Digital Hegemony and Digital Divide: Looming Threat and Possible Remedies (with Special Reference to India & USA)

Abstract

Internet as a technology for overall development of the global economy is seen with great optimism. Developed and promoted by the USA this technology can be seen as a tool for the digital hegemony that proclaims USA control and dominance on the world economy. This can also be related to the growing dependency of different nations on Internet for keeping in touch with the nations all over the world. Other aspect of this dominance is the digital divide that creates a chasm because of which the developing and under developed countries depend on the USA. Digital divide is a term that depicts the digital gap between those who were able to access and use the latest technologies for social, economic upliftment and those who were left behind. On a global level the developed countries with their latest technologies were making manifold progress and they were able to avail a leading position across the world. However the developing and third world countries were lagging far behind. Now with the coming of Internet and more over opening of global economies and other economic collaborations, the countries around the world have presence on the Internet. Along with the economic aspects, the socio-cultural aspects are equally important that need to be taken care of. A kind of cultural dominance is prevalent which is undermining and threatening the multi cultural existence of the world order. New technological information and cultural determinism prevails all over the world and Internet is being used as a vital tool in this process. This research paper is an effort to bring to the concern these issues. A comparison between countries namely, USA and India is done on the basis of the secondary data to gauge such issues. We have taken up USA and India because USA is a leading developed nation which has the control on the Internet and India which is a developing country which is using the Internet for its various sector growth.