Dot.compradors: Power and Policy in the Development of the Indian Software Industry

Description

‘India Shining’ has become the brand name for a new India presented in Bollywood films, advertisements and books. A key part of this image is the software industry, held up as the symbol of prosperity and post-modernity.

Opening with a primer on ‘the Seven Leading Myths about the Indian Software Industry’, Dot.compradors reveals the darker reality behind ‘India Shining’, providing a history of the industry from the 1970s to the present day. Jyoti Saraswati punctures the myth of a free-market industry by showing the role of state intervention and how vested interests and elite corruption have shaped, and continue to shape, one of the world’s most dynamic sectors.

Both a detailed case study and a wider consideration of development issues, Dot.compradors argues that the interests presently attached to the software industry and the policies they are pursuing are both an impediment to the growth of local software firms and to a broader-based, more egalitarian form of development in India.

About the Author

Jyoti Saraswati teaches on the Business and Political Economy Program at the Stern School of Business, New York University (NYU). He is the author of Dot.compradors: Power and Policy in the Development of the Indian Software Industry(Pluto, 2012).