The fourth industrial revolution and rural transformation in India

A boy uses a mobile phone as he sits inside his father’s snacks shop along a road in Kolkata, India, February 22, 2016. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri/File Photo – S1BETGKJZVAA

Editor’s Note: This article is based on “The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Agricultural and Rural Innovation, and Implications for Public Policy and Investments: A Case of India” by Uma Lele and Sambuddha Goswami, forthcoming in Agricultural Economics, November 2017 Issue.

The extraordinary pace of technological change in the so-called “fourth industrial revolution”—well-articulated by Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum—holds tremendous promise. Developing countries will have new opportunities to achieve inclusive agriculture and rural growth at an accelerated speed and transition toward high-productivity manufacturing and other economic sectors, but they also face new challenges… Read more