Software for Soft Power

According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), India’s best-known industry association, the IT industry “has played a significant role in transforming India’s image from a slow moving bureaucratic economy to a land of innovative entrepreneurs and a global player in providing world class technology solutions and business services” (NASSCOM, 2012: 3). Such was the confidence in India’s potential in this field that the country’s Planning Commission produced a report in 2001 from a high-level task force entitled India as Knowledge Superpower: A Strategy for Transformation. It said: “India is well placed at the dawn of the Knowledge era. We should not miss this opportunity. Our culture and civilization have been enriched over the ages by great thinkers who have always taken an integrated view of life as a fusion of mind, body and intellect. Their vision of knowledge has blossomed in the form of many spiritual centres and epics. The coming decades will see a confluence of civilizational and modern technological streams” (Planning Commission, 2001).