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P. Jegadish Gandhi

The Asia-Pacific Internet Handbook - Episode IV Emerging Powerhouses Ed by Madanmohan Rao Publishers: Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi Price: Rs 395

Internet world presupposes borderless boundaries. With a population of over three billion people, the 23 countries comprising the Asia-Pacific region represent a rapidly growing and lucrative segment of the global Internet market. This region is well ahead of the rest of the world in terms of wireless Internet innovation and diffusion, and has lots of lessons to offer other regions. It is firmly believed that the Internet gives Asia a chance to re-ignite its economy and to reboot itself to face the challenges of a fiercely competitive and restless global mediascape.

This book is about the inter-continental race, regional pace and human face of the Internet in Asia. The earlier three episodes dealt with the birth of the early computing infrastructure in Asia, the rise of the early Internet works and the rise of the commercial Internet. This Episode IV (starting in 2001) focuses on today's emerging Internet powerhouses of Asia, viz. Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, India and Singapore. Each country chapter is based upon the editor's structured framework i.e., "8 Cs" of the digital economy — connectivity, content, community, commerce, capacity, culture, cooperation and capital.

The evolutionary as well as revolutionary changes in Internet communicative structure and styles in Japan, South Korea, China, India, Australia and Singapore were analysed elaborately by Martyn Williams, Jin Young Kim and Jihee Nam, Duncan Clark, Madanmohan Rao, Grant Butler and Harish Pillay respectively.

Madanmohan Rao has analysed the inherent strengths and weaknesses of the Indian Internet dynamics in the chapter, "I-India: The Hope amidst the Hype." India seems to have cemented its position as the "outsourcing centre of the world," and Indian software and content companies are gearing to migrate up the value chain from basic services to products and media networks. In addition to tapping the global Internet user base, having a large domestic user base means that India can sustain a lot of local infrastructure, content, foreign capital investments and an online market in general, unlike other smaller countries that need to be focusing much more on overseas markets.

Although India got off to a late start in terms of integration with the global economy, it still has a way to go before matching the global standards of advanced economic infrastructure. India's Achilles heel is its lack of global clout in the mass production of micro-electronic devices, which unfortunately leaves it out of cutting edge innovation in emerging areas like wireless Internet.

Other challenges include creating the right regulatory environment, expanding the domestic market, bridging the digital divide, breaking into non-English markets, improving global marketing skills, dealing with the global trend towards shorter lifecycles and migrating up the value chain from basic software maintenance.

Overall, the Handbook provides refreshing new insights into the problems and potentials of Asia's Internet economy. It is a rich reservoir of informatics to professionals, learners, educators, policy-makers and online entrepreneurs.

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