Emergence of Knowledge Society: The Indian Scenario

Knowledge Society is characterised by recognition of knowledge as main source of efficiency, competitiveness, and economic growth. Since late 1990s, a large segment of mainstream media and economists have been obsessed with the continued run of ‘Knowledge Economy’ in OECD countries and its emergence in the developing countries. This new model of growth and development, depending more on human knowledge and efficiency rather than on difficult to disperse physical capital, is supposed to be more egalitarian. Proper policies in developing countries are advocated to build up large volume of ‘working capital’ in terms of human resource and corner a large market share of the global knowledge economy in contrast to their financial crunch and meagre stake in global goods-trade. In this paper we look at some of these issues in light of Indian experiences to bring out the inherent characteristics of the Knowledge Economy from amidst the rhetoric and underline the task ahead of us to truly transform India into a knowledge society.