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A benign bug

L. Jayarangan

ALL along, people have been jettisoning the attempts of their managements to internalise new technology, fearing job loss.

In the 19th century, Luddites smashed the powerlooms that threatened their employment. And yet, technology surged ahead, unmindful of such glitches which did not cause any serious depletion of jobs, after all. For technology, besides raising productivity , raised job opportunities too.

The tech onslaught came in two ways: Production innovation and process invention. Product innovations are in the form of photo-copiers, vaccumisers, and so on. Being the first of their kind, when these products succeed, rivals step in with differentiated products and expand employment further. And there is new process invention that either nullifies old bottlenecks or improves efficiency. For instance, dry process cement technology is eco-friendlier than wet process cement.

Historically, much of the process upgradation had taken place in developed nations with the purpose of containing high labour costs. Consider robots. They do not demand bonuses! Such moves, though, initially downsized man power in the shop floors, lowere d the unit cost of production. Cost-competitiveness became the driver of new demand and fuelled capacity expansions. The dilemma of many governments is whether to implement demand-generating technology, or stall it due to its labour-dispensing effects.

One cannot forget the Life Insurance Corporation's fight against computerisation in the early 1970s. Unions did their best to resist the move. The management persisted. And today, the use of information technology in LIC has become so extensive that if t he management were to recall its computers, the same unions would be the first to call such a move `anti-labour!'

While it is a million dollar question as to how far computerisation benefits LIC's customers, it has certainly saved its employees from the drudgery of number crunching and file searching.

Whenever policy-makers have attempted to curb productivity to preserve jobs, it has only ended in job losses and poor living standards. The ailing textile industry is an example. Information age fuels technological growth in product innovations and proce ss inventions. Gains outweigh pains, so let tech continue to bug!