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India might boast of 900 million strong mobile customers and increasing every day. Bharti Airtel chairman might be saying that the next big thing which will hit the country is a data revolution. And the NDA government might have cleared an ambitious and grandiose “Digital India” program which is estimated to cost over 100,000 crore to get whole of Indian connected.
Yet the ICT Development Index, a study brought out by the International Telecommunications Union(ITU) portrays a very disturbing picture of the much touted “Digital India” revolution. The study puts India at a low 129 rank amongst 166 countries, worse than countries like Kazakhstan, Fiji, Maldives, Mongolia, Kenya, Nicaragua just to name a few . And if that was not enough, the country’s ranking in its 2014 report released yesterday, has remained stagnant as it was the year before.
A greater concern is the fact that IDI index for India at 2.53 is much below the world average for this year that stands at 4.77. And even amongst countries in the Asia and Asia Pacific region, India is ranked as low as 22nd amongst 29 countries just above Nepal.
So what is ICT development Index? The rankings are based on a comprehensive quantitative analysis of three key parametres of how digitally savvy a country is and how it has been able to reduce the digital divide. One parameter is ICT readiness, which looks into the level of networked infrastructure and access of ICT in the country. What is measured is the subscription of fixed and mobile phones and internet amongst every 100 inhabitants as well as percentage of computers or internet access. It also looks at ICT intensity reflecting the level of use of ICTs in the society and access to mobile and broadband. And the third is ICT impact, reflecting the result outcome of efficient and effective ICT use.
In August, the cabinet cleared the Digital India programme which amongst other things aims at connecting all gram panchayats across the country through broadband internet and provide services like health and education as well as e-governance through a digital networked platform. Prime Minister Narendra Modi meant serious business when he reiterated in his Independence Day celebration that this would be a priority area. The program will be implemented in phases from the current year till 2018.
Yet Modi has a tough challenge to make it a reality. That is because internet penetration is woefully poor in the country when you compare with global trends. For instance the ITU report gives some startling facts. In terms of wireless broadband penetration in the Asia and Asia Pacific region, India is ranked seventh from the lowest amongst 29 countries. The countries with lower penetration than India include Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Laos PDR, Nepal and Pakistan.
According to ITU there were 1.2 billion people from Asia and Asia Pacific region who were online by end 2013 (using mobile and fixed.) This includes around 600 million Chinese (44 per cent of their population) and 200 million Indian internet users (15 per cent of the population). Countries like South Korea have an interent penetration of 80 per cent, Japan has 86 per cent and even New Zealand over 83 per cent. Even here ITU says India’s performance was just above countries like Afghanistan, Nepal, Solomon Islands, Bangladesh just to name a few. Surely the government needs to do some serious introspection.
