The Transformation of Developing Countries into Information Societies

Information societies were once thought of as a phenomenon belonging exclusively to wealthy, industrialised nations. The idea was simple: as economies matured, manufacturing would give way to services, and information itself would become the central resource for creating wealth. But over the past three decades, this assumption has been overturned. Developing countries have not waited their turn. Instead, many have used information and communication technologies (ICTs) to reshape their economies and societies, sometimes skipping entire stages of development that richer nations passed through. Brazil and India offer two of the most instructive examples of this transformation, showing both the promise and the persistent obstacles of becoming an information society from a position of relative disadvantage.

What it means for a developing country to become an information society 🔗

An information society is one where the creation, distribution, and use of information becomes the primary driver of economic and social activity. For developed nations, this shift happened gradually after decades of industrialisation. Developing countries face a different situation entirely. Many still have large rural populations, significant poverty, and economies historically built around agriculture and low-skill manufacturing. The question for them is whether ICTs can be a tool to accelerate development rather than a luxury reserved for the already prosperous.

The answer, in many cases, has been a qualified yes. A number of developing countries have deliberately designed policies to transform their economies into information and knowledge economies, viewing ICT deployment as a way to establish a competitive edge and create high-quality employment. Crucially, research on the most successful ICT experiences in developing countries, including Brazil and India, shows that local political leadership played an active and decisive role in driving technology diffusion. Technology alone did not produce change; political will and deliberate policy did.

Brazil’s information society journey 🔗

Brazil’s relationship with information technology began earlier than many people assume. Modern ICT was already shaping the country before the internet became widespread. By 1990, Brazil’s computer industry accounted for more than 74,000 jobs and around four billion dollars in revenue. This early base gave the country a foundation to build on as digital technologies advanced.

What makes Brazil’s case particularly relevant is its focus on using ICT for social development, not just economic growth. Brazilian firms, on average, came to use ICT more intensively than their counterparts in some other developing economies, and studies found a strong link between ICT investment and productivity. Interestingly, the rate of return on ICT investment in countries like Brazil tended to be much larger than what is typically observed in developed economies, suggesting that technology can deliver disproportionate gains where it is newly introduced.

The challenge of digital inclusion 🔗

Despite this progress, Brazil confronted a serious problem of digital inequality. A large share of the population, especially in poorer urban peripheries and isolated rural communities, lacked any meaningful access to computers or the internet. The Brazilian response to this challenge became one of the most studied models of digital inclusion in the developing world.

The understanding that emerged in Brazil was sophisticated. Digital inclusion, in the Brazilian view, was never simply about providing access to machines. It was about ensuring that people developed the skills to interact with technology and information, to communicate and collaborate over networks, and to transform raw data into useful knowledge. As one influential definition put it, telecentres were initiatives meant to guarantee public and universal access in order to promote the generation and distribution of knowledge, stimulating community participation rather than passive consumption.

India’s information revolution 🔗

India’s transformation tells a different but equally striking story. For much of its modern history, India was known internationally as an exporter of tea, textiles, and jewellery. Within a few decades, it became a global powerhouse in software and IT services. This shift represents one of the clearest examples of a developing country leapfrogging traditional stages of economic development.

The turning point came in 1988, when India launched policies that nurtured a software development industry. The results were dramatic. Software exports grew to 5.7 billion dollars by 1999-2000, capturing a meaningful slice of the global customised software market. The growth did not stop there. By FY 2018-2019, the Indian software industry had generated revenue of around 177 billion dollars and more than 135 billion dollars in exports, while contributing close to eight percent of national GDP.

Overcoming traditional occupational structures 🔗

The deeper significance of India’s IT boom lies in how it altered the structure of work and opportunity. The sector created over four million direct jobs and supported an estimated twelve million indirect jobs, becoming the largest employer of the educated middle class. This was a genuine break from traditional occupational patterns, where social and economic mobility was often constrained by inherited circumstance.

India’s success was not the result of cheap labour alone. Researchers argue that the rapid rise of software exports reflected a genuine comparative advantage built on a large, English-speaking, and technically qualified workforce. Over time, Indian firms moved up the value chain, shifting from low-level coding and maintenance toward complex, high-value work such as product design, research and development, and knowledge process outsourcing. The IT and IT-enabled services sector eventually became the country’s largest source of export earnings.

The digital divide 🔗

For all their achievements, both Brazil and India share a persistent and troubling feature: a deep digital divide. This divide is the gap between those who have access to ICTs and the skills to use them, and those who do not. The explosive growth of the internet in the late 1990s drew global attention to exactly this gap between information-rich and information-poor populations.

The contrast is most visible along urban and rural lines. Educated urban populations enjoy fast connectivity, access to digital services, and the economic opportunities that flow from them. Meanwhile, many rural communities historically lacked reliable internet, devices, or the literacy needed to benefit from them. This is not merely an inconvenience. The divide creates and reinforces economic disparities, separating those who can afford and use technology from those who cannot, which in turn affects a country’s overall development.

