital Divide: Given the importance of industries, the hosting cities attract most of the developmental activities. To illustrate, lack of infrastructure in rural areas impede the access to essential services, impacting their socio-economic development.
- Increased Migration and Cultural Change: The youth migrate from rural areas and small cities to the major IT cities leaving their parents alone and needy for social and emotional support. This is leading to breakdown of joint family culture and more nuclear family culture is emerging in India.
India’s technology services industry can achieve USD 300-350 billion in annual revenue by 2025 if it can exploit the fast-emerging business potential in cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and other emerging technologies. Though we need to invest in such technologies, this investment should be evenly distributed and not centred to a few locations. For example, the IT-BPO industries can be established in North East cities and Tier 1 and 2 cities. We can only become a knowledge economy if the developments are even and inclusiv
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