The fixed-line phone that came home when I was a child still holds pride of place at my parents’ home, a sepia-tinted memory made real. It rarely rings. We speak now on mobile phones operated by private companies. The state-controlled company that provided the telephone is struggling to survive in one of the most profitable and vibrant telecommunication markets in the world. The telephone, the government primary school, the government hospital, they are all victims of the new-found ambitions of India’s new masters, a loose collection of politicians, businessmen, regulators and others who
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