Telecommunications Industry in India State, Business and Labour in a Global Economy

Telecommunications Industry in India represents the first comprehensive study of a state-run enterprise in the telecommunications industry. The study traces over a period of half a century (1948-2009) the growth and decline of Indian Telephone Industries (ITI). At the heart of the monograph stands one central interrogation: How does the socio-technical system of production in a state-controlled firm shape the relations linking the four main actors: the state, management, union and workers? The original contribution of this book lies in combining business history and labour history within a single conceptual framework. The author evaluates the broader conclusions about the telecommunications industry and public sector through the lens of an individual firm to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of the dynamics of change in the globalizing Indian economy. The work is well in command of the literature on the global business history counterparts of ITI in the telecommunications industry. It is further strengthened by the use of French material on the subject which is now accessible for the first time in English.

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Introduction 1. The Construction of a Monopoly 2. The History and Politics of Technological Change 3. The Burden of Monopoly and State Regulation 4. The Advent of Competition: Fallout of Global Telecommunications Deregulation 5. Market Forces in Full Play: Management Gains or Losses for Labour? 6. Spheres of Practice: An Ethnography of Printed Circuit Board Assembly Work 7. Workers and Independent Unionism 8. Rank-and-File Challenge to Union and Management Authority 9. Passions of Language and Caste