ICTs and Indian Economic Development: Economy, Work, Regulation

ICTs and Indian Economic Development evaluates the recent phenomenon of Information technology communication (ICT) development in India, and discusses such questions as: Can the growth be sustained? How far can an ICT revolution go towards modernising India′s economy? What could be the capacity of ICTs to induce rapid social transformation and change? Can India navigate all the pitfalls and hazards and retain its current comparative advantage in the field of ICT?

ICTs and Indian Economic Development:

- provide a systematic overview of the major developments and trends in the Indian ICT sector;

- investigate the dynamism of the IT sector and whether it has contributed to wealth creation in any significant measure; and whether Bangalore, in its area of special strength-software-is a dynamic leader or merely a Silicon Valley follower;

- assess the role of the State and of government policy, especially with regard to the opportunities for shaping the future of this sector;

- explore the processes of the restructuring of work and employment in the wake of the IT revolution;

- set the Indian experience in a wider context through a discussion of the Chinese experience, along with a comparative analysis of ICT clusters in the two countries.

ICTs and Indian Economic Development is of interest to those studying economics and development studies, internaional and development communication and new media and communications technology; and those already at work in these fields.

Ashwani Saith is concurrently Professor of Rural Economics at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, and Professor of Development Studies at the London School of Economics. He has taught and researched on a range of themes in development studies, with a focus on processes and policies concerning poverty and socio-economic vulnerability, labour and work in unorganized/informal economies, rural development, rural industrialization and non-farm economies, migration, information technology, reform and transitions, and globalization processes and patterns. Regionally, his work focuses on Asia, especially on India and China.

 

Dr Saith has served as a research analyst and policy advisor with several international development agencies, including ILO, FAO, IFAD and UNDP. He has been associated in an editorial capacity with several leading academic journals in the field of development, including Development and Change, Journal of Agrarian Change, Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Development Studies, Indian Journal of Labour Economics, and Labour and Development. He has published extensively in international journals, and also authored and edited several books.

M. Vijayabaskar is Assistant Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai. He has previously been a Visiting Fellow in contemporary Indian studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and a Research Fellow at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore.

In his professional capacity, Dr Vijayabaskar has been Project Leader, Diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies in India:  Labour Market Implications for Developing Countries., funded by the International Development Research Center, Canada and the Asia-Pacific Development Informatics Programme, Singapore; and has served as a consultant for the ILO on several projects. His research interests are primarily in the area of political and social economy of development, with a focus on new organizational forms like clusters, processes of governance and technological change, and restructuring of labour markets and processes. He has contributed articles to several edited volumes, and to journals like Economic and Political Weekly.