Question

Advantages of information technology on indian economics

Answer 1

Information technology (IT) is an example of a general purpose technology that has the potential to play an important role in economic growth, as well as other dimensions of economic and social development. This paper reviews several interrelated aspects of the role of information technology in the evolution of India’s economy. It considers the unexpected success of India’s software export sector and the spillovers of this success into various IT enabled services, attempts to make IT and its benefits available to India’s rural masses, e-commerce for the country’s growing middle class, the use and impacts of IT in India’s manufacturing sector, and various forms of e-governance, including internal systems as well as citizen interfaces. The paper concludes with an overall assessment of these different facets of IT in the context of the Indian economy.

This is a revised version of a paper presented at a conference celebrating 25 years of the IGIDR, held on December 1–4, 2012. It draws on some of my previous work in the area of information technology and India’s development.