CHAPTER 8
Accelerating Human Capital Outcomes in South Asia: The Technology Agenda
Synthesis Devastating losses in human capital wrought by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in South Asia, through both its direct effects on health and its second-order economic impacts, need to be reversed urgently. Already performing poorly on many critical human capital outcome indicators and riven by deep structural inequalities, the region has to shift gears if it is to put itself on a new trajectory of equitable development. Converging technologies, propelled by innovations in many fields and increasingly leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI), could transform the human capital scene in South Asia. Imagine how mass illiteracy could be eradicated if pedagogically appropriate, work-relevant resources and microlearning content in local languages were loaded on mobile devices. Literacy volunteers, agricultural extension workers, or “edupreneurs” could then teach tens of millions of working adults using AI-supported tools. Or imagine how sensors embedded in household toilets could generate diagnostic test reports to reveal common health conditions, while information collected from sewage in community sanitation facilities could help improve public health disease s urveillance in urban areas. These solutions are no longer in the realm of science fiction; they are eminently feasible. They can help to build and protect human capital rapidly and use it productively in the economy. But consider whether data from the results of tests might be used to score individuals for health insurance or jobs. Or whether disease prevalence patterns
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