Technology

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Twitter, the social-networking platform, which serves as a sociopolitical barometer, was recently purchased by Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla. Musk has fi red 50% of Twitter’s staff and toyed with its policies on registration and posts, making it an oligarch’s puppet. Clearly, the world needs a “global digital public town hall” governed in the public interest.

Technology strategies routinely overlook the marginalised, who demonstrate complicated, non-linear, and unpredictable technological experiences in addition to intangible technological inequalities. Only if we improve our political and sociological understanding of technology can we steer it to work towards genuine modernity and well-being.

In this age of computers, the development and advancement of the information technology sector can push a developing economy into the developed countries category. The present study found that the IT sector of India has experienced boom and prosperity during the first decade of this century. Therefore, the supportive policies and acts, such as the Information Technology Act, 2000, National Broadband Policy, 2004, and Special Economic Zones Act, 2005 have favourable impact on the information technology sector. Meanwhile, it is moving towards recession in the second half of the second decade of this century. However, the study confirms good performance of India’s information technology sector in terms of its contribution to the gross domestic product, foreign exchange earnings, and employment generation in the Indian economy.

Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India edited by Sandeep Mertia and foreword by Ravi Sundaram, Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2020; pp 160, price not indicated.