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India: Academic Crocodile |
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Tuesday, 08 July 2008 |
If your blogroll doesn't include Indian scholars and academics now,
wait a few years and play catch-up because as the Indian proverb says:
"If you are going to live by the river, make friends with the
crocodile". India is serving notice to the global academic community of
a new dawn in global power and presense. Don't get eaten. Make friends.
India is the fastest growing region of Internet use in the world. During the first half of 2008 India's internet use grew by 27% with over 28 million current users. It is often ignored
by those academics claiming undue western industrialized influence over
the Internet that Asia long ago surpassed North America and Europe in
Internet use. Despite the fact that Asia only enjoys 14%
population penetration of Internet this translates to a massive 38% of
global internet usage (compared to 17.5% in North America and 27% in
Europe) and can only grow from here. This is the reality of the real
global Internet. The idea of the west managing or exploiting the
Internet for neo-colonial means will be a distant memory in a few years.
Fueled by a phenomenal annual projected 65% growth in mobile notebook sales Indians are getting online in record numbers. With 415 universities
in India led by the 20 Central universities the potential overflow of
all these trends on Indian students and staff expressing themselves
into the blogosphere is staggering. And that is just the domestic
picture. In the UK alone over 20,000 Indian students come for higher education
degrees every year and respected UK
universities salivating at the foreign fees are struggling to hold the line on inflating marks or even just selling degrees.
If
that wasn't enough of a challenge enterprising Indian websites and
students are exploiting laziness in UK science and computing students
by completing assignments and dissertations from higher UK institutions
for as little as £5 while Indian students in Australia work more than the 20 hours allowed by student visas to meet spiralling academic costs.
While India joins the global economy in an overall slowing of economic growth and revels in the luxuries of its still emerging status, the Indian media and entertainment business is roaring. Even future Bollywood stars proudly proclaim their academic roots. But this is not without its natural challenges. India-Gii is an old school online discussion group that tackles the main issues of online activity in India head-on. Efforts are also underway to see wider promotion of skills to all levels of society like this Times of India initiative where 10,000 people have already signed up to offer two hours a week to teach children in their neighborhood. As a sign of freedom of expression Indian academics are protesting against emerging censorship and inequality. And many of the avant garde ideas in academia like Open Access are yet to arrive as India struggles with the rest of the world to adapt to a changing networked world.
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