Deep Tech required to handle the pandemic situation to evolve first: Prof DB Pathak, IIT Bombay

The DataQuest virtual roundtable, conducted on 16 July 2020 with pre-eminent personalities from across various domains to deliberate on the topic “Deep Tech in India and the Road Ahead” witnessed an extremely riveting exchange of views. One such view was from Prof DB Pathak, Padmashri, Prof Emeritus, IIT Bombay, who was also the Co-chairperson of the event. “The Deep technology required to handle the pandemic situation will evolve first, while a detailed version of Deep Tech in India will take time,” said Prof Pathak.

The pandemic situation is forcing organizations of all proportions to adopt digital technologies, said Prof Pathak. “The first impact of Deep Tech will be on simple things. For instance, people working from home will have to worry about the usage of artificial intelligence and machine learning to take care of data security and decipher cyber attacks. However, I’m not sure about the amount of AI and ML that will be required to do that,” he said.

As far as the economy is concerned, Prof Pathak said that there could be deep stress on banks in India, which could take up to five or six years to recover unless money starts to flow in the industry. “The first priority for the country would be to restart the economy. Digital technologies can help us do that provided the onus lies on all of us in making that happen,” he added.

“We will have to deploy Deep Tech for monitoring and safeguarding personal data. This is because there is a very fine line between collecting customer data to improve customer experience, or collecting the data and using it for something else,” stated Prof Pathak. Deep Tech should essentially also be used to solve the training and education problems in the country, said the professor.