David Dickson has a thought-provoking article titled “India’s new challenge on technology policy”, that makes the case that the last week’s surprising Indian election happened as it did, at least in part, as a consequence of Indian technology policies. Here is an excerpt:

“Last week’s surprise success of the Congress Party, headed by Sonia Gandhi, in India’s general election …[and] according to many commentators, the rejection of the incumbent government — headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — appears to reflect widespread disillusionment with the way that the country’s recent rapid economic and technological growth has been enjoyed unequally by different social groups.

It would, of course, be naïve to pretend that this is the whole story behind the election result. The success of the Congress Party in some of India’s largest cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, immediately challenges the argument that it is the votes of excluded rural communities that have brought the Congress Party — the dominant political party in India since it achieved independence in 1947 — back to power after a gap of eight years…

Despite all this, it would be equally naïve to believe that rejection of the BJP was a conventional protest vote against an incumbent government. There is considerable evidence to back the claim that many of those voting against the party and its political allies were expressing resentment at their exclusion from the country’s economic miracle of the past decade….

The outcome has important lessons for other developing countries. For it is a reminder that although technological innovation is a necessary condition for social and economic progress, it is not a sufficient condition. Equally important are accompanying policies to ensure that the benefits of successful innovation are widely shared and experienced.”

The same lesson has been drawn based on experience in developed countries with nuclear power, agricultural biotechnology, and other technological innovations. The whole essay is worth reading.