India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy
Channel: Carnegie Live
Date: 07/11/2018

In 2000, just 20 million Indians had access to the internet. By 2020, the country’s online community is projected to exceed 700 million and more than a billion Indians are expected to be online by 2025. In a new book, India Connected: How the Smartphone is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy, Ravi Agrawal shows how widespread internet use is poised to transform everyday life in India: the status of women, education, jobs, dating, marriage, family life, commerce, and governance. Building on in-depth reportage, Agrawal will unpack the story of how smartphones and digital technologies are disrupting Indian society in creative and unsettling ways. The Asia Society Policy Institute’s Lindsey Ford will offer introductory remarks and Carnegie’s Milan Vaishnav will moderate. A reception and book signing will follow.

This book launch is being jointly co-hosted by the Asia Society Policy Institute and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Ravi Agrawal is the managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine and previously worked at CNN for over a decade in London, New York, and New Delhi, where he served as the network’s India bureau chief.

Lindsey Ford is the director of political-security affairs, Richard Holbrooke Fellow, and deputy director of the Washington, D.C. office of the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Milan Vaishnav is a senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he leads Carnegie’s India Elects 2019 initiative.

In the months ahead, Carnegie scholars will analyze various dimensions of India’s upcoming election battle—including coalition dynamics, the shifting demographic trends in the country’s electorate, and the impact of elections on India’s foreign policy. Keep up to date at CarnegieEndowment.org/IndiaElects2019.