Information Infrastructures in India: The Long View

ISBN-13: 9780192857736 / Angielski / Twarda / 2022 / 182 str.

Pradip Ninan Thomas (Associate Professor

Opis

This book explores the past and present of information infrastructures in India. Grounded in infrastructure theory, it explores the historical continuities between information infrastructures in colonial and post-colonial India and the compulsions of information infrastructures in contemporary India. This volume highlights the roles played by private and public sector entities in shaping information infrastructures in India, the political economy of growth in this sector and the challenges faced by the State in regulating information platforms that are also information infrastructures. It includes separate chapters on oceanic cable infrastructures that account for more than 90 per cent of data traffic between India and the rest of the world and the political economy of India's satellite program. Taking the 'long view', it argues that the provisionings of information infrastructures are by no means straight forward, that they are always expressions that are shaped by internal and external contestations, by ideological ends and business imperatives, the needs of consumers/citizens and the State, that there is a politics of infrastructure that needs to be accounted for, and that there always are winners and losers in large infrastructural projects such as Digital India.

Recenzje

In Information Infrastructures, Pradip Thomas sets his attention here to the multi-layered material history of media in India, detailing the imperial visions and national achievements, along with the political contestations, social fissures and inevitable shortfalls that have arisen with each wave of media technologies. Firmly grounding media systems in their material conditions, social responsibilities and political compromises, Thomas expertly weaves together a narrative from the days of the Company and the telegraph to the consecration of Digital India and the rise of Reliance Jio. In each era, Thomas excavates the hubris and anxieties of the state, the national and international impetus of media economy, and the aspirations and ingenuity of India's people. Adrian Athique, A.Prof., School of Communication and Arts, University of Queensland

O autorze

Pradip Thomas is Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Arts at the University of Queensland. His previous books include Empire and Post-Empire Telecommunications in India: A History (OUP, 2019).