• Table of contents

    • [+]Preliminaries (3)
    • [+]Introduction (4)
    • [+]Latin America (13)
    • [+]Sub-Saharan Africa (9)
    • [+]Arab World (11)
    • [+]Russia (11)
    • [—]India (11)
    • [+]China (9)
    • [+]Conclusions (6)
    • [+]Appendix (1)

India

Possible trends

At any rate, digital publishing in India will be positively impacted by a series of powerful tendencies that will carve out a new landscape in the medium and long term:

  1. To begin with, we are already witnessing a social phenomenon that will leave a profound imprint: the emergence of a new middle class hungry for hardware and content adapted to their concrete reality. It is worth bearing in mind that – as a survey by the consulting firm TCS disseminated in 2009 shows – the Internet is by far the favourite pastime of teenagers from urban homes in India.[1] These young people demand – and will increasingly demand – texts written in their own languages on topics that directly concern them. In this sense, local digital publishing will have a considerable advantage, at least initially, when it comes to competing against actors from the US or Europe.
  2. In addition, India’s increasing technological sophistication and the progressive interaction between content producers and IT companies may lead to the enrichment of the digital publishing industry.
  3. Thirdly, it is highly likely that we will see a proliferation of experiments in text dissemination via mobile phones, given the mass penetration of these devices throughout Indian society, regardless of class or region.
  4. Finally, in spite of all its limitations – with regard to coordination, budget etc –, the Indian State will certainly continue striving to reduce the digital gap, particularly among the inhabitants of rural areas.

Notes    
  1. Cf. “Urban students are digital natives, reveals TCS Generation Web 2.0 survey”, TATA Consultancy Services, 29th July, 2009.

Leave a Reply