Value of human creativity growing exponentially along with tech: K M Birla

Even as the use of technology is growing in life and industry, the value of human creativity is growing even more exponentially, Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said on Saturday.

“We are entering a high-tech and high-touch world. As the application of technology is growing in life and industry, the value of human creativity is growing even more exponentially. I would argue that the value of human touch and empathy is directly proportional to the growth of technology,” Birla said while addressing the convocation of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

He said that over the coming decade technologists, industrialists, politicians and citizens alike will need to grapple with some existential questions.

“For instance, the question of drinking water – 3/4th of the earth is water, and yet we are grappling with problems of drinking water. Similarly, the question of clean energy adequacy… we in India have sunshine, yet we are energy deficient,” he added.

The biggest challenges facing humanity can only be solved with technology and human ingenuity, he noted.

He urged the students that to thrive in this world, they must operate at the intersection of purpose, people, and machines.

“Now that you have completed your graduation, I urge you to think of PPM not as Parts Per Million but as Purpose, People and Machines,” he added.

Further elaborating, Birla said, science brought vaccines at scale, and yet the extraordinary rollout of the global vaccination programme talks about the power of human creativity and enterprise.

“The vaccine against polio took 20 years to make. But in just about two years, more than 60 per cent of the global population has been inoculated against Covid-19…. The most important asset for any institution is its people – their potential, their energy and their combined power as a team.

“You can take the machine out of the equation, you can take out physical or financial capital, but if you lose good talent or human capital, you can never be competitive. Human beings are at the heart of invention, creation and evolution,” Birla added.

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