Geography, uneven development and distributive justice: the political economy of IT growth in India

The aim of the paper is to apply a political economy framework both to explain the rise of the information technology (IT) industry and to analyse the spatial and developmental consequences of this growth, especially the distributive dimension on the wider society. The purpose is also to reveal the contradictions associated with the industry, question the crude optimism surrounding the IT sector's transformative capabilities, and by extension, assess the 'model' of development implicit with its growth trajectory. As there is class bias in the workings of the sector, which excludes large swathes of the population and reproduces educational inequality, policy implications are briefly discussed.