Technology and Inequality across Three Eras: An Investigation of the Green Revolution, Yellow Revolution, and the Mobile Payments Evolution

With the use of technologies for development, often the societal perils like inequality creep into the technology interventions too. Time and again, researchers have noted the socially backward groups, the intended beneficiaries, continuing to be marginalized in ICT for development projects. Technology initiatives have undoubtedly resulted in economic benefits, but their developmental roles must be examined critically. Since technology fails to eradicate the existing inequality in societies, we must examine its extent in obstructing human freedoms by the marginalized sections. Using Sen s capability framework, we analyze technologies from three eras technologies used in Green Revolution, eChoupal telecenters during the yellow revolution, and UPI-based mobile payments during the post-demonetization era. Secondary data from the literature have been used for the past eras, whereas primary interview data is collected for mobile payments. The analysis gives mixed results while certain freedoms are provided by the technologies, these freedoms are not equally accessible to all beneficiaries across the different sections of the society. The study holds policy implications to equal participation of beneficiaries from marginalized strata.