Growth of ICT and ICT for Development: The Realities of the Myths of the Indian Experience

While there is an increasing realization of the potential that IT offers for human welfare, IT-induced productivity and growth are confined to the developed world. It is argued that even though the international digital divide is a reality, there are certain specific characteristics of the new technology that leave scope for mitigating, if not totally bridging, the gap when appropriate policies are in place. During the last decade India has attempted to profit from the growth of ICT through export-oriented growth strategy, and the issue of ICT in development has not received the attention it deserves. The paper highlights the perils of the strategy followed by India and underlines the need to focus on development through ICT. The study shows that the unprecedented export performance of India’s software has to be seen in the context of the national system of innovation that evolved during the last five decades when the state played a proactive role. Also, the country’s high export growth cannot be attributed entirely to the marketoriented policies of the 1990s. Higher growth rates in exports notwithstanding, it is shown that net export earnings have been much lower. While the low net export ..../