From education to cybersecurity: Technology can create good businesses

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As we enter a new year and perhaps a new era, both, the nature and model of ‘good business’ are transforming phenomenally. The meaning and impact of good business will differ according to the audience and their priorities, considerations, and perspectives. I believe that value-driven technology is a factor that can fuel and enable this deeply subjective essence of good business. Technology has become horizontal, covering all verticals, driving and enabling customers, employees, investors, and business partners to do what they perceive as good business.

The wider role, purpose, and meaning of business have never been more relevant. They assume greater importance when you consider that being a good business can provide meaningful experiences for people. And if that means disruption and breaking the status quo, that is what we should do. Let us see how technology adoption will help people deliver what they perceive to be good business.

EdTech – future of good business in education

Teachers in villages of Kerala have experimented with Augmented Reality (AR) to impart lessons in science and social studies during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is incredible, not just the use of technology, but the metamorphosis to stay abreast with changing times. They have been the flag-bearers of the change we all want to see in the ‘New India’—decisive, digitised, and most importantly, self-reliant.

A change in education requires reassessing our education strategy. We need more focus on customised learning courses that are tailored to complement students' capabilities, skill sets, and employablity needs. It also requires educating and retraining teachers and students in the field of technology. Let us be clear that we will not go back to the pre-COVID era of the education system. The infusion of technology in education will be phenomenal.

Cyber attacks and consequent damages have undergone many hues. Understanding crime in digital and the cyberspace is not complicated, but making cybersecurity an integral and continuous process of everything that we build is what counts. The story of the three pigs and the fox give us morals of hardwork and dedication, and holds absolute relevance in the cyber world. Institutions need to remember this and remind themselves again and again.

We expect a massive opportunity for 5G solutions and services. Therefore, there is a fair amount of collaboration needed, and all of us—the government, 5G regulators and enablers, network operators, and individuals—must all work together towards it to reap its benefits.

As countries around the world enter new phases of reopening their economies, the technology industry has an important role to play. To be ahead, to know this reality, is the start we should look forward to in the new year.

I wish you all a very happy, safe, and prosperous new year 2021! 

The writer is MD and CEO of Tech Mahindra