The great Indian phone book
Subtitle: how the cheap cell phone changes business, politics, and daily life
By: Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey
Contributors: Jeffrey, Robin
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 293
ISBN-13: 9780674072688
Subjects: Cell phones
Description: In 2001, India had 4 million cell phone subscribers. Ten years later, that number had exploded to more than 750 million. Over just a decade, the mobile phone was transformed from a rare and unwieldy instrument to a palm-sized, affordable staple, taken for granted by poor fishermen in Kerala and affluent entrepreneurs in Mumbai alike. The Great Indian Phone Book investigates the social revolution ignited by what may be the most significant communications device in history, one which has disrupted more people and relationships than the printing press, wristwatch, automobile, or railways, though it has qualities of all four.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 265-280) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: 'so uncanny and out of place'; title: Controlling communication; title: Celling India; title: Missionaries of the mobile; title: Mechanics of the mobile; title: For business; title: For politics; title: For women and households; title: For 'wrongdoing': 'waywardness' to terror; title: Conclusion: 'it's the autonomy, stupid'.; title: Pt. 1. Controlling; title: pt. 2. Connecting; title: pt. 3. Consuming.