New Delhi, June 4 -- "AI is coming for your job." "Estimates are that 40 to 50% of white collar jobs will lose out to AI." So blare headlines from everywhere. Do you know what it reminds me of? The first move towards computerization of Indian banking, which happened back in the 80s, when I was young but not too young to register the protests and strikes by the bank unions and officer associations.

This was an initiative by Manmohan Singh when he was Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, and the task force was headed by C. Rangarajan, who also went on to head RBI. The thin edge of the wedge was computerization of cheque clearing, which in earlier days could take weeks, with huge discrepancies and losses. And then, of course, one-by-one ot...