Can Culture and Technology Coexist? Insights from HH Yaduveer Wadiyar

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00:00:05 KAVITA DOSHI
Sri Yaduveer, welcome to this special edition of Nasscom Conversations.

00:00:09 HH YADUVEER WADIYAR
Pleasure to be here. Thank you.

00:00:10 KAVITA DOSHI
You represent a legacy that spans across centuries, yet you are so engaged with today's most transformative challenges from AI to digital governance. How do you view the role of tradition in shaping ethical human centric transformation?

00:00:24 HH YADUVEER WADIYAR
Indic values, whatever is here in Bharat and we have grown up within India and certainly which has been inherent in our society plays very much into the hand of what we are aspiring within the digital world as well. The same values are inherently there in Bharatiya tradition as they are in what the digital world aspires. So it fits in naturally and I think as long as those principles are followed, set within the framework of what is modern India's constitution and that re envisioned I suppose within the digital world, I think that would lend itself perfectly well to whatever digital India is aspiring.

00:01:03 KAVITA DOSHI
You've spoken about reserving cultural heritage and identity. You just talked about that here as well. As India becomes increasingly digital first, how can technology be used not just for efficiency, but for preserving, amplifying and sharing India's rich knowledge systems? Is there anyone example or one vision that you have in mind?

00:01:20 HH YADUVEER WADIYAR
Multiple examples, but I think the best has been the access to these rare documents that has allowed greater studies to come out. We have the Oriental Research Institute in mind. So we have many such repositories across India which have these very valuable manuscripts and surely and undoubtedly should be touched by everyone except experts who know how to handle it. The digitization of the same has allowed for everyone, even just general interest people who live outside the realm of academia to have access to this and enjoy these manuscripts. Just one example of many, you can go to the field of music, to art, to multitude of verticals where Digital India or the digitisation of the world has helped tremendously and technology has helped advance that academia in terms of learning access to various art forms, you can go across the board. You can learn Odyssey online, you can learn Bharatanatya online, you can learn Katakali online. All of these things have been enabled because of technology. So these are just few examples and we could go on naming multitudes of them. They've allowed greater access, they've allowed people to enjoy the water in other times, some things which are not really accessible to everyone. And I think it has given a greater awareness for the value of such things, and I think in many ways allows for it to be preserved in the future as well.

00:02:52 KAVITA DOSHI
You know, you spoke about access now younger generation today in India is growing up in a tech saturated world. What advice would you give them about navigating digital acceleration without losing their sense of value?

00:03:04 HH YADUVEER WADIYAR
I think the same values hold true, it just must be seen at from a different perspective. There is one aspect although which we should be paying attention to is obviously the digital world has come on to us a lot faster than the other behavioural aspects which we've learnt from our parents, our grandparents. You know, you knew how to lock the door, you knew not to take sweets from a stranger, not to talk to a stranger. All of these things are there. But in the digital world, the equivalents haven't been taught to us because our parents themselves don't know the same things, etiquette and mannerisms which we generally are natural to us in the digital world or with digital devices, we don't have the same. So these aspects are not really because of they haven't been taught to us or the lack of knowledge. It's just because the digital transformation has been so fast that we require those things to be now added to society and given training so that that becomes natural, I suppose beyond the point that awareness will come naturally. But for now, especially since you know cyber security area is one of the areas which we are working in Mysore, it is very apparent that that first self protection or the self-awareness is is not there. That one value add greatly eases all of the work and the huge tax it levies on society in terms of what the cyber criminals are doing.

00:04:27 KAVITA DOSHI
The Wadiyar dynasty was known for building progressive institutions in education and research. Now, what is your vision, you know, for India and how can you know you think they can reimagine education systems, particularly in smaller towns and upcoming destinations?

00:04:42 HH YADUVEER WADIYAR
The whole, I suppose, purpose of main sitting here and building this relation with Nasscom and other such institutions across India was the idea that our heritage in Mysore is not just limited to traditional culture or aspects that come around, that there was a culture in Mysore of innovation and entrepreneurship. Obviously, it wasn't called at that time, but you had the Mysore Sandal soap, which was birthed out of the Maharaja at the time, having the scented soaps and then asking one of the experts within the Indian Institute of Science to craft a soap with a Mysore scent, which happened to be sandalwood. You had the Mysore Silk which was a competitor to what you got from Minaris or from Kanji. They were more refined in terms of workmanship, but the quality of Mysore far exceeded them in many ways. So you had these innovative ideas branded under the Mysore brand, Mysore Cement, Mysore Steel, Mysore Towels because Mysore Coffee, Mysore Puck, all of these aspects of it branded under that which also Silk and Mysore soap came to. And then, you know, you had this economy built around this Mysore idea and it was powered by the innovation in the entrepreneurship of at that time, the state. So that how do you preserve that culture is essentially in today's world and the entire wave that India is seeing, we didn't have that heritage as well. Entire India is under the startup revolution in the last 10 years. You know, even Nasscom since 2013, they launched the whole startup initiative has been a powerhouse now for world over for startups. We've been in many ways backbone to many startups that are happening globally as well that have been successful globally as well. So I think that aspect of it preserving in the term of the heritage narrative, but also understanding that in modern India, you have to start building new institutions and new aspirations that are foundationally Indian, but at the same time aspiring to be part of the new global order as well.