JAY JOSHI
Recently, there was a news about a new programme designed by the faculty of IIT Bombay that offers the students a chance to pursue a postgraduate program in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The rise of AI is one of the day’s most important themes of the day. If you are thinking that it is something that’s happening in the developed world, and may not impact india much, think again. A 2018 study by LinkedIn stated that India ranks among top three countries with penetration of AI skills. Along with the rest of the country, Goa too, will not remain untouched by the new technology for long, say experts.
“In the next 10-15 years, artificial intelligence will certainly have a deep impact on our lives.” says Sushrut Chafadkar, a mechanical engineer from Margao who now works in Germany. “We might see loss of jobs such as factory workers, taxi drivers, and other mid or low skill jobs.” says Chafadkar, but says that this is not a reason to worry. “I myself believed that AI is a negative force that will evolve and gain an edge over humans, but as I studied the concept, my opinion changed. It’s a bit far fetched idea, and AI has more positives”. He further states that AI will rise to take over dangerous jobs such as those involving radioactive material, or hazardous locations such as coal mines.
Shekhar Joshi, a Goan data analyst working in Bangalore, throws more light on the topic. “The Indian IT and BPO industry employs around 3.7 million people, and many of them are mid or low-killed people. Their job can and will be automated.” he asserts, estimating that we might start witnessing the change from 2022 itself, and it will take away at least 5-6 lakh jobs. “One of the most heavily affected sectors will be HR. jobs such as going through applications and resumes can be done by Artificial Intelligence.” states Joshi, informing that around at a global level, the IT sector might see around 9% of its jobs lost to AI. “How this change will impact Goa, depends on how the state develops. We have more of manufacturing than IT jobs. It is difficult to say how much we will be affected, but we will definitely see an impact in the next decade or so” says Joshi.
That said, Goa needs to prepare for the big change, but seems to be lagging behind in terms of technology, observes Durgesh Alavani, a software engineer from Verna. “For starters, many government jobs such as data entry can be automated, reducing the costs to government. Secondly, the websites could use AI in a big way, but the technology which is currently used by our govt websites is quite old compared to industry standards.” Penetration of AI in government is limited by lack of political will and budget constraints, and we may not see the changes right now, but they will certainly come, avers Alavani.
Nitin Kunkolienkar, a veteran of the IT industry and former President of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry highlights the issue in detail. “AI will impact the entire country, and Goa will not remain untouched. If we look at the tourism sector, travel websites are already using AI and machine learning in a big way. But while the private sector develops, the government has to wake up and adopt AI.” says Kunkolienkar “The standard of our e-governance is pretty basic, but in terms of ‘electronic functioning’, we are a disabled state.” He adds.
“The government has not adopted any tools for data management. The data management culture of our government is weak. The central department in charge of GST is using AI in an impressive way, but the same can’t be said about Goa’s revenue department.” For better governance, there needs to be better integration between the departments so that they can access the data on a common platform and speed up decision-making, says Kunkolienkar. “Our government infrastructure for e-governance is not up to the mark. There is an urgent need to leapfrog into the age of the AI” concludes tech expert.
