Midnight's machines : a political history of technology in India (Record no. 29954)

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008 - FIXED-LENGTH DATA ELEMENTS--GENERAL INFORMATION
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020 ## - INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER
International Standard Book Number 9780670091096
082 ## - DEWEY DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION NUMBER
Classification number 320.0405095
Item number SUK
100 ## - MAIN ENTRY--PERSONAL NAME
Personal name Sukumar, Arun Mohan
245 ## - TITLE STATEMENT
Title Midnight's machines : a political history of technology in India
260 ## - PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC. (IMPRINT)
Name of publisher, distributor, etc Penguin Random House
Date of publication, distribution, etc 2019
Place of publication, distribution, etc Gurgaon, Haryana, India
300 ## - PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Extent xxix, 236 p.
Dimensions 23 cm.
365 ## - TRADE PRICE
Price amount 599.00
Price type code INR
Unit of pricing 00
504 ## - BIBLIOGRAPHY, ETC. NOTE
Bibliography, etc Includes notes
520 ## - SUMMARY, ETC.
Summary, etc Every Prime Minister of independent India has guided, if not personally overseen, one prized portfolio: technology. If, in the early years, Nehru and his scientist-advisors retained an iron grip on it, subsequent governments created a bureaucracy that managed everything from the country's crown jewels-its nuclear and space programmes-to solar stoves and mechanized bullock carts. But a lesser-known political project began on 15 August 1947: the Indian state's undertaking to influence what the citizens thought about technology and its place in society. Beneath its soaring rhetoric on the virtues or vices of technology, the state buried a grim reality: India's inability to develop it at home. The political class sent contradictory signals to the general public. On the one hand, they were asked to develop a scientific temper, on the other, to be wary of becoming enslaved to technology; to be thrilled by the spectacle of a space launch while embracing jugaad, frugal innovation, and the art of 'thinking small'. To mask its failure at building computers, the Indian state decried them in the seventies as expensive, job-guzzling machines. When it urged citizens to welcome them the next decade, the government was, unsurprisingly, met with fierce resistance. From Jawaharlal Nehru to Narendra Modi, India's political leadership has tried its best to modernize the nation through technology, but on its own terms and with little success. In this engaging and panoramic history spanning the arc of modern India from the post-War years to present day, Arun Mohan Sukumar gives us the long view with a reasoned, occasionally provocative standpoint, using a lens that's wide enough for the frame it encompasses. With compelling arguments drawn from archival public records and open-source reportage, he unearths the reasons why India embraced or rejected new technologies, giving us a new way to understand and appreciate the individual moments that brought the country into the twenty-first century.
650 ## - SUBJECT ADDED ENTRY--TOPICAL TERM
Topical term or geographic name as entry element Make in India
Topical term or geographic name as entry element India's science and technology
Topical term or geographic name as entry element Political History
942 ## - ADDED ENTRY ELEMENTS (KOHA)
Source of classification or shelving scheme
Item type Books
Holdings
Withdrawn status Lost status Source of classification or shelving scheme Damaged status Not for loan Permanent location Current location Date acquired Total Checkouts Full call number Barcode Date last seen Date last borrowed Koha item type
          DAIICT DAIICT 2020-03-03 2 320.0405095 SUK 032260 2024-05-08 2023-12-11 Books

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