Chennai: DC spoke to Kumud Srinivasan, president of Intel operations in India, and an enabler of many innovations at Intel’s Maker Lab. She talked about using technology to the aid of people in rural India, and how as a woman, it is essential to pick one’s priority when choosing between work and family.
Q. Make in India, Start in India, are initiatives, which aim to provide leverage to the educated young in India. What about putting technology to empower people in rural India, who do not have access to quality primary education?
A.Technology can play a major role in bringing education to rural India. Using technology, lectures of teachers can reach the students in rural India, where qualified teachers themselves can’t reach. Access to Internet can help improve the quality of education for them. We need to get over the fear of technology that is going around. There is a lot of misinformation that it will disrupt the quality of one to one teaching.
Q. Your thoughts on FreeBasics in India, which Facebook is campaigning to be the most important factor to digital literacy in India.
A. There is so much written about it that I don’t want to add to it. There are a lot of relevant points made by both sides of the debate.
Q. You had, once, earlier said that guilt is the curse of womanhood. You also talked about doing whatever makes you happy especially for women who have a shift in priorities. Isn’t that easier said than done?
A. I never said it would be easy. My older son is 29 while I have been working with Intel for 28 years. It wasn’t easy for me. I had my fair share of guilt and that is why I said that guilt is a curse of womanhood. I do still believe the only way to live life is to focus on what makes you happy. It doesn’t not mean that you disregard other responsibilities, just be clear about your priorities. Live life according to those priorities.
