Contrasting faces of development..

leading mobile handset manufacturer, the finnish giant Nokia, is setting up its production facility in sreeperumbudur in tamilnadu.. calling for an initial investment of $100m to $150m, this would offer about 1200 odd direct employment opportunities.. a boon to the local people indeed..

i have said this before.. any manufacturing facility would bring forth a noticeable change in the living conditions of people around, as a direct benefit of employment potential, triggering nation building and PCI..

and somewhere in the vicinity, kerala and andhra, touted to be the destinations of multinational IT and consultant biggies, which would be havens for white collar workers, with ever increasing income levels..

in metro mumbai, 3 lakhs slum dwellers have been ousted as part of developmental projects.. the govt. failed to provide proper rehab to those hapless souls....demonstrators protesting the ouster were badly beaten up by the police..

in another part of the world, in Combodia, primary school kids own their own lap tops, sponsored by MIT's project to narrow down the ever widening digital divide between third world countries and the super power houses..

back to kerala again.. project akshaya brings the ICT revolution to the masses, talking about wired villages and wireless hot spots.. info on your finger tips is the key..

in sharp contrast, our fellow beings in tribal settlements and tea estates meet with a dire state of affairs with the onset of the scorching summer, with no jobs, making their day to day ordeal a tough battle for survival... and deaths from starvation are no longer a news now.. we choose to close our eyes and ears to such stark realities of life, the endless human sufferings..

these are the progressive, rosy, grave, amusing, revolutionary and dire situations in a few parts of the world, cases in point..

where are we heading to? pause, take a nap and think about the so called digital divide? should we give an ear to this tech-induced jargon and miss out some sleep on that? or is it wise to address the grass root issues such as providing proper housing, means for a steady income, sanitations and potable water to those millions in the outskirts of India Inc.?

to improve the living conditions of all those millions desperately trying to eke out a living in the slums and pavements across India Inc.?

unless we are successful in addressing this core developmental issue, running after technology to narrow down the so called 'digital divide' would be ludicrous. lest it should be like show casing a beautiful bride with a stinking nose and a bad breath!!

enough has been said...

so long
roy