Vijayawada: “Development is the name of digitisation is eliminating human face from the society, said JNU political science professor Gopal Guru on Thursday.
Taking part in a panel discussion organised by the NTR Trust ‘Navyandhra Pustaka Sambaralu’ here Prof. Guru said, “There is no physical presence of humans in a virtual world which cannot be observed as a development but an obstruction to development.
He advised people not to get disassociated with books in the flow of digitisation which is a major threat for developmental model. He said that human interest has to be balanced with developmental frame works.
Ramon Magsaysay award winner and another keynote speaker Bezawada Wilson said that nothing can be termed development when lakhs of people were still struggling for shelter and livelihood.
Speaking on demonetisation, Mr Willson opined that the government has no right to ration the public’s own money by imposing restrictions on withdrawal from banks and ATMs.
There are thousands of villages in the country which don’t have electricity but still the government was moving ahead towards digitisation and cashless society in the name of development, he said.
Mr Wilson said that Dalit women were worried about sending their children to Universities in the wake of Rohith Vemula suicide. He said that anyone being critical of the government was being branded anti-national.
Note ban to only help big biz: Congress
AICC south India coordinator for demonetisation and Karnataka state minister D.K. Siva Kumar on Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation was to benefit digital transaction companies and people like the Ambanis.
He said that Modi’s rationale behind demonetisation was to bring digital transactions for which firms like PayTm, debit and credit card companies will receive surcharges of about '1,60,800 crore which are equal to the the Budgets of the two Telugu states.
Mr Kumar said that the BJP had miserably failed in fulfilling its election promise of bringing back the claimed Rs 80 lakh-crore black money supposedly stashed in tax havens. “The BJP started the demonetisation exercise to shift focus of the public from its failures,” he said. Mr Kumar said the Congress plans a mass movement across AP to bring awareness on the impact of note ban.
