IDPAD support for publications on ICT in India

20 april 2008

While much has been written on the growth of information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services in India, little is known about the people who work in these industries, about the nature of the work itself, and about its wider social and cultural ramifications. The Indo-Dutch Programme on Alternatives in Development (IDPAD) supported two publications on this subject: In an Outpost of the Global Economy and ICTs and Indian Social Change.

IN AN OUTPOST OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Work and Workers in India's Information Technology
By Carol Upadhya, A.R. Vasavi (editors) 
This volume is one of the first studies of work and workers in the IT and ITES industries in India. Each essay drawn on original field research conducted in India, and contextualises its observartions within current theoretical debates on globalisation, the information economy, and the transformation of work in the post-industrial era.

ICTs AND INDIAN SOCIAL CHANGE
Diffusion, Poverty, Governance
By Ashwani Saith M.Vijayabaskar V. Gayathri
ICTs and Indian Social Change: Diffusion, Poverty, Governance is the first book of its kind that puts together the optimistic voices of techno-idealists, critical social science perspectives on technology and a range of empirical material on the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on the lives of people. The book traces these processes across urban and rural spaces of work, consumption, e-governance, and highlights the new kinds of social identities they are fostering in India. It opens up an arena for dialogue between activists, technologists, policy makers and academia on using ICTs for development.