Scientific discoveries and technology-based inventions that triggered sea-change in the lifestyle of people all over the world for long seem to have not only witnessed unprecedented pace but also yielded place to computer software as the calling that gets admirable wages to the players in the digital world. Even the language of communication among the business fraternity as well as people at large, particularly the urban literati, loaded with acronyms and heavily coded has tended to be marked by novel vocabulary that those belonging to earlier generations have no option other than learning the new grammar if they desire to be heard not only by their aged cohorts but also their progeny. Digging into sources of information relating to any matter under the sun relying on printed matter on paper, now termed as hard copy, is seen as primitive, given the internet, a virtual kaamadhenu of information-seekers, the largest beneficiaries being the students. The number of people peering into the various devices displaying text from the internet in the country is on the cusp of nearing 600 million and counting.  The link between computer software and technology at large, represented by the newly coined term information technology has faded the glare that products of technology have earned until the software professionals emerged on the scene like tsunami as it were.

The march of information technology, er computer software field, earning India the enviable top rank globally and wages to its professionals like never before, has enabled the Government to leverage the fast growing employment avenues for the educated youth. Given the number of professionals using computer software for earning their livelihood, there is no guess on what the unemployment scene in the country would have been without this avenue for providing jobs.

The dramatic growth of the field of information technology can be attributed to many factors unique to the field. The  establishments not making any unreasonable demands on land and infrastructure, not contributing to pollution of ambient air and, more importantly, a cost-benefit ratio that no customer can afford to ignore are features that have earned  patronage of Governments, industry in general, academia and people at large. It cannot be gainsaid that information technology has gained more than what is recognised from other fields of technology, namely mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, electronics and others that are producing devices on which software is mounted. On the authority of Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, however, it is learnt that 72 per cent software jobs are outside tech industry per se.

The dominating presence of software professionals and the field opening wide avenue for job-seekers cannot be sustained unless the industries manufacture the devices and applies the software in the economy. Hence, blind and mad rush as it were to pursue education in the field of computer software needs moderation. The idiom “Man doesn’t live by bread alone” says it all. People also need things that give their lives meaning.