Why the divide is hard to close 🔗

Bridging the divide is difficult because it has multiple dimensions. Infrastructure is one barrier: remote areas may simply lack the cables, towers, or electricity for connectivity. Affordability is another, since devices and data can be out of reach for low-income households. But the most stubborn dimension is skills. Even when access is provided, people may not be able to make meaningful use of it. This is why the Brazilian experience emphasised that providing access without building the capacity for critical, meaningful use achieves little. Connectivity is necessary, but it is far from sufficient.

Government initiatives bridging the gap 🔗

Recognising these challenges, both countries launched ambitious public initiatives to extend the benefits of the information society to excluded populations.

Telecentres in Brazil 🔗

Brazil’s signature contribution was the community telecentre. These were public spaces, often in impoverished urban peripheries and remote rural areas, that offered computing equipment, internet connection, and training. The São Paulo telecentre project became a landmark example, influencing national policy on digital inclusion and even promoting the use of free and open-source software. According to the National Digital Inclusion Observatory, there came to be thousands of telecentres across the country, a figure that did not even capture every initiative of this kind. National efforts such as a programme to bring high-speed internet to remote regions and the Telecentros.BR project, run by the Ministry of Communications with states and municipalities, extended this model further by establishing community centres offering free internet access and computer training programmes.

The impact at the community level was real. A study of telecentres in rural Brazil found that residents used ICTs for entertainment, civic participation, and professional skill-building, and concluded that digital inclusion created opportunities that could foster human development in otherwise isolated communities.

Digital inclusion programmes in India 🔗

India’s flagship response is the Digital India initiative, launched in 2015 to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. The programme rests on three pillars: digital infrastructure as a utility for every citizen, governance and services delivered on demand, and the digital empowerment of citizens. Its targeted initiatives are designed to reach marginalised communities, differently-abled individuals, and people in rural and remote areas, making technology an enabler of social and economic empowerment.

One of the most important instruments has been the network of Common Service Centres, which act as access points for public utility services, welfare schemes, healthcare, financial services, education, and agricultural information in rural areas. These centres have served the dual purpose of delivering digital services and creating employment at the grassroots level. Programmes such as the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme have used digital platforms to send subsidies directly to beneficiaries, helping to reduce leakages and improve the efficiency of welfare delivery. Foundational digital infrastructure, including Aadhaar and the BharatNet broadband network, underpins much of this effort to extend connectivity to small towns and villages.

India also addressed the skills dimension directly. The Digital India programme has facilitated IT training for students and villagers, equipping them with the abilities needed for employment in the ICT sector, and in some cases telecom providers trained rural residents to manage local internet needs, creating service-industry jobs in the process. State-level efforts, such as Kerala’s well-known Akshaya telecentre project, demonstrated how local digital inclusion initiatives could take root and be sustained through community acceptance and government support.

Lessons from two transformations 🔗

Comparing Brazil and India reveals a common thread. In both countries, becoming an information society was not an automatic outcome of economic growth but a deliberate project shaped by policy and political will. Both achieved remarkable gains, whether in Brazil’s pioneering social inclusion models or India’s world-leading software industry. Yet both continue to wrestle with the same fundamental tension. The benefits of the information society flow most easily to those who already have education, infrastructure, and opportunity, while the hardest task is extending those benefits to everyone else. The persistence of the urban-rural divide in both nations is a reminder that technology amplifies existing inequalities unless it is paired with deliberate efforts at inclusion.

The experience of these developing countries also challenges the old, linear model of development. India did not need to become a manufacturing giant before becoming a services and information economy; it leapfrogged. Brazil did not wait for universal prosperity before tackling digital exclusion; it built telecentres in its poorest neighbourhoods. These choices show that information society development can be pursued actively, even from conditions of scarcity, provided governments treat both access and capability as priorities.

What do you think? Should developing countries prioritise extending basic digital access to as many people as possible, or focus their limited resources on building the deeper skills that turn access into genuine opportunity? And as new technologies like artificial intelligence reshape the global economy, will they help close the digital divide or widen it further?

References

1. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1057&context=ejasljournal
2. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/information-technology-and-development-beyond-eitheror/
3. https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/bult.318
4. https://cacm.acm.org/research/the-growth-and-evolution-of-indias-software-industry/
5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167624501000695
6. https://www.ibef.org/government-schemes/digital-india
7. https://wsa-global.org/2024/07/17/hacking-the-gap-brazils-path-to-digital-inclusion/
8. https://en.reset.org/blog/spotlight-brazil-digital-inclusion-and-ninja-news-05232014
9. https://businessviewpointmagazine.com/digital-india-initiative/
10. https://www.digitalindia.gov.in/about-us/
11. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13731-024-00380-w