According to a new study, which is part of a larger WEF Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010, released yesterday ahead of the India Economic Summit that opens in New Delhi this weekend,
India has seen a boom in mobile telephone usage,with subscriptions doubling from 300m to 600m in just two years. While India has emerged as the second largest mobile telephone market after China, in terms of computer and internet penetration; India is still far behind. According to 2009 figures, India has 5.1 internet users for every 100 people, which compares poorly with the corresponding figures of 39.2 and 28.5 for Brazil and China, respectively.
In WEF’s estimation, India, in a country where some 42 per cent of its population still lives below the extreme poverty line of $1.25 a day, the government has strides to make in bridging the digital divide, especially if it wants to leverage information and communication technologies (ICT) to increase growth and development.
On India getting a 43rd rank in the list of the WEF’s Network Readiness Index featuring 133 countries, just behind China (37th) and Brazil (61st) ; WEF is of the opinion that the “high level of readiness does not seem to have translated into similarly high levels of usage”.
Adding that Indian $50bn Indian ICT sector still has large growth potential.
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