THE TALK
In 1997 renowned Economist journalist Frances Cairncross, in her best selling book “The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Will Change Our Lives; talked about how Geography, and borders are rapidly becoming irrelevant to the way we conduct our business and personal lives, courtesy of the communications revolution. According to her this “death of distance” will be the single most important economic force shaping all of society over the next half century.
In version 2.0 of the book she released in 2001, she talked about timezone will matter more than miles, where culture, language and interests bind communities more closely than geography
The Indian IT industry was primarily built on this “Death of Distance premise with web-based and telecom technologies making it possible to communicate and work in new ways that dramatically reduced the value of physical proximity.
While the geographical and country borders were breached the role of “Office” remained intact. In the past few weeks with Covid 19, this frontier too has been breached. Home is the new Office
How would the India IT industry adapt and react to this? What are the implication from economic, social and psychological perspective? Is this a threat or an opportunity? What kind of innovations we might see in the next four five years to support this?