Impact of a National Information Infrastructure: Towards a Coupled Network-Design/General-Equilibrium Economic-Model

Progress in developing nations critically depends on the existence of economic infrastructure - roads, railways, ports, power supply, water supply, telecommunications, etc. Most infrastructure development takes huge amounts of capital investment, spread over a long period of time. In this paper we shall examine how a judicious use of information technology can reduce the capital investment, and the time required. Specifically, we shall examine how large scale broadband network infrastructures can substitute for distance reducing physical infrastructure like roads and railways. We shall specifically consider India, both because the author is familiar with the country, and also because it has a very dynamic information technology industry which can greatly benefit from a broadband telecommunications infrastructure.