Unit 1.

EMERGENCE OF TECHNOLOGY
AND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Ms. Savitha Suresh

Assistant Professor
DME Law School
UNIT OBJECTIVES & LEARNING
OUTCOME
• To help students understand the meaning
and need of technology, its emergence and
develop knowledge about the era of
industrial evolutions that catered to the
economic growth.
• To further study legal and ethical aspects of
technological development and its impact
on the economic and social development of
India.
 SUGGESTED READINGS &
REFERENCES

• Vakul Sharma, Information Technology Law

and Practice, Universal Law Publishers
• [Link]
[Link]?g=9d276b66-837a-450f-bb88-
c27a4f524561
• [Link]
emerging-technologies-re-shaping-the-legal-
world/111732
 Technology?
• Black's Law Dictionary defines as
information application to design,
production and utilization of services and
goods and organizing human activities.
• Branch of knowledge that deals with the
creation and use of technical means and
their interrelation with life, society and the
environment.
• Human knowledge which involves tools,
materials, and systems.
• It includes methods ranging from as simple
as language and stone tools to the complex
genetic engineering and information
technology that has emerged since the
1980s.
• ‘Technology’ comes from the Greek word
techne, meaning art and craft, and the word
logos, meaning word and speech.
• It was first used to describe applied arts,
but it is now used to described
advancements and changes which affect
the environment around us.
• Tools for agriculture, to build homes, and to
create weapons for hunting and protection-
all due to technological development.
 Industrial Revolution
• Period of major industrialization and
innovation that took place during the late
1700s and early 1800s.
• Shift from using tools to make products to
use new sources of energy.

[Link] are the most important inventions

of industrial revolutions?
• The following industrial revolutions
fundamentally changed and transferred the
world around us into modern society:
-The steam engine
-The age of science and mass production
-The rise of digital technology
-Smart and autonomous systems fuelled by
data and machine learning
• Industrial revolution can be categorised in 4
stages:
1. First Industrial Revolution (1760-1830s)
2. Second Industrial Revolution (1860s-
1914)
3. Third Industrial Revolution (20th century)
4. Fourth Industrial Revolution (Present)
First Industrial Revolution (1760-1830s):
• Took place from the 18th to 19th centuries
in Europe and America.
• Mostly agrarian, rural societies became
industrial and urban.
• Developments in the areas of textile
machinery, mining, metallurgy and
transport the steam engine and the
invention of machine tools.
• Witnessed the first real progress in medical
services since the ancient civilizations.
• Hospital provision increased in quantity
although not invariably in quality
• Immunizing people against smallpox,
vaccinations process started.
Second Industrial Revolution (1860's- 1914)
• Occurred just before World War I.
• It was a period of growth for pre-existing
industries and expansion of new ones, such
as steel, oil and electricity, and used electric
power to create mass production.
• Advancements in manufacturing and
production technology
• Also known as the Technological Revolution.
• Expansion of rail and telegraph lines.
• Automobile- German inventor Karl Benz
patented the world's first automobile in 1886.
• Graham Bell officially patented his version of
an "electric telegraph“ in 1876.
• Light bulbs became practical for general use
in the late 1870s. This invention had a
profound effect on the workplace because
factories could now have second and third
shift workers.
Third Industrial Revolution (20th century)
• the Digital Revolution- advancement of
• technology from analogue electronic and
mechanical devices to the digital technology
available today.
• Started during the 1980s and is ongoing.
• Advancements in personal computer,
internet, and information and
communications technology (ICT).
• The beginning of the Information Age.
• Modern science and technology. New technology
improved communication and transport, thus
spreading technical understanding.
• Mass production of automobiles.
• Energy and engine technology improvements
included nuclear power.
• Electrification spread rapidly in the 20th century.
 Impact of Digital Revolution
(i) Positive impact:
• The economic impact of the digital revolution
has been large.
• Radically changed the way individuals and
companies interact: Small regional companies
were suddenly given access to much larger
markets.
• Digital technologies have significantly
increased the productivity and performance of
businesses.
(ii) Negative impact:
• information overload, Internet predators,
forms of social isolation and media saturation
• Non-work related digital activities in the
workplace leading to stronger forms of privacy
invasion.
(iii) Information sharing and privacy
• What is Privacy?
• Became a concern during the digital
revolution.
• Ability to store & utilize information opened
possibilities for tracking of individual activities
and interests
• The Internet (especially the WWW in the
1990s) opened whole new avenues for
communication and information sharing.
• The ability to easily and rapidly share
information on a global scale brought with it a
whole new level of freedom of speech.
• Communities were formed- large scale
opportunities for smalls scale businesses.
• It also came with dangerous effects- internet
abuse, rise in terrorism,
(iv) Copyright and trademark issues
• They found new life in the digital revolution.
• Ability of consumers to produce and distribute
exact reproductions of protected works
dramatically changed the intellectual property
landscape.
• Digital revolution progresses made it unclear
to protect them- potential opportunities for
exploitation
• Reliability of data became an issue-
information could easily be replicated, but not
easily verified.
• Digital records are easy to create but also easy
to delete and modify.
 Fourth Industrial Revolution
(Present)
• Builds on the Digital Revolution.
• Marked by emerging technology
breakthroughs in a number of fields including
robotics, artificial intelligence,
nanotechnology, biotechnology etc.
• The phrase 'fourth industrial revolution' was
coined by Professor Klaus Schwab, (Founder
and Executive Chairman of the World
Economic Forum)World Economic Forum in
2016.
• Describes how this fourth revolution is
fundamentally different from the previous
three.
• Advancements in various technologies such as
robotics, internet, manufacturing and
autonomous vehicles.
• It is characterized by a range of new
technologies that are fusing the physical,
digital and biological worlds, impacting all
disciplines, economies and industries, and
even challenging ideas about what it means to
be human.
• Schwab also has grave concerns:
-organizations might be unable to adapt;
-governments could fail to regulate new
technologies
-new security concerns
-inequality may grow
Emergence of technology in India
• Science, technology and innovation have had
a great impact on economic growth and social
development in India.
• The Government moved from scientific policy
resolution (1958) to the technology policy
statement (1983) to the science and
technology policy (2003) and finally to the
science, technology and innovation policy
(2013).
• They are technologies whose development,
practical applications, or both are still largely
unrealized.
• These are generally new but also include older
technologies finding new applications.
• Emerging technologies are often perceived as
capable of changing the status quo.
India’s journey:
• India experimented with socialism for more
than four decades, which kept out foreign
capital and technologies, but spurred local
innovation based on indigeneous technology.
• Economy didn't start growing until the 1990s-
started undertaking small projects with
indigeneous (import substituted) technologies
but with huge capital efficiency.
• Local companies knew that while India has
both rich and poor people, catering only to
the rich limited their market- Thus affordable
inclusive innovation was firmly integrated in
to the strategy.
• The mix of miniscule research budgets, small
size, low prices, but big ambitions translated
into an explosive combination of extreme
scarcity and great aspiration, which ignited
the Indian innovation.
• Emergence of technology was seen drastically
in the following fields, but was not limited to
the same.
• Defence
• Nuclear energy
• Space technology
 THINK TANK
Initiative on Critical and Emerging
Technologies (iCET)
• It is a framework agreed upon by India and
the U.S. for cooperation on critical and
emerging technologies in areas such as
wireless telecommunication, artificial
intelligence (AI), semiconductors and
quantum computing.- launched in January
2023
• Brief discussion on- Progress, focus areas,
works done etc.
THANK YOU