IT that struck deep roots in late ’90s has become the key to life. Many of these superior technologies may endure time and survive may be in a much evolved form, or may get knocked out by newer and superior technologies. Whatever, these have already ensured that the world will never be the same again. They all foretell fundamental changes on all fronts of human endeavour.

IT has changed the face of learning. The historical fundamentals of learning are now being questioned. It is here where the concept of IT stepped in. It is opening up new vistas. Technology is, in fact, akin to a blackboard — it’s a tool, a tool that helped us move towards the learner-centric system where the pace of the lessons is moulded so as to suit the specific abilities of the learner. The new change focuses on the increasing interaction between the faculty and the students, thus inculcating better communication and therefore improving the quality of learning. Other fields that have been given a new definition by IT are e-commerce and e-business

E-commerce is going to revolutionise the way we do business. Payments are being made through telebanking facilities and e-currency. The terms e-commerce and e-business are often used interchangeably. However, e-commerce refers only to business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) selling over the Internet. In contrast, e-business extends beyond e-commerce to include a wider dependency on the Internet. Intranets are Web-based infrastructures for the internal use of the business itself.

With the IT revolution that has stormed the economy, the financial institutions in the country are increasingly realising the need to adapt to the changes taking place. Customer loyalty can no longer be taken as granted, and as such banks are forced to go on an innovating spree to attract and retain customers. To adapt to the new business environment, Indian banks are actively engaged in harnessing the technology to handle distributed operations, high volume transactions and data management.

With the evolution of the concept of Net telephony wherein the telephone calls are transported over the Internet, the common man who was spending a fortune whenever he felt an urge to get in touch with loved ones, is the biggest gainer. The immediate benefit for anyone was the cheap telephone calls one could make but the most significant benefits are money saving and easy implementation of innovative services. Mobile telephony is today the strongest force in the telecommunications industry. Mobile revenues have now overtaken revenues from the fixed line international business services, and the forecasts for mobile growth just keep getting bigger. It is predicted that by 2008 A.D., there would be more mobile subscribers, with a billion persons hooked up to cellular phones.

Computers have invaded the field of medical sciences. Doctors at different hospitals in opposite sides of the globe now have the tools to accelerate the exchange of critical medical information via videoconference. This communication link helps the doctors to share their expert knowledge of different treatment options, get second opinions, and discuss problems on a real-time basis despite the geographical distance between them. Similarly, IT is being widely used in fashion industry.

There are innumerable software that enable the user to create dress design on one’s PCs. One can also scan the sketches, feed them into the system using software like Corel Draw, and then fill in shades till the best mix is achieved. One can also visit several virtual dressing rooms available online.