During a seminar on ‘The Impact of IoT on Jobs in Rural India’ the Broadband India Forum (BIF) emphasised the positive effects of artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) on employment opportunities in the agriculture and healthcare sectors in India. Apparently, about seven lakh jobs will be created in the rural healthcare sector alone, due to the entry of applications based on AI and IoT.
As per the BIF report, 60 per cent of the healthcare professionals in the country presently cater to 30 per cent of the population, which lives in urban India. With the introduction of new and well-equipped hospitals in Tier 3 and Tier 4 towns, this scenario will undergo a makeover.
The Ayushman Bharat programme launched by the Government will change the primary healthcare sector in the country with the adoption of AI and IoT-based applications.
Remote medical assistance and surgery will become a reality. In addition, smart diagnosis, cloud-based eye screening, pre-emptive oncology diagnosis, smart ambulances, and emergency care will take healthcare to the next level. Before long, medical records will be digitised, and consulting will become smart too, bringing the rural healthcare centres closer to the urban hospitals.
We have a perfect example in the manner in which the Nipah virus outbreak was contained in Kerala. It was AI/machine learning that helped healthcare experts identify the bat species that had the potential to carry the virus.
