ABSTRACT
The technological revolution has ushered in the concept of knowledge economy and most of the developed world immediately switched over to the new economic system, especially in the second half of the 20th century. The post-industrial and post-modern society is absolutely different from the earlier civilizations. The world is becoming smart, thanks to astounding changes brought in by the speed of electronic communication. The ‘global village’ (McLuhan, 1964, 1994) is more than a reality. Obviously, the new communication technology is supposed to promote a new approach to and partner in national development, and moreover, create an information society. It is relevant here to recollect the Tunis Agenda for the information society that noted the role of government in partnership with other stakeholders in implementing the outcome of the world summit on the information society were to focus on sustainable national development and poverty eradication. Developing countries have their priority in equity of access to natural resources and distributive justice for the deprivileged. In India, several committees have been set up to identify the people below the poverty line and help them eke out a decent living through various schemes and projects. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is devised to provide guaranteed employment for rural people at least for 100 days in a year. In the West the transition from agricultural to industrial society had its own pangs of pain since it needed dislocation of people from rural to urban areas and ‘fields to factories.’ Unlike the West, the emotional affiliation with the farmland in India is very strong. It is a definite pointer to the trend of recent resistance movements against land acquisition for industrial purposes in different states. In this context, we cannot be oblivious to the fact that the rapid strides in the field of science and technology have brought in a sea-change in the lifestyles of people across the globe. As a result of technological progress, the information society replaced the industrial society in the Western hemisphere as well as Japan and South Korea in the East. Further, the transition from information economy to knowledge economy is faster than the change over to industrial economy from agricultural. The Tunis World Summit on the Information Society prescribed a target for conversion of countries into information societies and 84% or 161 economies of the world were able to meet the set target, making them move closer to the realization of creating a knowledge planet.
