CODE FOR INDIA

While there have been campaigns of short varieties from linking rivers to environment to temple entries, we have not seen any sustained campaign on the specifics of technology. A skill that can transform, a utility and of use for every individual and every task of this country. It would add seriousness to our Computer Science courses, will help to stand on our feet, and create a hunger for entrepreneurship. If you have the skill, for sure lots would like to try their luck. Being conversant with coding provides a different nature of control over your business in the IT industry, Mark Zuckerberg still keeps trying his coding skills.

Code is business, code is product and codes are companies too. PageRank was the genesis of Google and whole juggernaut of digital business enterprise got built over it. Same is the story with SAP and Oracle, companies for which the software, product and company are all the same. Either the IT Behemoths are of this fashion or got built over variety codes from Windows OS to MS office, iOS and the like. Not to forget Andriod redefining the digital world from mobility to interoperability. Further still are the ones who don’t look like codes but their own enterprises are run on self created codes, it’s maintenance and scalability. The current favourites fall under this category, these are the world’s leading retailer, Amazon, the aggregators by way of Uber, Airbnb or Booking.come or the social media giants; Facebook and its associates. From the code to the algorithm to Machine Learning to the AI engines, they all just fall in line.

If anything completely dislodged the power of pen, then it has been software. This is the language of the 21st Century. This is the language of the digital age. These can create mega businesses or dislodge them. They define our existence in every way and in every field. If we don’t know this language, forgive me to say, it is the illiteracy in the modern age. Coding should start as early as the first or the second standard. Eastern Europe boasts of expert coders even in the 12 to 15 year age bracket. It takes time to learn coding, with algorithms and the AI world in front of you, this can be termed as the beginning of the journey to a professional hi-tech career. If we miss out on the basic skill of our digital existence, how far can we go.

From a small website to the best of the internet services and products, the challenge is of that of the software. If nobody knows what this animal is, the only way out is subservience to it. This is the present situation. Huge component of knowledge transfer is software. Coding capabilities can only make you self reliant. How many of Indian Apps are being used globally and what is their user base, would clarify as to where we stand. No product of any nature in IT field can made without this skill. And there is IT in everything. Coding is education. Rest everything would follow. It is the same difference which we know between a literate and an illiterate. Code for India can be the Sakhsharta Abhyiyan of tomorrow. Let’s make it happen.

CODE FOR INDIA WOULD BE THE BEGINNING OF MAKE IN INDIA (IT) INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY.
Sanjay Sahay

Don’t venture out unnecessarily.