India's Techade: Digital Revolution and Change in the World's Largest Democracy

About the Book

This is a small book about big disruptions.

Over two decades, and across two different political regimes, the world's largest democracy combined the rise of cheap mobile phones, cheap data and a unique digital ID system to create an unprecedented revolution in digital public goods. This included the rise of path-breaking fintech systems like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the creation of a new kind of welfare state based on digital direct benefit transfers and interlinked e-governance systems that brought almost half a billion people who never had bank accounts into the financial system.

India's Techade pieces together the story of how this digital revolution came to be. It is a crisp, yet comprehensive account of the systems, the innovators, the processes and the political will that drove the digital enterprise across India.

A must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the transformative nature of technology and its deep impact on Indian society, politics and culture.

About the Author

Nalin Mehta is Dean, School of Modern Media, UPES; President, EDGE Metaversity and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. He has taught and held research positions at universities and institutions in Australia (ANU, La Trobe University), Singapore (NUS), Switzerland (International Olympic Museum) and India (IIM Bangalore, Shiv Nadar University).

He was previously Executive Editor, The Times of India-Online, where he led a number of AI-led tech innovations to redefine digital media. He has also served as Managing Editor, India Today (English TV channel) and Consulting Editor, The Times of India. He is the author of five bestselling and critically acclaimed books, including India on Television (winner of the Asian Publishing Award for Best Book on Asian Media, 2009), Behind a Billion Screens (longlisted as Business Book of the Year, Tata Literature Live, 2015), Dreams of a Billion (winner of the Ekamra Sports Book of the Year, 2021, co-authored) and, most recently, The New BJP: Modi and the Remaking of the World's Largest Political Party.