Are IT and the net flourishing in India? One of the reasons IT is flourishing is that it all happened before the government really knew about it. Once the government intervenes in anything in India, it invariably becomes a disaster! The country is not that well developed, though internet cafes are popping up even in smaller towns. We had a telephone revolution about 10 years ago, whereby people set up little booths all over the country. This was a huge success and many now have computers in them. Within the government, there's huge resistance to "computerising". It's ironic that in a country that's made itself renowned for IT, the government is so computer-resistant!
Has the mobile boom hit India? Very much so - but only with a limited number because of the affordability. It's more of a status symbol than it is here, where it's almost a status symbol not to have one! Perhaps that's why I refuse to have one. I have an IBM ThinkPad but I don't take it around India, as there's a problem with fluctuating electrical current.
Is the net enhancing or eroding cultural differences? It's promoting the English language, which is sad. English already has too big an influence in India. I hope it will turn out to be a way of keeping cultural diversity going because everyone can easily have access to it - not only taking material from it but adding their own material to it. I'm not a big net user but my little experience allows me to imagine the net becoming a wonderful multicultural thing and also a way to combat the domination of the western media.
Will the net replace traditional media? I don't think so because everything adapts. My first love is radio: it's made my living for me and I really enjoy doing it. In the early TV days, everyone said radio was dead, but it's still flourishing. It seems we have an incredible ability to add medium after medium and each one survives. I have a satellite radio and I simply press a button and I have BBC World Service.
Why does the BBC's website remain essential? One problem in broadcasting is that what you see or hear disappears. One of the advantages of the web is to let people hear things they missed. One potential disadvantage is the risk that people will start making radio programmes for the website rather than for broadcast. That would be a great pity.
Favourite sites? www.pugmarks.com/d-india, http://air.kode.net and I once bought a book from www.amazon.co.uk.
Visit: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/religion/somethingunderstood.shtml
· Mark Tully's book India In Slow Motion is out this week in Penguin.
