Chapter 5 Disruptive Technology and Development Dynamics: Case of Knowledge Economy with Reference to India

The ability to produce knowledge is the key currency in the current and future global economy. Today, technology is one of the important sources of economic growth. The impact of introduction of technology is observed in every field and one such field is knowledge economy. This paper explores the potential consequences of technological transition in the knowledge economy brought about by the introduction of virtual system backed by Internet and software innovations, so to speak in terms of skill augmentation, wage inequality, and so forth, to highlight the overall impact on welfare. In this framework, this paper develops a model on small open economy with three sectors (modern export sector, import competing sector, and skill-generating sector) and three factors of production namely, skilled labor (the output of S), unskilled labor, and capital. It is found that the impact of technological transition on each sector is ambiguous but the direction of welfare change is unambiguous. In this study, our objective is to find out the possible impacts of such disruptive technology on the higher education sector of India and also to locate the development dynamics of such an outcome along with a feasible roadmap for overcoming the trade-off between future economic growths of a sound knowledge economy with social justice.