Smartphones are more than just the first mobile phones for the vast majority of Indians–they are the first phone, period. For most Indians, smartphones are also their first camera, television, map, translator, dating app and window to the world.
Ravi Agrawal, the author of “India Connected: How the Smartphone is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy,” and managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine, transported the Vail Symposium audience to India to understand the profound changes the smartphone is stimulating in that country. For many Indians, this pocket-sized technology is liberating. However, Agrawal also acknowledged the dark side of this technology–the emergence of violent pornography and the terror it is wreaking on women in India.
Agrawal also took time to address recent geopolitical news out of the region, including governance changes in disputed Kashmir.
Join the Vail Symposium at our next geopolitical program on Monday, September 16 for an evening with two ambassadors in conversation: Ambassadors Husain Haqqani and Christopher Hill.
