Venkatarangan TNC

Economic Growth - Computers and Internet behind them?

Venkatarangan with NASA Astronauts in Las Vegas Madame Tusads This post is more of my thinking than a finite point on the present world economic achievements.

If you stop and think about what has been achieved in the last 10-15 years in Economy and Wealth Creation, it is amazing on any parameter you take. Whether it is China with a Trillion Dollar Foreign Exchange reserve, World's large corporation Market Cap (Google, Citi, WalMart) of each over several hundred Billion Dollars, Governments Trade Surpluses, Indian Government Direct Taxes Growth of over 60%, Worldwide sustained economic growth for last 5 years even though Oil is selling at record high of $70+ per barrel - on any account what has been achieved now is unprecedented in the modern history.

There are several complex happenings that have enabled this including Globalization. Being an Engineer and Software person, I would like to think it is because of Computers and Internet revolution (When I say Computers I do include Mobile Phones as well). Think about any task in modern research/science, business, life, medicine, banking/finance - there is no task that is not influenced by Computers and Internet.

It can range:

From preparing a thesis for a PhD, where you can research papers from around the world (which would have been impossible to do 2 decades back at this cost and time) and hence stand on other giants shoulders
Exchange real-time data and do complex calculations for fundamental research including DNA analysis
Access to best written courseware and training materials used for Education
Access to world wide economic trends
Learning from Management best practices and mistakes from around the world

and so on... In all these (and you can add hundreds of more items) Computers and Internet have touched and improved productivity at every facet of our present day life.

Do you have a say on this, leave your comments.