The future of business on the future of India
From artificial intelligence,
digital India to ecommerce versus the traditional brick-and-mortar, gen-next
leaders recently discussed what will be the idea of India over the next few
years
Rohan Murty Founder, Murty
Classical Library of India
On artificial intelligence
“Think about how much life
has changed in the past 100 years.From being an entirely humandriven effort, we
are now doing extraordinary things with machines, with AI, with automation. The
largest telescope in California is automated and run by an AI system. There is
a piece of art that was auctioned, which was entirely computer generated. For a
long time, humans felt that creativity was in the realm of our hands, but it
looks like machines are beginning to encroach on some of these territories.
But I also have a slightly
different view. The battle is not all lost for mankind. We hear about
self-drive cars and trucks and how many people can get unemployed, but you put
salt lines in front of such a car, (and) it will confuse it with snow, and
[come to a] stop. This kind of identification is a very basic task for humans
though.
All of us can execute tasks,
understand variations in language and are able to learn by example. We have an
intuition and are able to explain why we behave a certain way. We're able to
engage with colleagues and friends. The truth is that machines can't do any of
these tasks very well today. So machines replacing humans is a faraway
thought.“
Ananya Birla Founder,
Svatantra Microfinance
On challenges of moving to a digital economy
“The primary challenge that
I see is consumer behaviour. All of us are so used to using cash that moving
into a cashless economy comes wit h trust issues and even issues of literacy.
But consumer b eh aviourhas to start changing. In our micro-finance company,
our entire process is cashless. There is also the Aadhar card payment scheme,
which basically links the card with their bank ac counts... The first
challenge, however, is rural India, which we are tackling with other NBFCs,
small financial banks and MFIs.“
Manasi Kirloskar Executive
Director, Kirloskar Systems
On the future of automated driving in India
“ Electrical vehicles and
autonomous cars are a very cool idea but they are two different things.
Seventy per cent of the
electricity that is generated in India is still sourced from coal. That
produces emissions that are very harm ful to the environment.
I don't see electric cars
as being eco friendly just because the cars themselves don't produce emissions.
In fact, they produce more emissions than any of the BS6 vehicles.
If the government truly
wants to convert to electric, it has to provide the infrastructure that is
clearly not available in India right now.
Coming to autonomous cars,
there are a series of issues that I see. For starters, it's applicable to very
niche environments and a very set environment. You need perfect roads and a
perfect broadband system...Then there are certain issues like viruses and
hacking, which pose problems when you have autonomous cars.
There are also a lot of
ethical issues. If there is a situation where the car can protect only one,
does it protect the passenger or the pedestrian? Or who will be held
accountable in case of an accident? The government has to set policies. While
it's a fun concept, we have a long way to go in India at least.“
Shashwat Goenka Sector
Head, Spencer's Retail Ltd
On the impact of ecommerce on brick-and-mortar
“Ecommerce is the
inevitable future. As consumers, we are becoming less patient with what we want
and when we want it. The easiest way to solve it is through e-commerce. However,
being Indians, our purchase psychology is so deep rooted into this sense of
touch and feel that brick-and-mortar cannot be done away with. In the immediate
future, I definitely see e-commerce and brick-and-mortar co existing.“
sujata reddy
ETP 10APR17
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