 For more than five decades, the signature tune of All India Radio has heralded each new day across the sprawling subcontinent. But today, India is witnessing a revolution in the mode and method of ferrying information. This is the story of India's emergence as a major player in the world of informatics. A new expression that defines the way we gather, refine and disseminate information through a complex maze of computers and satellites. In India, the first telegraph line from Calcutta to Agra, city of the fabled Taj Mahal, was opened by the British rulers as early as 1853. The telephone arrived in India soon after its invention by Graham Bell in 1876. In fact, when Mahatma Gandhi was killed at a prayer meeting in New Delhi in 1948, the news hit Europe even before most of India could know of the catastrophe. Thanks to telephone. Such was the technological prowess with which Britain had sought to secure the most prized colony in its vast empire. The radio had soon followed the telephone into India, reflecting Britain's eagerness to keep in close communication with the sprawling if an increasingly restive subcontinent. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the country's first television studio in 1959, marking free India's crucial technological leap in the unraveling saga of spreading news and knowledge in the world's second most populous country. The true measure of any democracy's health is best expressed by the quality of news and information delivered accurately and promptly by its media. Ironically, however, while India has become a technological powerhouse that interfaces perfectly with the global informatics revolution, a large part of its population still remains bereft of the emerging benefits. Even as India moves inexorably to seek its place as a key player in the global information revolution, by a quirk of history, a large part of the country remains hinged to the raw technologies of the post-industrial revolution vintage. Today, even though this relatively ancient technology is giving way to the more futuristic compact disks, in India, in many significant ways, they have both forged a deep link that binds the nation's past with its future.