Digital Hubs: Creating Better Jobs, Reducing Poverty
With the advent of the 4th Industrial revolution, new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), Nanotechnology and 3D printing etc. shall become the major drivers of economic growth in the future. The downside of these new technologies is it requires high investments, critical infrastructure, high end technical expertise, strong research and development. Startups and Incubators needs to be encouraged and nurtured. Digital Hubs can address all these constraints and serve as centers for innovation and future technologies. This internship opportunity helped me to work on the idea of how digital hubs can help developing countries in addressing the issue of poverty and unemployment while enhancing the growth prospects of the economy. It also makes a case for why governments must invest in the digital hubs.
During the 5 week internship at the Asian Development Bank Headquarters in Manila, I was working with the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department. My supervisor was very helpful and we had weekly meetings and he guided me throughout the internship period. Before reaching Manila, I completed suggested readings and also glanced at the material available on the ADB website. In the 1st week of the internship itself, clear deliverables along with the timelines were decided which made my task more structured and planned. Apart from the internship work, lunch and coffee breaks gave us the networking opportunity in meeting other interns and staff of other departments in ADB. The facilities, infrastructure and resources at ADB were very useful in our successful completion of the internship. During the last week of internship, I got an opportunity to present my work to the ADB staff which was attended by experts across different departments from ADB in Manila and other regional offices. The appreciation in the end was a huge confidence booster and their feedback resulted in fine tuning my report.
Overall this internship opportunity is a great source of learning, networking and a real time experience to work in a top notch organization. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the career services team at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy for giving me such a wonderful opportunity and also thank the staff at ADB especially Mr R Arun and Mr. G Bhatta for their guidance throughout the internship.