This is the story of India’s IT revolution. It isn’t a new phenomena, of course.
For years the southern city of Bangalore has stood out as a high-tech crucible in a no-tech land. But the development of internet now creates job for millions of Indians. India has produced the largest international pool of engineering talent in the developing world, a good proportion of which speaks English, the lingua franca of the New Economy. These engineers’ underemployed sisters and cousin have proven willing to work cheaply at a new crop of labor-intensive jobs made possible by the distance bridging technology of the internet.
The only problem is the low penetration of computers into Indians households: the country of 1 billion people has only 4.3 millions PC. The phone network is Third World at its worst.
The good news is Indian cities where the midddle class live, are cable wired like no others in the world. The cables are strung across balconies and launderies line but they work and now they are being converted into internet connection.
India New Econoy is an accident.
In the past, the country’s vast army of engineers was something of an embarassment because so few found decent jobs. The use of English still prompts nationalistic unease. Now they are assets.
It is a tale of Indian lives transformed….
Idea-logy 