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ETD correct _Deepti Bharthur.pdf (899.7 KB)

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Bridging the Last Mile: An Exploration of ICT Policy Through Bharatnet

Bharthur, Deepti
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1448024842

Abstract Details

2015, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Media and Communication.
India is brimming with new optimism about its economic growth potential and ability to enhance its status. Democratic and demographic dividends play a crucial role in its aspiration. As a key IT player with regard to the services and allied sectors its transformation from telecom as a luxury to appreciable levels of teledensity is a narrative in itself. Its tryst with harnessing communication for development integrates the modernization approaches with all the consequent set of problems and issues. The liberal framework in which telecom reforms were initiated have spread the vision of modern handheld communication devices as harbingers of empowerment, entitlement and entertainment. Connectivity and access in the last mile is no doubt a significant variable and required a major policy articulation and push by the government. It was against this reality shared by many other nations that incremental articulations for broadband access in keeping with the vision of creating an information society were made. Through a historical institutional analysis, this study unravels the pattern leading up to one of the major initiatives by any country in the world, the BharatNet project. The rollout processes of BharatNet examined by applying academic perspectives that draw from three major strands of studies: the discourse of communication, modernization and development; the relationships in policy formation and implementation through political economy framework with regard to information and communication technologies, networks and knowledge societies and the time and space approach with regard to the dichotomies of urban and rural spaces and factors of exclusion and inclusion. The study posits an argument that discourses within a paradigm necessitate choices of technology and articulations of beneficiaries that may or may not factor them. It also reveals the many pulls and pressures are commercially dictated and pose inherent contradictions for a state that espouses a consciousness towards welfare within a larger neoliberal framework.
Radhika Gajjala, Dr (Advisor)
Oliver Boyd-Barrett , Dr (Committee Co-Chair)
Clayton Rosati, Dr (Committee Co-Chair)
Shannon Orr, Dr (Other)
217 p.
Communication; Mass Communications; Technology
India, BharatNet, ICT, Broadband, Telecommunications, Policy, Internet, Access, Universal Service

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bharthur, D. (2015). Bridging the Last Mile: An Exploration of ICT Policy Through Bharatnet [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1448024842

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bharthur, Deepti. Bridging the Last Mile: An Exploration of ICT Policy Through Bharatnet . 2015. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1448024842.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bharthur, Deepti. " Bridging the Last Mile: An Exploration of ICT Policy Through Bharatnet ." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1448024842

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.