| With the increase of transnational connections, Indian society is taking on an increasingly global outlook. The concept of globalization and its effects on India are of key concern to the Indian nation. While the exposure to global practices has led to better expectations in terms of productivity, the events of September 11 have fatefully highlighted the fact that the inevitable process of globalization can also have severely negative implications for certain regions in the new Innovation Economy. There is a clear connection between the events on September 11 and the power of globalization in either creating a bridge or a wall between rich and poor nations. As a result, there is now a renewed focus on the dangers of the cyber-world of the future. In this interview, Christophe Jaffrelot, director of the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationals (CERI) in France, and Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), discuss the effects of globalization on India and their grave concerns over cultural homogenization and the digital divide. Christophe Jaffrelot and Kiran Karnik Christophe Jaffrelot The Indian flavor of globalization ” The " McMaharajah " Globalization is at the center of great controversy in these times. In fact we must realize that globalization is not a global policy; it is a state of affairs, a trend driven by technology and communications. India is part of the developing world, so it has a very distinct position on globalization. The important question is how India lives globalization. The number of Indians abroad has drastically increased; there are something like 42,000 Indian students in the U.S., and about 30% of Silicon Valley is Indian. This has led to major social changes. For example, the concept of McDonald's in India is a radical shift, and perspectives on these changes can be positive or negative. In India we've seen an increase in Hindu protectionism that is not in favor of globalization, because there are fears of Americanizing the Indian culture. But even McDonald's is offering vegetarian burgers, and one of its most popular items is named the Maharajah (King) Burger. So the culture remains Indian, there is a balanced development, because India has shown that it can translate globalization into Indian terms. Kiran Karnik Government initiatives in bridging the digital divide In light of India's potential in the global Innovation Economy, it is very important to look at where the technology is going. Our background of socialism inevitably leads to concerns regarding technology; can it be a tool for oppressors to control the poor? There are strong and legitimate concerns about the creation of a digital divide between those who have access and power versus those who do not. But the power of the Internet can be used to do exactly the opposite . We need to look at the positive potential of the Internet and examine how technology can be used to deal with India's most basic problems. For example, there is increasing exposure to satellite TV and the Internet in India today; can these be used to bypass literacy gaps? These uses range from experiments in e-government , to cutting down corruption, to improving education and health. The IT industry in India is very new and very young, and there is tremendous potential in what can be done with it. The media tends to drive in the fears of homogenization, or cultural imperialism, but it's true that Indians don't homogenize easily. The resulting backlash does have both positive and negative aspects. On the positive side, compared with the medium of satellite TV, the Internet allows for a many-to-many scenario, which opens up the potential for development. But on the negative side, we have intense protectionism and the possibility of "portals" acting as gate-keepers to consolidate with commercial interests. So we may be moving from a state government to a commercial government, and one possibility for countering this is through technology, the production of low-cost computers with Indian languages to localize its effect. The member of parliament of Pondicherry, Shri M.O.H. Farook, has taken one district and provided 500,000 people access to the Internet. Regions in the state of Himachal Pradesh are often cut off for six months because of snowfall, and recently the local health center was connected to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi to provide continuous medical advice. So the government is already successfully building bridges across the digital divide. India's next challenge is, how do we replicate these successes? | The innovation era of intense flows, driven by new technologies, will clearly have tremendous social consequences, especially for developing nations. For countries like India where cultural traditions are sacred, there are great fears that the Internet will Americanize the Indian way of life. However fears of such homogenization may be unwarranted; as Mr. Jaffrelot points out, Indians tend to hold on to their cultural identity very strongly and are adept at "Indian-izing" their world wherever they go. This is epitomized by the lives of Indians in Silicon Valley, who have created pockets of India in American cities like San Jose and Fremont. We have seen in this section the Indian government's commitment ” both at central and state levels ” to building an IT infrastructure upon which to grow its economy. Now we shall see how industry, education, and NGO sectors are contributing to society by innovative applications of the very technology that has made them successful in the global Innovation Economy, thus replicating the bridges across the digital divide, as suggested by Mr. Karnik. |
