Development Of Information Technology Industry Research Articles

State Policy and the Development of Information Technology Industries: India and East Asia in Comparative Perspective

Even as the world is moving towards more market-oriented economic strategies, there is a continuing need for state policy to play the role of a nurturer of high technology industries in many countries. This is especially true of the information technology (IT) industry, characterized by rapid technological change, necessity of economies of scale, research inputs, and the constant upgrading of skills. This article examines India's policy experience in promoting an IT industry. India's IT industry has experienced a variety of state policy interventions from the 1970s until today. The protectionist policies of the seventies and early eighties have given way to liberalization and globalization in the 1990s. Although Indian IT firms seem to be adapting to the changed economic and policy environment of the 1990s, the article points out that the industry's future can only be secured by a renewed policy thrust on applications development for the domestic market, accompanied by a push for IT diffusion as against m...