web 2.0,india, china

The globe is one of the most powerful visual metaphors to map the geographical dimensions of large networks like shipping lines, trade flows, airline routes and communications such as the Internet.India and China have approximately 40 percent of the world population, and most of their inhabitants live in rural villages that lack basic telephone service. If the Internet is to succeed in raising the level of human development and curtailing migration to teeming urban centers, it must succeed in India and China. What we learn there may enable us to provide communication and information to the world's 1.5 million unconnected villages.We also examine determinants of Internet diffusion. We find that the Chinese Internet has benefited from economic and trade reform begun in the late 1980s, a strong government commitment to the Internet, complementary human and capital resources, etc. The two nations have very different governments and policies, leading to differing approaches to the introduction of telecommunication competition and infrastructure development. China has pursued a strategy of competition among government-owned organizations while India has set policy via recommendations of publicly visible task forces. It remains to be seen whether India's relatively transparent and market driven approach to Internet policy (and access) will prove effective in the long run.
The Internet was very different in 1988 than it is today. Few outside a small group of researchers and technicians knew of the Internet, and they used it primarily for sharing technical information and facilitating the development of standards and networking technology. In 1995, when China seriously considered the Internet, the wider public, including policy makers and politicians, were aware of its implications and the World Wide Web protocol was beginning its rapid proliferation. In some sense, the race did not really begin until the mid 1990s.
India was not as well prepared or as quick to act when it became clear to politicians and policy makers that the Internet could be important infrastructure. Their response was a series of publicly visible action plans with high-level industrial and political support. In a sense, India joined the experimental Internet before China, but did not assign high priority to the modern Internet until the first IT Action Plan in 1998.
The political systems of the two nations have also led them to different approaches to the Internet. China is attempting to maintain control over access and content, while India's Internet is open. While the incumbent telecommunication companies and their government supporters remain strong in both nations, India has moved toward an open market with licensing of telecommunication and Internet service providers. Privatization has gone more slowly in China, where a strategy of competition among government owned enterprises has been pursued in the large ISP market. Pressure from the WTO and market forces may dilute this policy, bringing the two closer together.