Companies deploying Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, and investing in reskilling and upskilling for digital occupations, are likely to recover faster from the impact of the pandemic. The pace of technological advance has accelerated in the last decade, with new technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, materials engineering, and synthetic biology pervading economies and societies. The power of computing has grown exponentially with data becoming the new gold.

These disruptive technologies are leading a transition to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), a much-debated subject in recent years.

The economic potential of 4IR has been widely extolled, and equally worries about extensive job losses from automation and artificial intelligence have been abundant.

However, the pace of change is inexorable and it is evident that these technologies are completely transforming many sectors such as healthcare, transport, and agriculture, beyond the manufacturing sector. - blog.adb.org/blogs A version of this article appears in the print on February 15, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.