India and the IT Revolution: Networks of Global Culture
By, Greenspan, Anna
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Class No.: 303.48330954 GRE
Accession No.: 011873
Year: 2004
Pages: 202 p.

Of the week: 17th April. to 22nd April., 2006

India and the IT Revolution explores the contemporary emergence of cosmopolitan, high-tech India as marking the arrival of a truly global cyberculture. It argues against the notion that globalization is a process of "Westernization," which radiates out unilaterally from the core, imposing itself upon a passive, backward periphery. Instead, it conceives of global culture as a dynamic, innovative network, which proceeds primarily from its edges.

This book is the best introduction to the Indian IT industry and it makes a good companion to India Unbound by Gurcharan Das and The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen.

The strength of this book is that it covers cultural, political and business issues. One needs an appreciation for all three to understand just how massive the change we are seeing in India really is. The book has good review chapters on India's evolution from the Raj, to the License Raj, to the reforms of 1991. There are some interesting thoughts on the history and role of English in India and at the end of the book there is a fascinating chapter on the role that the Indian invention of the number zero plays in the marketing of India as a center for IT. Her thoughts on the role of the periphery in cultural innovation are import valuable, as are the comments on the importance of third-world markets to disruptive technologies.