My article published in the Economic Times celebrates 23 years! But... do the assertions made then align with today's reality? Let's reflect on what was written then and compare it to the present.

Dear Friends and Students,

If possible, read the above article which was published on March 15th, 2001 by the Economic Times! I was only a 3-year-experienced Senior Software Engineer, working for Finance Solutions at Wipro Technologies. It was a proud moment on that day when I saw my article published next to Prof. S Sadagopan Sir, Founding Director of IIITB from 1999 to 2021, and he taught for 25+ years at IIT Kanpur, IIM Bangalore, and IIT Madras.

While searching for some stuff today, accidentally I found this paper! Curiously, today I read again both articles—Prof. Sadagopan Sir’s and mine. How far they are true in today’s context!! Interesting, always, right?

My topic was, “Tapping In-House Business,” and Prof. Sadagopan Sir’s was “Is IT Killing other Engineering Disciplines”! By this time, you would have understood what would have been the content of both and their reflections to date. Today it is May 12th, 2024! Yes, the topic “Is IT Killing other Engineering Disciplines” is still valid, but forms are different. I will not go beyond on this topic in this story, rather I would talk more about what I wrote and where we are today!

Friends, though 2001 was a meltdown or dotcom burst year, still in 2001, the majority of Americans didn’t have the Internet. Most people got online using dial-up connections. Only 7% of Internet users worldwide had broadband. Most things purchased online were paid for by money order. On the Internet, print publications were generally navigated using blue hyperlinks. Font-sizes were rarely bigger than what you'd see in an actual paper. There were no videos. Ads were small, boxy, and static and generally looked like they were an afterthought and designed by a gold salesman (vice.com).

In India, if I remember right, the internet service, known as the Gateway Internet Access Service (GIAS), provided a speed of 9.6 kbit/s speed, was priced at ₹5,200 for 250 hours for individuals, ₹16,200 for institutional dial-up SLIP/PPP accounts, and higher for leased line services. Maybe it might have increased to 50+kbit/s!!

During that time, I wrote this article, saying, “Intranet is going to be the future tool for an IT Company’s sustenance”! Employees are internal customers. Intranet is going to be the Company Mart, essential to engage Employees in the Knowledge Industry. They are powerful communication tools. Functions like HR, Finance, Marketing, Admin, Sales, etc., should be totally automated and operated through intranets. Employee referrals, Project Management, Knowledge Management Workflows should be automated in these intranet portals.

You know what, many wrote back to me, “a fancy model”! More maturity is needed to write such stuff! Today after 23 years, what happened to this? I don’t need to justify again! Do you agree?

Now let me write further! I may or may not live that longer for another 23 years, but no human being would be involved in mundane/routine tasks - AI would drive all these functions. AI took 17 years for speech recognition, 14 years for handwriting recognition, 6 years for image recognition, 2 years for reading comprehension. But after 23 years, with this faster pace of learning, AI would handle all tasks which are done by current Engineering/Non-Engineering graduates.

Do you agree? If so, up for an upgrade, else it becomes an uphill task to survive!

Ravi Saripalle