Implications of Adopting Modern Technology

Economic development is basically the transformation of human and animal energy-based production processes into mechanical power and chemical-based production techniques. The countries which have successfully made this transformation in all the spheres of economic activities are classified as the ‘developed countries’. This transformation has been the result of the advancement of scientific knowledge and know-how and its application to everyday economic life. However, it would not have been possible to realise this in practice if there had not been favourable international economic environments for its successful implementation. The colonial and imperial past of the last four centuries, as we have seen, played an important role in creating such favourable international environments for the present-day developed countries. But such international environments cannot be recreated for the present-day developing countries; we must therefore examine whether the present international economic structure can be conducive to transforming traditional techniques of production to modern ones in a developing country. If the answer is in negative, we must then look for the policy options that will make it feasible. Below we shall discuss the economic problems attending this proposed transformation; we shall discuss this separately for agriculture and for industry, because in the former the successful adoption of a modern high-productivity technology of production depends on bio-economic factors conditioned by the crop-soil-climate complex of the region, while in the latter it is primarily the transfer of electro-mechanical technology that is involved.