What is the influence of Western culture on Indian culture?

I would say that one part of the answer to this question
would be the growth of information technology.  The ease with which information is
shared across the world through the web, Skype, Twitter, and Facebook have helped to
make the absorption of different cultures a distinct part of reality in the modern
setting.  Indian culture and Western culture have embraced a sort of cultural exchange
with one another, whereby both have absorbed aspects of
each.

Indian culture has seen the emergence of Western
fashion and Western brands infiltrating so much of the culture.  Western brands like
Coca- Cola, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, KFC, and McDonalds have become a part of the Indian
fabric.  They have become appropriated so much that these brands do not seem "Western,"
but rather something a part of the Indian fabric of society.  The growth of music
channels that follow the MTV mode of broadcasting, as well as Bollywood films
paralleling Western films are increasingly evident.  Even some of the issues that used
to be seen as "taboo" such as sex, women's hygiene, and communication between couples
are disappearing.  Now, condoms can be purchased in full view, without the "stigma" that
used to be there.  Women's hygiene products are openly advertised, in comparison to the
times when a woman had to sheepishly approach a shop owner for "pads" and was given them
in a brown, non-descript bag. The nation's first lesbian couple married and sought
protection from the police, which they received, when they received death threats from
their family.  This is a reflection of the West.   When US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton shakes hands with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, it is a reflection of how both
cultures have come to understand that women in the role of political leadership is a
part of both nation's historical footprint on the world.   These are conditions whereby
Indian culture and been influenced by the West.  The transfer of information, the global
reach of job markets across both cultures, and the basic idea that cultural transfer and
exchange is much easier in the globalized setting has helped to leave an indelible
Western footprint on much of the urban setting of
India.

However, there is another side to this story.  I
think that a great many of these social changes are only directed at the urban setting
of India.  Majority of the nation is in a rural context.  In these areas, there seems to
be little permeation of Western thoughts from abroad.  Western culture does not stop the
threats of "honor killings" of the lesbian couple.  There are many areas in India where
the concept of a woman continuing her education when reaching "marrying age" is simply
unacceptable, as is a woman working.  Certainly, Western culture is evident in the fact
that nearly everyone, urban or rural, owns at least one, if not more, cell phones. 
Satellite dishes are everywhere, even hanging on homes made of thatch.  The question
will be how the influence of the West will be felt all over India, and for this, I think
that an indigenous approach is needed.  For villages and rural settings where there has
been an intense reverence for their own traditions as long as time has passed, the
adoption of Western ideas and approaches will have to come from within.  Certainly, as
globalization takes greater hold of Indian culture, the need to address how all of India
can advance, and how to avoid a "digital divide" is going to be
essential.