Just like a knife can be used to slice a fruit as well as to commit a murder, artificial intelligence can be used for improving healthcare, but also for discrimination based on facial features and complexion; 3D printing can make organs as well as guns. Technologies are creating new jobs but also leading to displacing workers. Companies complain of difficulty in finding people with requisite skills, even as millions of graduates (and, even more others) remain jobless. Narendra Jadhav, prolific author and Rajya Sabha MP, explores these conundrums in New Age Technology and Industrial Revolution 4.0 and argues for development of a rubric of conducive public policies alongside development and deployment of technology. The book starts with an overview of technologies like AI, augmented reality (AR), additive manufacturing (aka 3D printing) and blockchain. Jadhav puts these within the realm of education, healthcare, digital payments, national security and jobs to discern policy aspects pertaining to economic growth, social inequalities and yes, financial services and banking.

While there is much current attention on technology displacing workers in the near future, this type of disruption is not new. There is a long history of technology altering the way things are produced and having significant impacts on employment. In 1900, for instance, 41 percent of the U.S. labor force was employed in agriculture. Thanks to the development of a broad range of agricultural technologies, by 2000 only 2 percent of the U.S. labor force worked in agriculture (see this study for a review). Automation has become increasingly common in U.S. manufacturing.

Higher Educational Failure - Colleges and universities are still educating the majority of its students for the last century, not this one. Students graduating from medical school, law school, education, journalism, and dozens of other majors have no training in how robotics or AI will impact them. Higher education needs to rethink curriculum for the future. Massive, Permanent Underclass - More than 26m people in the US perform some form of manual labor as their sole source of income. Older Americans are, because of the high costs of health insurance and benefits, with no long-term loyalty by a company, much harder to reemploy.