ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

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Trade Reforms, Technology Import, and Firm Productivity in the Indian Manufacturing Sector

The paper is an attempt to examine the impact of technology import on the productivity of Indian manufacturing firms during 1995–2016. The empirics are based on an unbalanced sample of 4,616 firms, which is further segregated into four use-based categories of production. This analysis tends to support the predictions of new trade and growth theories that international trade provides opportunities for dynamic productivity gains.

A Train to Nowhere

Passenger traffic has fallen sharply as the railways prioritise high-end travel over ordinary passengers.

Musk’s Twitter Acquisition

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.

Does FDI Induce Technological Advancements in India?

The study used partial least squares-structural equation model and found that foreign direct investment and research and development expenditures have a positive relationship with high technology exports (indicator for technological advancement), whereas technical cooperation grants have a negative relationship with HTE in India.

Beyond a Technological Understanding of Technology

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.

Bhairabi Prasad Sahu (1957–2022)

Bhairabi Prasad Sahu made path-breaking contributions to the study of the issues ranging from the history of regions, cultural aspects of the state, and legitimation strategies in premodern India to technology and social change. He also stood out for his consistent commitment to scientifi c historiography and the idea of public university.

Performance of Indian Information Technology Sector

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.

 

‘Kaalia’

Much before the cell phone, the ubiquitous black rotary dial telephone sparked the imaginations of children in 1980s’ India.

 

The Transition to Big Data in India

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.

Technological Federalism

“Technological federalism” or the interface of the landscape of technological and data governance with the federal structure, as enshrined in the Constitution of India, needs to be ideally adjudicated upon. Till the time it happens, it needs to be theorised and understood in detail. The centralisation of data, digital architectures as well as decision-making will be inevitable in the absence of a new perspective.

 

Professionalising Election Campaigns

The 2014 and 2019 general elections in India were referred to as “WhatsApp elections,” which had IT cells, bots, and political consultants strategically using data mining tools to build resonant narratives to tell voters what they wanted to hear. By the 2014 national election, the industry was reported to be worth $40–$47 million. Between 2014 and 2018, industry specialists approximated that the number of firms in this market had at least doubled. These unprecedented tools of technological campaigning come with new forms of identifying, targeting, and defining issues of political importance. This article suggests that such developments are turning electoral politics into a thriving business being data-driven, technologically oriented, and having far-reaching implications for democratic processes.

 

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