In my secondary school I was fortunate to learn technical subjects like Fitting, Welding and Wiring along with Engineering Drawing classes. I don’t know the syllabus schools have now but that time, in and around Pune there were very few schools which taught technical course starting from 8th standard to 10th standard. Course was bit exciting to learn as it had new subjects, exhausting due to extended classes before & after school hours and scary as hell due to harsh punishments for even small negligible mistakes. It was the time when the mindset towards approaching each subject was independent. No interconnections between geography or mathematics with history or any of the technical subjects whatsoever. When I was in 9th standard, my school with the help of some NGO arranged an industrial visit to TATA Motors, then popularly known as Telco [1]. It was the automobile manufacturing plant in which I remember watching Indica car coming into life. Right from the first scene – giant roll of sheet metal getting cut into big pieces and pressed and welded to form a shape like doors and front bonnet of a car, till last scene of fresh new car drove into washing chambers to check leakage through doors or windows. Everything Cutting, pressing and welding all done automatically by big robots. There were many engineers working along with those big robots and conveyer belts to meet target of making around one hundred cars a day! Adjacent to manufacturing plant there is a pond maintained by company to form a balance with the environment.
A couple of years later, I again thought of that visit when I was studying Mechatronics in my Engineering Diploma course. Mechatronics is multidisciplinary studies that involves mechanical and electronics engineering. My approach of visit to manufacturing plant during school time was primarily through the eyes of fitting, welding and wiring. This vision evolved a bit when I studied mechatronics. Of course, relating to things is really joy! I was dumbstruck by the fact that every subject I ever studied is well converged into that manufacturing plant.
There was another dumbstruck moment few years later when I was in Engineering Degree course. I was studying a small topic on mergers and acquisitions took place at the start of 21st century. It was start of a new era. Boundaries between diverse fields started coming down. Fixed-line & mobile telephone industry, mobile phone manufacturers, network equipment companies, television cable operators started coming together in USA and Europe. The article in The Economist had detailed information which I read it repeatedly with the feeling of awe. I am not able to find URL of that particular article, but I guess it was part of a series. [2] This article published in 2006 states that European consumers were not so sure about the need of bundling three services altogether fixed line phone, broadband service and multichannel television service but industries went ahead to pursue the convergence of technologies. Around that time of time India too had television service providers that were mobile service providers (Videocon, Reliance, Airtel) too but bundling of services was never popular.
Later in that decade, globally, convergence of technologies did bring big changes. In Internet world cloud computing was the buzzword. In India mandatory digitalization of distribution of TV cable signals started in 2012. Mobile 4G network launched here at the same time. Free Cloud storage for individuals by Dropbox, Microsoft and google came into picture. There was guideline for enforcement of net neutrality in 2017 and affordable 4G handsets and cheaper of telecom services and popularity of social media website and phone applications gave great push to usage of mobile internet. Now we have new jobs which didn’t exist 10 years ago. [3]
These all thoughts were in my mind in bit and pieces. The reason I am writing this is because I suppose, I am about to get dumbstruck once again soon. Ericsson’s 5G network technology has applications in Audi’s automotive production. [4] Ericsson did fly drone with 5G for health care application. Self-driving cars are relying on 5G network too! [5] So now we may soon see association between semiconductor chips makers and automobile industry along with telecom!
Well, it is not magic to access youtube/skype on TV set at home and browse through long list of TV shows on mobile phone while walking out of home and then watch it on screen in taxi while travelling. Everywhere voice and data connectivity in most cases is attached to one subscription and provided by one operator. What next is, that taxi would be driverless car!
Amidst this big bang of Information and web of connectivity, as of today, in India we are reviewing where we stand. Question being asked in Lok Sabha regarding “Computer literacy” is surely not a bad sign. [6]
[1] https://www.tatamotors.com/ [2] https://www.economist.com/special-report/2006/10/12/your-television-is-ringing [3] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/10-jobs-that-didn-t-exist-10-years-ago/ [4] https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2018/8/audi-and-ericsson-to-pioneer-5g-for-automotive-manufacturing [5] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bijankhosravi/2018/03/25/autonomous-cars-wont-work-until-we-have-5g/ [6] http://164.100.47.194/Loksabha/Questions/questionlist.aspx - LOK SABHA List of Questions for ORAL ANSWERS Monday, August 6, 2018/Shravana 15, 1940 (Saka) = Computer Literacy *279
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