Interests, Wireless Technology, and Institutional Change

From Government Monopoly to Regulated Competition in Indian Telecommunications

Bibliographic Data

ID3636822
AuthorsRahul Mukherji (0000-0003-0223-7135, National University of Singapore, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume68
Issue02
Pages491
Publication date2009-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9118 • E-ISSN: 1752-0401
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/s0021911809000680
OpenAlexW2145383133
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited28

This paper explores the causes behind the institutional change that promoted regulated private-sector competition in India's booming telecommunications sector. This change occurred incrementally by resolving conflicts of interest driven by the twin engines of fiscal crisis and technological change in cellular telephony. The Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Finance pushed for the change, whereas the Department of Telecommunications resisted it. As private participation succeeded, the relationship between the private sector and government financial organizations made a significant impact on parts of the government that favored change. Cellular technology offered the private sector with a first-mover's advantage because it had gambled on it when government-owned corporations had ignored its commercial potential. Evolutionary change occurred through a process of institutional layering that involved establishing new institutions along the edges of old ones and allowing them to grow differentially. The pace of institutional change accelerated in times of financial crises when the mismatch between policy intention and institutions led to a withdrawal of private investment

Business · Competition (biology) · Economic growth · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Investment (military) · Market economy · Monopoly · Political science · Politics · Private sector · Technological change · Economic Theory and Policy · Finance · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Indian Economic and Social Development

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub