Hurdles in industrial to information transition

The change from industrial to information society (from about the 1970s) brought new opportunities, but people faced several hurdles:

1. Job loss and unemployment – automation and computers replaced many factory and clerical jobs; workers in old industries (steel, coal, textiles) lost jobs.
2. Skill gap – new jobs needed computer and technical skills; older and less educated workers found it hard to retrain.
3. Digital divide – unequal access to computers, internet and skills between rich and poor, urban and rural, and developed and developing countries.
4. High cost of hardware, software and network infrastructure in the early stage.
5. Resistance to change – fear of technology, habit of old methods, and opposition by trade unions.
6. Information overload and misinformation – too much information, fake news and difficulty in judging reliable sources.
7. Privacy and security problems – cyber crime, hacking, data theft, surveillance.
8. Social and cultural change – less face-to-face contact, isolation, generation gap, and erosion of traditional values.
9. Legal and policy gaps – laws for e-commerce, intellectual property and cyber crime came late.
10. Health and environmental issues – sedentary work, eye strain, and growing e-waste.

These hurdles were reduced by education and retraining programmes, cheaper technology, ICT policies, and cyber laws (in Nepal, the Electronic Transactions Act, 2063).