Summary
Contents
Subject index
India's tryst with the digital is an extensive project and while much media attention is given to flagship projects, the story is also of marginalized peoples, in cities, appropriating digital leaks, using the digital and thereby contributing to the digital economy. It is this battle between enclosing the digital and extending access to it that makes the story of the digital in India an exciting one.
Digital India is a case study-based, critical introduction to the theory and practice of the digital in social change. The volume—with its chapters on telecommunications, software, mobile telephony, e-governance, ICT4D, software patenting, public sector software and cultural piracy—offers an entry point into an understanding of the contested nature of the digital in India via an analysis of theory and practice.
Government 2.0 and Information Technology
The three chapters in this section—e-governance, software patenting and public sector software—deal with the challenges and opportunities for a government faced with transforming itself into a transparent and accountable Government 2.0 that is supportive of public interests. However, as the chapters indicate, this is no easy task as the government is involved in balancing out competing interests—its own interests, against that of the private sector and civil society. The chapter on e-governance explores the gaps between principle and practice and asks if ‘governmentality’ is the main intent of such investments. The chapter on software patenting reveals a government that is unsure of where to draw the line, given competing interests and the power of the software ...
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