Can High Technology Help Third World Take-off

Can 'High' Technology Help Third World Take-Off?
A S Bhalla This paper examines the scope for and limitations of a strategy of technological leap-frogging from the point of view of the third world countries. It examines preconditions for a successful leap-frogging and take off and argues that these conditions are likely to hold only in advanced developing countries. The paper also argues that central planning and government intervention play an important role in technological take-off THE term "take-off is associated with the name of W W Rostow who defined it as "an industrial revolution, tied directly to radical changes in methods of production, having their decisive consequence over a relatively short period of time". To quote Rostow further: