
This book explores the past and present of information infrastructures in India. Grounded in infrastructure theory, it explores the historical continuities between information infrastructures in colonial and post-colonial India and the compulsions of information infrastructures in contemporary India. This volume highlights the roles played by private and public sector entities in shaping information infrastructures in India, the political economy of growth in this sector and the challenges faced by the State in regulating information platforms that are also information infrastructures. It includes separate chapters on oceanic cable infrastructures that account for more than 90 per cent of data traffic between India and the rest of the world and the political economy of India's satellite program. Taking the 'long view', it argues that the provisionings of information infrastructures are by no means straight forward, that they are always expressions that are shaped by internal and external contestations, by ideological ends and business imperatives, the needs of consumers/citizens and the State, that there is a politics of infrastructure that needs to be accounted for, and that there always are winners and losers in large infrastructural projects such as Digital India.
This book investigates the historical evolution and contemporary political economy of information infrastructures in India, questioning how colonial legacies and modern business imperatives shape digital connectivity. Pradip Ninan Thomas, a scholar in communication and media studies, utilizes infrastructure theory to analyze the complex interplay between state regulation, public-private partnerships, and the socio-political consequences of large-scale technological projects. The work argues that the development of these systems is never neutral, but rather a contested process defined by ideological goals and competing interests.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Scholars in the field of media and communication studies identify this work as a critical contribution to the understanding of digital development in the Global South. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the depth of the historical research presented.
Page Count:
182
Publication Date:
2022-08-11
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0192857738
ISBN-13:
9780192857736
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