The state of Delhi leads India in internet readiness, according to a new report from the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Nielsen.
In the report titled Index of internet readiness of Indian states, Delhi has overtaken last year’s winner Maharashtra and is followed by Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
According to the report, Delhi has won top spot because of its superior infrastructure and online participation.
Releasing the report, Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeiTy), Government of India said: “We are hopeful that India will leapfrog from the present 155th position to world’s top fifth in connectivity, within the next 5-6 years. India today is one of the most rapidly digitizing economies in the world with the telecom industry leading the change. Things have improved multifold with state governments of Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana among others taking proactive steps to improve connectivity and internet reach.”
“The combination of various indigenous digital platforms along with innovative and disruptive startups holds the greatest scope for digital transformation in India. Post demonetization, the country today has 3 million POS as compared to 1.5 lakhs POS earlier which is clearly a transformation and going forward, the infrastructure for digital payments will grow 3X within a span of one year,” she added.
The North East has ranked low in terms of overall internet readiness. Much more needs to be done in the form of investment and infrastructure development in the region. Among the north eastern states, Nagaland tops the list, closely followed by Manipur and Tripura. Nagaland leads in IT environment and performs moderately well in other categories to get to the top.
Internet readiness index is a composite benchmark of four components: e-Infrastructure index, e-Participation index, IT-Environment and government e-services index. All four components have equal weightage in this model. Separately, a fifth Index (named the Core Internet Index) has been created this year, consisting of select variables already used in constructing the above indices.
The purpose of the index is to give a sharper perspective for digital industries looking to expand their business in India.