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When the highly qualified from IITs and B-schools, backed by VC funding, take to retailing milk, delivering fruits and vegetables, groceries, catering services, and running tuition services, there is much more at play than mere innovative technology-led ‘disruption’ — the business buzzword today. It impacts the livelihood of an entire section of micro entrepreneurs who are suddenly left with much less clients, and sometimes no customers at all.
Of course, business management schools extol the idea of disruptive innovation creating new markets and value networks. But on the ground the situation is very different. Our vegetable sellers with their hand-driven carts, our roadside eateries and neighbourhood grocery stores are feeling the pinch.
The pity is that while technology and innovation are being used to take over livelihoods, there is no alternative arrangement that has been planned for the majority of this population, of which a substantive number is unlettered. They have virtually no training in any vocation nor any social security to fall back on.
So, while there may be a case for disruptive technologies — including artificial intelligence, robotics, the-Internet-of-Things and cloud computing — to perform cutting edge jobs, their use in everyday activities could spell large-scale unemployment for the already marginalised micro entrepreneurs.
Already the reports coming in on the jobs front are not promising. According to a recent survey by the All India Manufacturers’ Organisation, India’s micro, small and medium enterprises have seen a dramatic drop in the number of jobs amid declining operational profits since 2014. It reports that the trader segment saw a 43 per cent decline in number of jobs since 2014, followed by a 32 per cent drop in the micro-enterprises and 35 per cent in the small enterprises segments.
It is only in the fairness of things that those whose livelihoods and businesses are being disrupted be offered solutions — a task which any responsible government should undertake.
Editorial Consultant
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