Impact of ICTs on Indian society

Abstract

“Closing the Digital Divide is not just about giving to the poor the benefits of the rich. It is about creating a more equitable and balanced world economy.”, says Prof. Craig Warren Smith (Harvard). As a matter of fact, new technologies are at the heart of many stakes. They open the way to new opportunities in many field. New technologies enable to communicate from any location, they allow the exchange of any kind of data, and they allow the analysis of complex data. Their field of application is very extensive, new technologies create new economic opportunities, they also help improve care and access to education, and optimize agriculture, increasing job opportunities (Sumanjeet, 2008) and reducing corruption by enabling the access of official informations. However, there are huge disparities in accessing new technologies as broadband internet or mobile phones, creating inequalities between countries obviously but most and foremost within countries. India because of its demography and its emerging growth is maybe one of the most concerned country about digital divide. We chose this subject for several reasons. First because in India, the new technology industry is very important, people even speak of a giant in this field. Moreover, in Bangalore, we are in a city where the world's largest companies of new technology are located: Apple, Google, IBM, Oracle, HP for example. Moreover, India is a very large country where the socio-economic and geographical diversity is very important. So, we thought that it would be very interesting to study the impact of new technologies in a country with such characteristics. We also chose this subject for personal matters. As a matter of facts, Thomas have been very interested by new technologies for several years. He worked one year for Orange (French and global telecom services provider leader). He knows very well the telecom and internet market in Europe and would like to extend his knowledge to developing countries such as India. Stevan has never been a major user of new technology, so this is an opportunity for him to explore a new topic and learn more about India. We are also aware that the knowledge of new technologies is an important skill for us, especially as we are business school students, because companies in which we are called on to work often seek young and connected people. Thus in our study, we have selected the main new technologies available today. We mean by new technologies the Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). ICTs are the extension of Information Technologies. It includes of courses the mobile industry (cell phone and 3G or 4G) and most of all Unified Communications (instant messaging, video conferences, data control,…). So here is some technologies we will, amongst others, focus on : cellphone industry, internet, wireless solutions but also software industry or web 2.0. Access to such technologies helps people getting more information about what they really need. It helps economic development in rural areas and implies major social improvement. The example of the Arabic Spring last year shows the concrete and benefic impact of those technologies. But the disparity of access to those technologies can be a barrier in social development. It can, for example, enlarge disparities between rural areas and urban areas. The idea is to study the access and the impact of ICTs’ impact on Indian society and what are the ways of bridging this gap. We will distinguishing the different demographic areas, such as the urban India and the rural India.