The changing face of India. Part I: bridging the digital divide

Abstract

“India lives in villages” said the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. With 1,000 million people and 180 million households, India is one of the biggest growing economies in the world. With the advent of the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) revolution, India and its villages are slowly but steadily getting connected to the cities of the nation and the world beyond. Owing to the late Rajiv Gandhi, India is now a powerful knowledge economy, and though India may have been slow to start, it certainly has caught up with the West and is ahead in important respects. The Government, the corporate sector, NGOs and educational institutions have supported rural development by encouraging digital libraries, e‐business, e‐learning and e‐governance. The aim of this paper is to touch upon and highlight some of the areas where, by using ICT, the masses have been reached in this way. A follow‐up paper will outline collections of significant cultural material which, once national IT strategies are fully achieved, could form part of a digitally preserved national heritage collection.

Citation

Nikam, K., Ganesh, A.C. and Tamizhchelvan, M. (2004), "The changing face of India. Part I: bridging the digital divide", Library Review, Vol. 53 No. 4, pp. 213-219. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530410531839