The Fourth Industrial Revolution is the latest in a series of disruptive changes in production models, promising to become the new engine for economic growth. The technologies of Industrialisation 4.0 – among them, AI, robotics, and biotechnology – will increasingly cause the blurring of lines between the physical and the digital and dramatically scale up the rapidity and efficiency with which we engage in the production and consumption of goods and services.
In light of this, there are growing efforts to craft forward-thinking policies that capitalise on each nation’s unique strengths and weaknesses. Digging down to the building blocks of Industrialisation 4.0, human capital and data, panellists debated ways in which countries could equip their workforces with skills needed to adapt to a rapidly evolving economic context and discussed frameworks for assessing and maximising the value of data in the new industrial age. Vivek Lall, for instance, emphasised the need to overhaul the education system to impart practical experience in Industrialisation 4.0 skills at an elementary school level. This, he further said, should be supplemented with both basic and applied research at universities. It should also be noted that India, despite producing the second-largest number of STEM graduates, is unable to retain top talent as most STEM professionals immigrate to other countries that are perceived to present better opportunities for professional growth. Thus Vivek Lall’s final suggestion providing a platform to entrepreneurs that supplies financial capital as well as guidance on how to commercialise innovative ideas—would be a crucial step for a country like India to maximise its workforce potential and achieve its annual GDP growth goals.
The second crucial ingredient for growth in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is Big Data. Amitabh Kant, highlighting what he saw as a key strength in this realm for India, pointed out that the bulk of data is owned by public entities, as opposed to the US or Europe where most data is owned by private companies like Facebook and Google and cannot be easily tapped into for public services. Thus, the Indian government can leverage its own vast databases to improve access, personalisation and quality of basic services such as education and health.
However, while Big Data is now a widely used catchword, most entities are not aware of the value and potential of their data. One reason for this knowledge gap is lack of awareness on the part of business owners and government that their existing databases are an asset, not simply an administrative necessity. The second reason is that there is simply no standardised framework to evaluate data. Pippa Hall, while pointing out the sluggishness of legislation in catching up with technological development, elucidated the need for industry standards to provide a framework for how to value intangible data assets and access finance to capitalise on these assets. Francis Gurry observed that the existing framework, built during the Industrial Revolution, for valuing intangibles is well-suited to the emerging digital economy, although there will still remain unresolved issues that policymakers may need to address.
The panellists cautioned against a universal set of standards for data for a couple of reasons: first, because innovation has become the basis of competition, the capacity to build international rules is limited due to the often incompatible interests involved. Second, the different capacities and levels of development of countries also prevents consensus-building needed for rulemaking. Ultimately, countries would have to brainstorm how best to strike the balance between innovation and inclusivity, and between the interests of the multitude of stakeholders. Indeed, the core purpose of Industrialisation 4.0 should not simply be innovation for innovation’s sake, but the positive transformation of the lives of the world’s 7.8 billion denizens.
This essay originally appeared in Raisina Dialogue Conference Report 2019
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Trisha Ray is an associate director and resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center. Her research interests lie in geopolitical and security trends in ...
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