|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. S. Gill’s book deals with all these questions and much more. This is perhaps the first book of its kind, which offers an "India-centric" view on the subject. Though the book has been written with the lay reader in mind, it is not a simple introduction to information technology (IT). He provides us with a critical appraisal of the "new" regime of technology, a political economy of the information revolution. The book, which is divided into three parts, begins with an introduction to the technical aspects of IT, a history of the coming together of computers and telecommunication, the convergence of various technologies and the discovery of the Internet. IBM produced the first computer in 1954, and since then a lot has changed in the way we think of computers. The growth in technology has been so rapid that a personal computer (PC) today has much larger capacity and efficiency than a supercomputer had just a few decades back. The history of the Internet is even more interesting. It has been in public use only for around 15 years, and within this short span of time it has reached almost everywhere in the world. However, the impetus to its growth did not come simply from a scientific quest for a better mode of communication. In fact, it was the struggle for supremacy between the United States and the erstwhile Soviet Union that gave birth to the Internet in 1969. It was developed by the US defense for its exclusive use. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, it became available for general use. Globalisation would not have happened without the breakthroughs achieved in the field of IT. However, right from the beginning, IT has been under the control of large corporations. Intel and Microsoft are two of the richest and most powerful corporations that have made big money by controlling the production and distribution of chips and software, and they are not the only ones. The information revolution of the 1990s was also accompanied by the rise of neo-liberal economic philosophy and a resurgence of capitalism. The information revolution has enabled the capital to "acquire unprecedented global dominance". Through electronic media, global corporations have been able to spread a consumer culture virtually to every nook and corner of the world. It is in this context that Gill compares the information revolution with the Industrial Revolution. While the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution ushered in a totally new kind of economy and class structure, the information revolution has only reinforced the already existing structures of economic dominance and power. The Industrial Revolution uprooted people from agriculture, but opened up new opportunities for them. The information revolution, on the other hand, is only producing wealth for some and job insecurity for the large masses of working people. While the easy availability of information should make democratic systems more vibrant, the monopolistic control over the sources of information, as is the case today, has done just the opposite. Gill argues emphatically that corporate capitalism and its foot soldier, information technology, have been "essentially anti-democratic". The last part of the book dealing with the Indian scene is based on Gill’s interviews with officials of various state governments and field visits to different capital cities. Taking a positive view of the potential of the new technology in making the system of governance transparent and effective, he compares Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, and finds several examples where IT has been successfully used in weakening bureaucratic control and making governance transparent. However, he also underscores the point that in the absence of a genuine political will and a proper policy framework, the computer only becomes a status symbol for the babu. A lot of hard work and
thinking has gone into writing this book. This is a must-read for anyone
interested in the dynamics of the "new economy." Despite its
strong critical language, the book has been written in a style that
makes it easy to read. A shorter, abridged version in paperback would be
a worthwhile idea. |
WHAT
exactly are computers? How do they work? In what ways are they changing
our lives? Has their impact been as radical and far-reaching as was that
of the industrial revolution? Where does India stand in relation to this
new technology?