India bids farewell to the typewriter in drive to digitise economy

Though largely redundant in many parts of the world the familiar sound outside Indian courts and municipal buildings is often the clack of plastic keys and the punch of steel hitting inky ribbon.

In a country often stifled by its own bureaucratic safeguards, the sight of a notary public sat at a manual typewriter on the street has been a staple of Indian life despite more than two generations growing up with the computer keyboard.

But India’s financial capital has called for the final carriage return on these workhorses as Mumbai’s stenography and secretarial schools, numbering over 3,000, hold their last manual typing exams.

The state of Maharashtra intends to pursue the digitisation of its economy - in line with many other Indian states - so will look to replace the the margin bells with mouse pads as courts, police stations and civil service departments fall in line with the ‘new India’ of space research and IT hubs.