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Proponents of globalization insist that the trend is not only inevitable but also a prerequisite for helping the developing nations make it to the next league. In the initial years, at the dawn of the new millennium, information and communications technology (ICT) came to the centre stage of this debate as if it represented a panacea.

In between the two phases of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) at Geneva and Tunis, Sumit Roy's book is a useful reference for assessing the role of ICT as the developing countries enjoin the race of development and experiment with different facets of ICT-whichever way they chose to proceed, rather, were forced to trundle past.

The first chapter starts with a critique of relevant literature and details the basic framework of the book as well as the methodology. The second chapter is titled 'Globalisation, International Political Economy and Structural Changes' lives up to its name and deals with the formation of new trade and political institutions as well as the transformation brought about by and within these organizations. These span across the likes of IMF, GATT, WTO, GATT, GATS, OPEC, OECD, and of course, the UN. It also covers regional fronts like SAARC, ASEAN, and NEPAD (New Economic Partnership for Economic Development').

Besides detailing the vision behind the Bretton Woods (BW) institutions (IMF and the World Bank) as well as the debt-linked developmental aids, the role of MNCs in the globalization process has also been well documented.

These themes, statistics, and issues are progressively and predictably interwoven with the increasingly important and at times, controversial role of the ICT in the course of the third chapter - all of 127 pages, with specific study of a singular country in detail. No prizes for guessing, of course, it is apna India!

Though the term 'digial divide' has been detailed comprehensively, much of the focus is on the IT only and not so much the telecom. This bias could be due to IT software and services and the recent quibbling about off-shoring hogging the limelight, rather than the growth of telecom services.

One can also add to the repertoire the Index of Technological Progress (ITP) to the better-known indices like the Network Readiness Index, the Digital Access Index, the Information Society Index and the e-Readiness Index.

Real value-add is on the aspects related to the employment, gender, human capital and productivity in the wider context of globalisation and the role of ICT therein. The fact is that the ICT itself is not only a driver of globalisation but also one of the distinct beneficiaries of the very same process.

While the book itself has been published only in 2005, and mentions CMP of the UPA government, it is amusing to see some (presumably) backdated predictions such as: "India's growth rate is expected to achieve a rate of 7 percent in the year to March 2004."

Sample this gem of a projection: "In the IT enabled services segment, women accounted for 37 percent of jobs. This is projected to rise to 35 percent by 2005". One is not sure whether this is attributable to the printer's devil.

Though packed with lots of data into well-numbered tables-for a refreshing change, the book does not leave one any wiser, though admittedly a bit more informed the author seems to have relied on observations and inferences from third-party material, especially those about India. 'Ministry of Information and Communication Technology' might be a more apt name but the fact is that it is known as 'Ministry of Communications and Information Technology'!

Deepak Maheshwari GM, corporate affairs, Sify