India and China: A Comparative Analysis of Mobile Phones in Agriculture

In 2010, China and India were named the first and second largest mobile phone markets in the world based on their number of subscribers. India and China have focused on extending their telecommunication services into rural areas for socio-economic benefits. Both countries liberalized and privatized the industry under different political regimes utilizing different strategies. The aim of this thesis is to examine the collaborative efforts of public and private agencies in India and the role they do in disseminating information to farmers through mobile phones when compared to the government agencies in China that have been created to share that information in order to determine which program is more effective. To answer this question, the thesis compares Indian and Chinese policies and programs enacted to encourage sales and use of mobile phones in the agricultural sector to increase efficiency and encourage growth. As free market principles and private for-profit corporations are generally more efficient than government agencies, this thesis hypothesizes that the policies and development initiatives taken by the Indian government are more successful in disseminating information than the government agency approach followed by China. In response to the above research question, the thesis reveals that while the mobile phone agricultural information service programs have been successful in their respective countries, the programs in India are more reliable and faster in disseminating information to farmers. This is determined because the number of subscribers in India's mobile phone agricultural information service programs grew 37.47% in 4 years, from 2008-2012, versus subscribers to China's agricultural information service programs that grew 21.1% from 2007-2010.